On Labour Weekend 2006 Orewa College celebrated their 50th year of being an educational institution by inviting all past pupils to a reunion. I was a foundation pupil and decided to attend the Saturday function which consisted of having your photograph taken together with your fellow foundation classmates.
I just couldn’t believe, after catching up with some of them, that it has actually been 50 years since we were all the quite niave 11 and 12 year olds who used to hang around this very same school, trying to act all grown up, but in reality we were so immature. The boys seemed to belong to a different race. To talk to the boys or have any sort of interaction at all with them was a real no no and any girl who did was seen as quite promiscuous. Meeting these same boys today (we are all in our early 60s now) you just wondered why there seemed to be this insurmountable gap between the sexes. All the men on Saturday, without exception, were so nice and so interested in what had been happening in our lives \nd in turn I was also interested in what they had been doing in the past 50 years. All of us, the foundation pupils, seemed to have this bond, knowing that we were the trail blazers for the up and coming students who were to follow us.
We all spent the morning together perusing the old photos which were on display, and exchanging our 1956 experiences of a school without a swimming pool (we had to tramp to Orewa Beach for swimming lessons). The time when we were warned\there was a tsunami approaching from South America. We were assigned a new entrant child to look after and we made our way to the highest hill in Orewa and waited, and waited, and waited. But guess what? No tsunami ever arrived.
While leafing through one of the first school magazines I was absolutely amazed to see a story which I had written in Form 2. Also in another magazine another story which I had written in F3. I have this very vivid memory of actually hating writing made up stories in my days at school. I managed to photograph both stories which are included in this posting. But as you will see one of them has the left side missing. Never mind I was just so chuffed to see a story I had written 50 years ago.
An observation I did make on Saturday was that the girls of 1956 had changed and were not recognisable unless you read their name tags, whereas the boys of 1956 were easily recognisable.
Next reunion will probably be in 10 years time. What will we all look like when we are 70?
This is Pam who started Orewa College with me. Both of us were foundation pupils. Pam and I have always been, and still are, good friends. We both left school in 1960 and went on to the Auckland Business College together. We have exchanged Xmas cards and Birthday cards every year for the past 50 years. Now and again we get together to have a catch up.
Managed to get a photo of a small group of us while we were looking at all the old photos. I will post the official photo when I have received a copy of it.
It sounds like you had a marvellous time at the reunion.
Thats a lovely story you wrote at school.
Very entertaining creative writing. You must have had an adventurous streak, or maybe you just liked reading Famous Five. The holiday in Paris story sounds like a typical first year French assignment.
Raewyn, you are right. My favourite books in my primary school years were the Famous Five. I read every single one of them. My story does read a bit like a Famous Five adventure.
I did take French at school and this would have been a first year French assignment. There were only 2 of us who took French and I got first at the end of year prize giving. I still have the book I received as a prize. But French was really a waste of time for me as my oral French could not be understood when I tried to use it in New Caledonia and in Europe.
Glad the reunion was an interesting and rewarding experience.
Gosh you have been hiding all these writing talents from me all these years. Those are well written stories, and with the good writing you have been putting on this blog, there seems to be real potential for a lot more interesting material to come.