The Swimming Pool Card
We must have had the only swimming pool ever built on small pieces of silver. Charlie Morton forges Br Michael Lloyd’s initials to win a prize. Read on…
Family Love
Here are some memories of growing up in the 1950s. Our children and grandchildren can hardly imagine any of this. But family love held it all together.
Class Lunch 2022
Our (normally bi-annual) class reunion lunch for 2022 was held on Thursday the 20th of October at the Pineapple Hotel, Kangaroo Point. The traditional bangers and mash was on the menu, as usual.
Grade 5 and the True Meaning of Decimation
In the 1950s, corporal punishment was a totally accepted method of discipline. And perhaps nowhere more so than among the Christian Brothers.
Each Brother was armed with a short, stubby strap, generally black or dark brown.
It was administered at high speed (whack!) to the outstretched palm of the offending pupil, typically one, two or three times to a maximum of six.
The 12 Days of Christmas
In celebration of rapidly approaching Christmas. I believe this was originally presented by Frank Kelly, who played Father Jack in the Irish television series Father Ted.
Santa Claus Vs God
I sometimes reflect on the fact that to a child there is much more evidence for the existence of Santa Claus (photo attached) than for the existence of God (no photo available). Consider the similarities. The child is told by the main authority figures in his or her life, parents, grandparents and extended family that…
Cusack Goes Apeshit
It was 1953 and we had all just started in Grade 4 at St Laurence’s College. Such a change from the nuns at a Catholic convent school.
Our new teacher was Brother Cusack (for some reason, the Irish Christian Brothers were referred to by their family name, rather than the more historical given name). It didn’t really matter, as we were instructed to refer to them as “Sir” in both the first person (Excuse me, Sir) and the third person (Sir said…).
Inventions That Changed the World
Clearly, we as humans are on an exponential curve of discovery.
This is reflected in statements like “95% of everything we know has been discovered in the past 10 years”.
And we no longer believe, as the Victorians did at the turn of the (19th) century that “everything of significance has already been discovered”. Or, as Thomas Watson, the first president of IBM famously predicted “that there might someday be a world wide market for as many as 5 computers”.
About Me
Born in 1944, I attended St Laurence’s College (SLC) from 1953 to 1961, which was the full nine years offered by the school, from Year 4 to Year 12. Called in those days Grade 4 and Senior respectively.
Other years had special names as well. Year 7 was Sub-Scholarship and Year 8 was Scholarship. So called because if you passed, the State Government contributed towards your school fees for the next four years.