Friday, August 5, 2011

A golden anniversary

Several weeks ago I received a most unexpected invitation. I was asked to give an address for Education Week at my old high school. In case you are thinking this is a great and meritorious honour, I should give you some context for this invitation. I grew up in the small town of Grenfell (population around 2,000) in central-west NSW - about 370 km due west of Sydney.

Grenfell
[Grenfell's Main Street]

It's fifty years since I finished high school and in my final year at the school it was formally reclassified by the Department of Education as a High School and took on the name The Henry Lawson High School (the renowned, pessimistic bush poet, short story writer and drunkard Henry Lawson was born about 100 metres from the school's present location). I was school captain during that year and so I guess someone deemed it appropriate to ask me back fifty years later.

I drove up to Grenfell one day and back to Sydney the following day - a real achievement for me as I really don't like driving. But despite the going and coming it was a wonderful visit. The high school has always been small - around 180 kids when I attended and nowadays around 240. My first real job was teaching in a country high school at Narrandera which was a bit bigger than Grenfell, but shared many of the same characteristics. I like the comprehensiveness of such schools. There are girls and boys, intelligent and not so intelligent, rich and poor, those skilled at sports and those (like me) who suffered through games and physical activities. You can't attend such a school and have any illusions about the diversity of people and their skills and opportunities. I also like the way such schools are embedded in their communities and serve as a focal point for many community groups and projects.

At the school assembly the school band played and the choir sang; awards were presented to community members who had assisted the school; the final of the school spelling bee was held with participants so nervous we were all sitting on the edges of our seats with tension; awards were presented to students; and I gave my speech. It was easy to find things to say about an experience that had played such a formative role in my life - and also that of other members of my family. Not only did I complete my schooling at this school in 1961, but my brother was school captain in 1966, my father attended there till he left school aged 15 in 1931, and his mother left the Grenfell Superior School (at age 13) in 1899. Such a rich line of connection.

I stayed overnight with a friend from my school days and her husband who live on a farm in a gracious 1910 traditional Australian homestead.

Bogolong 1
Bogolong 2

My friend is the third generation of her family to have lived in this house and it will pass on to her son and possibly other generations. Even though I seem to have broken with these lines of tradition by moving away from Grenfell I like to know that such continuity is possible.

The house has a wonderful big old garden where early spring flowers are just emerging. There are lots of nostalgically scented plants and my friend brings them inside in vases throughout the house. My bedroom was scented by some sprigs of daphne which evokes memories of my mother who always cultivated a daphne bush.

SnowdropsViolasLavenderjonquils

And there were the lambs. Because of all the rain last year and the rich pasture it produced, my friends have been overwhelmed this year by the very high lamb birth rates. Inevitably, a number of lambs have lost their mothers or the mothers have had difficulty feeding and so some of the lambs need to be bottle-fed.

Sheep

This handsome group are just about ready to graduate from milk to pasture and are looking very plump and healthy. This variety of sheep - called Dorper - are not wool sheep but rather are being bred to eat. Almost seems a shame when they're so cute, but for those of us meat-eaters, it's the cost of having our lamb cutlets and roasts.

Visiting Grenfell always reminds me of my family roots and upbringing. It's all so familiar and yet now so distant in my life. I inevitably made a bit of a pilgrimage to places that are integral to my memories of growing up and the family stories I was told...

80 East Street
[The 1930s bungalow my parents lived in from 1948 onwards and where I lived until I left home for university. My dad's garden would have had fewer shrubs and at this time of the year the first spring annuals]

Greendale
[The farmhouse outside Grenfell built by my grandfather sometime around 1920. This is where my mother grew up and my grandfather wrote his diaries]

Greendale trees
[The cluster of trees near the farmhouse above where my great-grandfather built a slab hut sometime in the 1880s when he settled this land and brought his family to live here.]

And a final country story. I pulled to the side of the road on my way into Grenfell to take the two photographs above. I'd not been there more than three minutes before a farmer came out of a nearby house to check that I was OK. It's what I both love and fear about country towns - that you are generously cared for and helped, but that you have no anonymity whatsoever.

7 comments:

Rose Red said...

Thanks for this insight into your early life! I didn't know you were school captain! I love the family history aspect and that your former home is still there!

Daphne is one of my favourite plants - both my mother and my paternal grandmother had Daphne plants at the front of the house. And I've just discovered my next door neighbour has one (after thinking I could smell the flowers all week!). I have yet to successfully keep one alive, but I think I will try again.

Kris said...

Lovely post, Lyn! I had no idea you grew up in such a small town.

missfee said...

Lyn thank you so much for sharing this with us - a great story of your family and I love the photos of the family homes and the plot where the slab hut would of been.

Unknown said...

I so enjoyed this nostalgic post.

My grandparents were workers on various farms in the Gilgandra region when I was a child - they usually lived in the 'other' house on the property.

We didn't go into the main house, and I heard one of their children call my nanny 'Hickey' (her surname) which I didn't like one bit!

But I have more than fond memories of long days playing in the woolshed full of wool, the huge beehives, mouse plagues, birds nests in the verandah rafters, huge moths, paddy melons, the excitement of the odd snake or fire.

How wonderful that your old hometown remembers you. It must have felt very special, and I think an excellent choice on their part..

Lynne said...

I think I may already said that I love the way you write and this post was another great example.

My parents retired to a small country town (pop 1300) so I understand some of what you are saying.

My dad attended Young high school during WWII when my grandmother and her family were evacuated from Sydney.

Anonymous said...

i love this part of the world, and it is no surprise to me at all that they asked you back! for someone who has no roots, no real place of 'home, i envy you this history. but having experienced small town life, i understand your ambivalence about it. a gorgeous post, nonetheless!

1funkyknitwit said...

What an interesting read ! As I was the first born to a migrant family I don't have extended family or history going back generations in Oz, so I found this story very interesting indeed. How lucky you are to have such a long history in one place and that you can go back and still be welcomed. Looks like a pretty place.
Shame about the sheep - their fleece sure looks pretty ;D