School        audio: Merv Humphries     exams

Because we had to walk two miles, most of the kids didn’t go to school till they were seven and I know Dan and Jack, they were small and they used to wait over on the corner.  The tree’s still there on Sutherland’s road for an old fella named Billy Kaine, no relation.  He had a property that Sutherland now has.  And they would wait underneath that tree till they milked his cow.  I think he did a bit of work in the town and they’d go down in the spring cart with him to the old Catholic school, which is now gone

and I can still recall the day – I hated school ... and ... for various reasons.   Because being seven and hardly having a pair of boots on my feet, and living the lifestyle of ....with the country freedom.  Well it was like caging an animal.  And I still recall that the first day at school, I must have eaten my dinner at playtime.  We used to get out about 10 or something.  But I must have woofed that into me, because when it came to midday break, which they had an hour.  The nuns had to go and cook  – they’d have an hours break.  But I headed for home and by hell I was making good headway too.  It was only of the blasted kids spotted me.  I was just about getting around the corner  .... out of sight.  Cause I’m sure I would have slapped the pace on then.  But I remember Dan coming up.  The gates still there.  There’s an old cyclone gate (ask Ballie where) going into the manse and its still there.  And he grabbed me there and hauled me back.  Well that was one of the longest days that I ever put in in my life.  And I think that was one of the reasons why I hated school.

John “Tell me what it was like being taught by the nuns – you’ve told me some interesting stories about what they were like”

I would say some of the most fortunate people to be able to be taught by these magnificent, experienced teachers and their discipline.  It was fair, but as I say, they were dealing with pupils up to 15 and 16 year old.  Because most of us tried to go till we got our Merit, which was 8^th grade standard and that covered practically the basis of any education that we required.  It covered all the main subjects.  They had a marvellous way of controlling.  We were terribly fortunate.  But of course there was always certain times where they had to make sure that the discipline was carried out.  They talk about it now – you’re not allowed to hit.  Child abuse is the modern term now.  I can assure you that whatever darn whacking  that I got with those canes I deserved it.  They were about half an inch in diameter and about 5 feet in length.  The major punishment – you held out your hand and they hit you as hard as they could.  And if you deserved it you held up the other one.  By hell, I’ll tell you what, it soon put you into gear and you didn’t ask for a darn return.  Now that was quite common only for those who deserved it and with having that control, well it was magnificent because looking back,

I would say that almost 100% of those  who attended in my time at school turned out to be successful citizens.  It was all in what we acquired from the nuns.  And another point.  If we went home  and complained that we got belted, we’d get another smack under the ear for letting on that we’d misbehaved.  So it paid to keep your mouth shut, because you’d be in for a second helping.

John “One of the good stories that you’ve told me a couple of times is you told the kids some story that the nuns were going to belt you.  Tell me that one.  You got into a hell of a lot of trouble over that one?”

Oh God……jervis!  Poor Merv Humphries and ........ I think his mother was a Catholic; his father wasn’t.  But anyway, he arrived there, I think they worked for Wishart’s.  And poor bugger – he must have been sick or some damn thing and he missed a day and next morning he sauntered up.  He lived in the town.  And he sauntered up and I saw him coming in the gate and I just said to him, it was a bit of a joke.  “By hell, Merv, the nuns are going to belt the arse off you today for not being here yesterday.”  And by hell the poor bloody kid took off and way up the gate and down he went and the next thing his mother’s up with him and into the nuns and why they were going to belt this poor blasted kid.  Well by God.  They said of course, found out how it all come  and of course what Tom Kane had said.  And by Christ Tom Kane was out with the cane out and by Christ I’ll tell you what, they soon took the fun out me.

John “You never did that again?”

No damn fear.

John “You used to walk down to the school.

Yes.  We averaged the two mile – four mile a day.  Well in the five days of walking that was a good as walking to Hamilton, you know.  We didn’t seem to mind that but listen John, in those days too, we all took a terrific amount of tucker with us.  Our school bags were half full of tucker.  We’d leave here about eight or quarter past eight and they seemed to go till about 4 o’clock in those days.  School came out at about 4 o’clock.  So we sort of had to have a smoko and have our main tucker from 12 till 1. 

Mum had already been up and milked about 10 cows because she was a very fast milker, mum.  She could milk her eight cows in an hour which was more or less equivalent of a champion and she’d already been up to the cowshed and we’d be looking out the window.  Time would be getting on and we’d be wondering what’s keeping her. 

John “That’s milking by hand and not machines!”

No – by hand.  Yes milking by hand.  Bloody 30 or 40 cows.  Then she’d have to run down here and then cut our lunches and I think we were pretty useless.  We couldn’t even put a tie or anything on.  I remember I wouldn’t even lace my boots up for some reason.  The parents were so dedicated, they did so much for the kids in those days, we sort of used them up.  We were well looked after to get through that stage.

John “How many kids were at St. Josephs school when you were a kid, do you reckon?”

Oh about 120 till the 8^th grade -  enormous classes.

John  “Did you have one class or did you combine years?”

No, you went up through each grade level.  I don’t think there was any bubs then.  You started at grade one and you went up through the years.  A total of about 8 years.

John “Did you enjoy school really towards the end?”

No.  No.

John  “And you got your merit certificate alright.

Yes.  Because poor old Sister Damian was magnificent.  I was a bugger, I never seemed to pay much attention to what was being said and that and I was a bugger of a speller.  And if I’ve got to write a reasonable letter now by hand, well I’ve got to have a dictionary with me.  It’s like everything else.  Good spelling is like a gift.  You’re good at things and no matter how hard you try at other things, how well you’d like to be, you’re just not that way inclined to absorb it.  Now I couldn’t break up the words.  I didn’t know whether to put an ‘i’  or an ‘e’ or two ‘s’s or two ‘t’s.  And I more or less spelt as pronounced.

In 1933 -1934 they shifted the convent up from the old site down there and of course they built the new school adjacent where it is adjacent to the Catholic Church.  And I had two years there  and I thought I was made.  It cut off nearly half a mile or more or three quarter of a mile and it was only a hop skip and a jump and I was down there.  By hell, I’ll tell you what that was a real godsend.

I remember exams back in those days.  They had their own Catholic examiner.  An inspector who came around every year and he took over all the classes there.  Jimmy Connell was his name – very severe man.  It was take right out the nuns hands and I remember one of the fellas: Jim Mahoney there.  He hardly attended school.  But I can still remember Dan and Jack relating that the nuns would say:  “Now you stay away tomorrow Jim”  Because they knew damn well that he would have dragged down the whole thing.  So he was always absent.  By hell, it was a nervous time for us because he brought out all his exam papers and wrote them up on the blackboard and the nuns played no part at all.  He would go and gather up the papers, what you’d written individually and he would correct them all.  And then he’d write his report on the kids for the last 12 months teaching.  Even for the nuns it must have been a nerve wracking time too because there were always a few that didn’t measure up to the average.  But getting back to the Merit, we had to go over to the State School under Government supervision.  We couldn’t hold a Merit examination in our own schools.  So we had to trudge across to the old State School where there’s houses built there now.

John “Where’s that?”

Where’s Munroes old place is.  That is where the old original State School was located.  We had to go across there.  There were only three of us.  There was poor old Demsey Mahoney who’s now passed on, Ted Fitzgerald, he was there recently at Saturday night Mass.  Gene Heffernan was there but she couldn’t go the pace so she got withdrawn.  There were only three of us set for our Merit.  I know Sr. Damian said to us now, bring home your exam papers – sums and all that, Algebra and all this type of stuff that we had to do and with the results we came up with.  So she’d go through  them and compare what we did.  Anyway I finished up with about 92%.  Poor old Demsey had his limitations because he was out on a farm in Hilgay.  He had to ride – him and Mona, she’s a nun now.  Well each night after school they had to ride horses out there and milk cows below Jack Kalon’s, on Mt. Mahoney, they called it.

John “Before they did any homework”

Yes, the poor buggers, well he had to do a couple of subjects.  But old Ted Fitz. Was a terrible speller too but he was good on sums too like all the Fitzgerald’s.  He knew the value of money.  But there was another interesting thing during that time between 28 and all those depression years.  In 1928 it became a rule that every pupil had to open a State Savings Account and we were given our little pass books and I’ve still got mine here.  From 1928 till 1932  when I must have completely ran out of money, I got the huge sum of seven and six (7 shillings and 6d) in four years.  That’s the equivalent of 70 cents and that is still in credit.  I never cashed it in and the books still here.  Although I only got to seven and six in four years I was still in credit and this bank is now the Commonwealth Bank.  It makes me laugh because my contributions were a penny or a cent, mostly a half penny.  And one Christmas I got threepence out of plum pudding and Uncle Ned gave me threepence so I put that in.  That’s how hard it was.