IMPRESSIONS AFTER
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS
(25 September, 2009, for 1964-80
Boarders' Reunion After Dinner Speech)
It’s good to be back in the Dining Hall again. For most of us, it is probably
only the first or second time that we have eaten here together as boarders,
exclusively, since we left the House.
Someone’s gone to the trouble of providing rectangular tables instead of the
usual circular ones, just so we can feel that we are in familiar surroundings.
Nice touch.
I
guess all those old chairs are well gone now, though.
And
a wise move not using plastic sheets.
You’ll remember how many an inventive rural mind directed channels of water the
length of one of those old tables, into the lap of some unsuspecting target
further down. This, of course, was the time-honored practice of ‘irrigation’.
I
don’t know if anyone was ever game to do that to a teacher!
Of
course, many a teacher --- during the days when selected day staff sat, back to
the wall, as head of the table at lunchtime --- found himself, by the end of the
meal, somehow jammed tightly between the edge of the table, and the wall,
struggling to breathe … none the wiser that the boarders at the table, ever so
slightly and ever so surreptitiously, had eased the table further and further
into his midriff.
This brings to mind another specific mischief related to this place that taught
me one of my lessons derived in the House … never underestimate the ingenuity of
the boarders.
For
the final school assembly in, I think, 1975, it was arranged by the senior
students that, overnight before the assembly, the boarders would rearrange
Adamson Hall so that all the chairs faced the back of the hall and the stage
furniture was elevated to the top of the trophy cabinet.
If
I’m right about the year, this was probably the brainchild of School Captain
Richard Stubbs and House Captain Rob Pocknee. Although George Warne would have
been in there somewhere, too.
Anyway, I found out what was happening, as it was being done, at some
early morning hour.
Thinking I was smart, I waited till the post-breakfast grace the next morning
and --- with all the heads bowed --- instead of saying grace I quietly directed
that the senior boarders go straight to Adamson Hall and put the Hall back in
its proper order. As you can imagine there was much muttering, many churlish
snarls and enormous disdain as the miscreants filed through the door … that was
just there.
Off
they went, reparation was made, and I walked back to the House, smiling smugly.
A victory!
How
foolish I was!
The
boarders, of course, were determined to have the last say.
Although they were required to return to the House before school started, they
had got the message to the day boys … probably another Pocknee-Stubbs
collaboration … and by assembly time at 9 o’clock the day boys had turned the
Hall around again!
Of
course, mischief is a genetic inheritance for boarders.
This became clear to me when I was showing Geoff Rush and his father Don around
the school in late-1975.
Don
had been a boarder in the ‘fifties, under Jack Kroger, and was a member of the
famous Methodist Rush family. As we walked past the Physics Theatre, Don
stopped Geoff and me in our tracks and said, with great glee, “Martyn, that’s
where me and my mates used to show blue movies on a Sunday … straight after
chapel! We’d pull the blinds down and charge a shilling!”
And, of course, we remember with sadness the destruction, by the 1989 fire, of
the various family ‘honour rolls’ that existed in the towers.
How
many Bowring generations were up there, Kim? Anybody beat that?
There were times, though, when mischief became misbehavior, and seriously so,
and this has been alluded to elsewhere. Again, these occurrences cross the
generations.
Nonetheless, all this taught me another great lesson that stands me in great
stead, even now, and certainly did during my ensuing career working closely with
adolescent students, particularly when they were reliant on their own
decision-making:-
--- there is nothing that teenagers cannot do, or in which they will not get
involved. Nothing. Never be surprised.
But
of course that lesson has another side --- a side that makes possible the
realization of superb ideals.
Nothing was impossible for Geoff Lowe and his mates as they pulled off the
Boarders’ Dance of the century in 1974. Geoff has written about this and I will
leave you to read the details in the booklet.
The
internal transformation of Adamson Hall was total. When we walked in from the
quad we had instantly walked into a barn somewhere on the plains or hills of
rural Victoria. Virtual reality ahead of its time.
This was equal to the best of any student achievement that I witnessed at Wesley
in my thirty years here. Perhaps it was the best.
Finally, another wonderful achievement was the care of Gary Roth.
Gary was a Third Form day boy who was severely disabled, both physically and
mentally, and who was being bullied in the day school. He walked around the
school stooped half to the ground, by choice, never lifting his eyes.
David Prest asked if we would have him in the House where he might find some
protective mates and be able to socialize better.
Gary came into the House and found his minder-mates, Kenny Raper and his friends
chief amongst them.
I
left them to manage matters in the day school and simply supported them
in the House. Gary’s coterie extended well beyond his peer group and how well I
remember the delight that Gary showed when the big boys joshed him and gave him
their attention.
Gary couldn’t swim, so Ken and the others determined that they would teach him
to swim the length of the pool. A deadline was set and lessons commenced.
Gary’s big swim duly occurred one Friday night and, with Prep cancelled, most of
the House assembled by the pool.
Those who were there will never forget the cheering as Gary thrashed his way
through the water and slammed his hand on the pool edge at the end of his
twenty-five metre triumph. The echoing roar was deafening.
It
was a great night.
I
shall never forget that episode.
Gary stopped stooping, looked at people and eventually left Wesley to take up a
job in the BHP printing department, courtesy of BHP company secretary and Wesley
council member, Geoff Stephenson.
I
cherish my time as Boarding Housemaster in Adamson, holding it and my time as
Head of the City Curriculum Project as my dearest periods as a teacher at
Wesley.
Thank you for being
part of this with me.
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