Parenting Article in Sunday Mail

In today’s Sunday Mail (Queensland, Australia) under the heading “Mum and Dad Know Best”, with parents discussing the age at which they would let their children go to school alone. It brought back memories of my childhood all those years ago.

I was born nearly 80 years ago (and I don’t usually reveal this!), and things certainly were different. I don’t recall the first few years of my life, and my earliest memories are of me living with my parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins in a large house in suburban Adelaide.  World War 2 was still affecting everyone, even though it had ended by then.  I recall the searchlights that lit up the night sky, hoping to identify any enemy planes above.  None appeared apparently.

I must have been three years old when I started kindergarten, and my mother walked with me to the home of Mrs Sugars, who ran the kindergarten at her home.  At the end of my kindy day, my mother was there waiting for me to take me home.

The Train To School

I was four years old when I started going to school at Hopetoun School, a private school run by two sisters, the Misses Fleming, at the Anglican Church, on Brighton Road, Brighton in South Australia.

The book about the Fleming Sisters and Hopetoun School.

How did I go to school? Well not alone, but under the care of the Fleming sisters. By train.  My mother would walk me to the Woodlands Park Railway Station, to join the other group of students, and when the steam train arrived we would all climb onto the train, into the care of the Fleming sisters.  At each station along the route, other students would join us. Ascot Park, Oaklands, Hove and Brighton, I think were the stops.

At Brighton we all alighted and in line under the scrutiny of the two sisters, we would walk along Jetty Road, and cross Brighton Road, to the church hall, at St Jude’s to attend class. At the end of the day, it was a “reverse trip” and our parents would be waiting to collect us.  I don’t recall how long I went to Hopetoun, I think less than a year.

New Home, New School

Around the time my sister was born, we moved to Ballara Park (near Oaklands) and for the next few years, I walked to school – just under 2 1/2 km, alone or with a little boy who was about my age. Every morning, clad in a navy tunic and white blouse and brown lace-up shoes, I would set off across the railway line, and through bushland and streets to Brighton Primary School.

My mother didn’t drive a car, but she did have a bicycle which she rode, but she also had my baby sister to look after, so she never came with me to school.  Of course, we didn’t think much about it. There were few made roads, little traffic, and not much choice. It was the way it was.

Then and Now

When I read the Parenting article, of course, it brought back these memories. What were the safety issues then? Well, there were snakes around, though I don’t recall seeing them.  There were few places to go if we needed help and of course no mobile phones. Somehow we learned to be safe, and sometimes it was a little scary, as we’d meet a dog on the way, or hear a strange sound in the bush. Not that any dog was unfriendly. There were few people around, and we didn’t feel scared. We just walked to and from school as best we could. I don’t recall any problems.

Another New School

When I reached Grade Five, another school opened. It was closer to home, and the walk was mainly on streets, and not through bush, and we walked of course, though I think in the last year or two of school I rode a bicycle, as I did for High School for three years after leaving Primary School.

Travelling Alone

I do remember something else, that on reflection, I don’t think would happen these modern times. My father’s sister lived in Gladstone, about 200 kms north of Adelaide, along with her husband and two children.  I can recall that at least once, when I was probably 10 years of age, (my sister would have been 6 years old), the two of us caught the train from Adelaide, to spend a few days with our aunt, uncle and cousins.  I can recall it quite clearly, even stopping at Balaklava where there was a refreshment shop on the station, where we could buy drinks and snacks.

We thought nothing of it.  We weren’t scared.  It was just what was done in those days.

Times Changed.

I am not sure what age children would travel on public transport without adult supervision, though I do know that children can travel unaccompanied on planes, but there is a process to go though, and they are under the care of a flight attendant.  Or at least I do remember it happening, but not sure it happens in these days.

My children were transported to school by me for most of their school life, though there were a couple of periods when we lived close by to their schools, and they walked.   When they were in high school they used public transport.

There’s much more traffic on the roads, and there are other safety issues to deal with these days.

That’s life.