I was talking with a friend I met way back in 1963, when we started our nursing training together about Family and School History. She lived in a country town in South Australia, and they knew everyone – and she has kept in touch with some of her fellow students. I lived in Adelaide and went to five schools – three primary and two high school, and have not kept in touch with any of my friends from those days.
I moved to Mt Gambier to do my nursing when I was 18 years old, and then went on to live in Melbourne, back to Mt Gambier, then Warrnambool, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Sydney and back to Brisbane again. I never lived in South Australia again. I have not lived in the same state as any aunts, uncles, cousins, or any other family members. I am a bit envious of those folk who form lasting friendships with folk, but somehow I never did.
I knew there was a Facebook Page for my old primary school, so today I did a lot of searching. I found my sister’s photo – taken in 1958, but none of me. Will have to find those old photos!!
I am communicating now with someone whose husband was in the same class of my sister, but I guess I am an unknown.
However, I did find things that related to my family/history. Oaklands Primary School is no more – demolished to make way for the Marion Shopping Centre, along with some other schools demolished around that period. There is a video about it.
I can’t find much about the school history on Google – it is as if it never existed. I found this video on You Tube.
I found a photo on Facebook (hope I am not breaching copyright too much by putting it here), but with my sister in the back row. These are the sort of photos that make good Family History. I have one of mine, but will have to look for it.
I was one of the first students at the school when it opened.
I am finding it hard/impossible to track down any of the students that I knew in those days – most of the girls would have married and changed their names, which makes it difficult too.
Many of the buildings associated with my life are no longer – the school of course, and the Girl Guide hall that my father helped to build, and the church I was married in is no longer a church, and the Mt Gambier Hospital is demolished too.
So my Family and School history is a bit unknown. I don’t think there is any reference to me at Brighton High School (renamed) , or Adelaide Girls High School (the latter doesn’t exist now).
I do recall trying to make contact with an old friend – we met at June Dempster model academy, and kept in touch for several years, but she didn’t respond to my letters.
So, that’s the way it is. Occasionally think I would love to know how some of them are – but I’ve never even had information about reunions, and it would be weird to go to as I probably wouldn’t find any one I knew.
Am a failure in the Family and School history department.