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Cheryl Davey (cont'd): Remember teacher, Peggy Byron? She was a darling and lived beside the school; there must have been accommodation for teachers there. She sent me over to get something once. You have reminded me about Jo Keating. I think a Mr Wootten was headmaster in the 57/58 period, though I can't remember for certain. It is fantastic to finally catch up with former students of that, to me, magic time at Lae Primary. Beautifully maintained - I too remember when it was only the front verandah and one classroom on each end, then the shock of returning in 57/58 to find extra classrooms and more teachers, some sourced I think from the Seventh Day Adventist group. I remember too the first "Asian" students in the school in both Lae and Madang. I remember a teacher who kept soap on the piano for "talkers". The soap had teeth marks!!! (My Mum used the technique on my brother once, used Nekko soap without thinking, medicated, and was appalled at the effect!) I also remember lining up for endless vaccinations at the old Lae Hospital. I think I am pickled! School also took us to see Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland. Do you remember Empire Days in the Botanic Gardens? And the songs? "I honour my God, I serve my Queen, I salute my Flag" at morning assemblies? The pebbled parade ground and flag mast. News of a fellow student killed in a road accident while holidaying "down South". One morning while we were on parade, Jan Halliday's Mum slipped the car into a ditch. I remember a soft-top vehicle with one side down in the ditch. |
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Jan Stuart, student 1956 to '62 My family arrived in Lae in 1951, when I was six months old, to join Dad's cousin, Bill Forbes, who owned Lae Building and Joinery Works. Later, Dad (Bill Stuart) went out on his own and started Lae Plumbing and Mainland Plumbing Supplies. My sister Helen and I left Lae at the end of 1976 to return to Brisbane, and my Mum and Dad retired in 1984. And by the way, it was my Mum, Del Stuart, who ran those lunches from the back of her Hillman until the tuck-shop was built. Peta Vinning used to be her helper. |
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I used to come to school from the Malahang direction in a long-wheel base Land Rover, driver, Nombi. Later, an old navy blue bus (see picture on right, courtesy of Jim Dudgeon) delivered us to and from school when we moved "up top" to 6th Street. I remember a potato famine at one stage, and a fish and chip shop beside the school selling sweet potato chips (which were yumm). I also remember a parent selling lunches at school from the back of her car; she used to drive a little old black sedan. Remember the school milk - sometimes awful from being exposed to light. |
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At school we used to hang our ports in an open cloakroom on the front verandah. No refrigeration in the early days hence the ripe smell of the ports over time, especially after storing bananas! By '57/58 a refrigerator was provided for lunchboxes. Maybe a few doses of food poisoning beforehand???? A favourite food was Vita Weets and vegemite or "wormy biscuits"! Fly cemetery biscuits! My poor mother nearly went spare over lunchboxes, I remember slices of devon wrapped around tomato quarters (yukk). I remember us all being glad when one of the parents started a lunch-making business, and when a fish and chip shop opened up adjacent to the school! Unfortunately I don't have any school photos from that time. I do have a picture taken at one of the fancy dress balls (weren't they fun!), and like Scott I also have my old school reports. |
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Note from Jim Dudgeon: The blue bus was more than just transport, our Mums used to know what time it was when it pulled up to discharge us kids outside our residences. For those who don't know, the driver's name was Siliwin, he was a very careful driver. For this bus to stop or turn right there was a mechanical hand operated with a vertical lever with a push button affair. The hand was stowed in the vertical position, to stop, and to indicate a turn the handle was slid outwards, the lever lifted slightly and the hand flipped over to the right. The sun visor was a black curtain, which slid up and down on two steel vertical rods. To catch this bus, we just waited on the side of the road, usually perched on our battered lunch ports (I still have mine - see picture left), then climbed aboard… |