In the 50's? I started at the Blackwood Infant School in 1956. Blackwood was an outer suburb in the Adelaide Hills in those days and had a real village-y feel. But back to School: What can I say about school. Did I like it? Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't, so I suppose I was a bit ambivalent. A bit like my kids who were to come along later. They've both since said that they didn't like school much, one going as far as to say they hated it. I always tried to portray school in a positive light, but well, they've both succeeded mightily in their chosen professions, like school or not.

I must stop digressing, so here are some days in my life at Blackwood Infant School.

Teachers; the old-fashioned kind, like mine. She thought it was okay  to make the infants, as we were known, then stand in the naughty corner with hands over our faces and then she'd wonder why the kids cried. Another thing the teachers used to do was to whack hands or legs with a wooden ruler. This was quite common and accepted practice at this time.

Milk for recess again; Back then the whole school used to have to swallow down a free bottle of milk at recess time.. We all hated this, because in the summer it was warm and curdly on top and in winter the top cream would freeze, but we still had to drink it.We weren't quite force-fed: well yes we were, because the teachers used to come out and make good and sure we were drinking it.   This happened because there was an excess of milk in the dairy industry and to help the farmers, the government palmed it off to the schoolkids, claiming it was in the interests of their health. Some kids used to bring powdered chocolate to school to add to it, but they always got found out. I just wish more of us could have been sick. I always hated throwing up, but that is one time I wouldn't have minded.  I have a good friend who, because  of this  enforced milk-drinking, can't stand any milk products at all, only ice-cream. I can't even persuade her to eat cheesecake.

Polio Injections: One day a large caravan arrived in the schoolyard. We all eyed it curiously, wondering what it was all about. We were told, I think, that we were going to have some medicine injected into our arm, so as we wouldn't catch Polio. Some kids started to cry before they even went inside the caravan. Most of us didn't really know what to expect as I'm not sure how much the teacher told us in advance. We all lined up and one at a time had our jab. I think we may have been given a jelly bean or similar, but some kids still cried and others cried because their friends were crying. I didn't cry, I don't think. Well, call it selective memory.

Empire Day: Back in the 50s, Australia was still part of the British Empire. The British influence was very strong. Our newsreaders were British, or had noticeably British accents and many children's books were British. as was the currency. There was a great deal of interest in the Royal Family. It all seems very archaic now. Anyway, we used to be taken outside in the yard and would all repeat a verse relating to our love of the Queen and the Flag. I think some of the lines went like this;

I am an Australian, I love my country, I honour the Queen, I salute the flag, I promise cheerfully to obey her laws , etc. I think some hand actions went along with this, but it's hard to remember. Then we got a half holiday, which meant going home at lunchtime. Yay, it had to be good for something. I didn't remember that, but Google reminded me that is what used to happen. I think we had to draw something relevant in our diary books too.

Lunch Sheds; these were sort of like long rooms which had a roof and were open at one end. The seats were wooden bench-type. You wouldn't have wanted to sit near the open end, especially if the rain came in or if there was a cold wind.. Kids could get very rough and noisy in here, especially if the weather was bad and sometimes food would get thrown.

Troubled kids and the Psychologist.There wasn't a school counsellor as there is today, but where necessary the teachers sent problem kids to the school's own psychologist. One girl in particular, who was in my class, would steal other kids' lunches. If she didn't do that, she'd go round to kids saying; 'I haven't got any lunch, can I have yours? Yes, really.' If you said no, I think she pinched you or hit you, I can't quite recall.

The Stolen Generation; In the school we had some Indigenous Australian children. I didn't realise it then, but they lived in a house called Colebrook Home at Eden Hills, not far from the school, and of course they were of the stolen generations. The government, assisted by many of the church missions, saw fit to take these children away from their parents Their reasoning was to assimilate these children into white society. Cruel and extremely misguided. Some of these kids acted out, not surprisingly. One boy in particular used to let off fireworks (skyrockets) in the schoolyard. All the other kids used to think it was funny, but then Johnny (not his real name) was always in trouble for one reason or another. He was often in and out of the Headmistress's office, as were some of the other indigenous children. I don't remember ever being told about these children or learning anything about their culture. They were all expected to fit into white society.

Toffee-Apple days; You can imagine that this was a favourite with everyone. You'd bring a threepence or maybe a sixpence and in return you'd get a deliciously shiny red and sticky toffee-apple. Kids got the toffee all over their chins and sometimes an apple would break off its stick and onto the ground, causing a flood of tears from the unlucky child.

Big School; the 'big school' was for kids from years three to seven. If you were in the infant school or lower primary you weren't allowed in that part of the yard. Similarly, the kids from the big school weren't allowed in the infant school, not that they wanted to anyway. The only exception to this rule, was for the lower primaries to be able to cross the 'big school' yard to the loos. It was rather scary crossing what seemed like a huge distance to the loos. There were big strong boys who shouted and hit each other and nasty girls who whispered things to each other and pointed and laughed, so it was always a great relief to arrive back in the lower primary unscathed.

Negotiating the' Big School'

Excursions; These days kids seem to go on heaps of excursions or camps, but we had very little in the way of outings, especially in the infant school. I remember one time going to the beach and having a snack of Tic-Toc biscuits, which were iced in pink or yellow on one side and had a clock face on the other It wasn't  the best day for the beach. The wind whipped up the sand and it stung our faces. The other excursion was a visit to see the Queen's car drive past. We stood in the hot sun to see the Queen speed by for about two minutes and we were expected to get excited about it. I think the same thing happened with the Queen Mother.

The best parts of school were always the invitation to someone's party, the paper Easter lillies we made which had eggs in them when we came back to school after the Easter break on a Tuesday morning. The Christmas parties were pretty good too and we made our own placemats with Christmas motifs on them. Volunteer mums raced around with buckets of raspberry cordial which they kept filling up. No thought here about raspberry cordial causing ADHD. No-one had ever heard of that.

The pinnacle was probably the Christmas Nativity play held every year, the main roles going to the year twos. It was held in the Blackwood Hall and one year, at the end of my time in the Infant/Lower Primary school, I was chosen as one of 12 angels. We all wore white nighties that our Mums had made and we had white cardboard wings. When it came time for our grand entrance, we all had to walk out and stand on a chair on the stage overlooking Mary, Joseph and Jesus. I can't believe no-one tripped or fell on Mary or Joseph, but no-one did.

One thing I haven't mentioned because it was part of the upper primary custom was the military-style standing to attention at assembly. The teacher up on the podium would say Atten-tion! And then stand at ease. They really used to shout it out and I think they loved the power. You'd then get drummed into school with a bass drum and kettle drum, and you had to march. I'm not kidding. The year 6 or 7 boys thought it was a big deal to be a drummer at assemblies. This was of course shortly after the 2nd World War and some uptight military person introduced the practice into schools.

Such was school, a real mix of good and bad and learning, not just reading and writing, but socialising and getting on with each other. Of course that has continued throughout school, into work and is always ongoing.