Skool Dayz

I went to Primary School in the country wheatbelt about 150 miles east of Perth, Western Australia. We lived about 7 miles out of the town and had to catch the bus to school.

One of my most vivid memories is the school bus rides. We had the old “matchbox” bus and it was driven by Mrs Kraftchook (not the right spelling but you know who I mean) and later by Mrs Butcher.

The old matchbox was always breaking down, usually on the furthest point from home, and I remember the local farmers often coming down and rescuing us… We would wait with the bus while one of the older kids walked to the nearest house (no mobile phones in those days!) I remember that the school bus used to deliver the mail, bread and anything else that might be needed urgently. On days where the bus was delayed most Mums would be disappointed to find most of the fresh bread waas eaten by hungry kids while they waited for the bus to be fixed. The bread was freshly baked and we used to love eating the soft middle of the loaves – leaving just the hollow crust!

I remember Mrs K’s son Alex cranking the bus to get it going sometimes…

I also remember “King River” which ran across the road between Schillings and Rutherfords often used to flood after a big rain and the kids on the other side of the “river” could miss school…I remember being very jealous of their liberty!

I remember we were always late for the bus – wasn’t a morning person then or now – and we used to be always rushing for the bus. On early week we could see the bus come round Dingo Hill so knew how long we had to get to the end of the drive and throw our bikes in the bushes…

If it was late week it was really embarrassing if we were running late and the whole bus could see us panting towards the bus!! And if we missed the bus we would have to ride up the hill and face Mum! We would often get dropped off at Negri’s corner to catch the bus there instead…

I also remember that as we raced out the door Mum used to give us our bacon and egg in a sandwich to eat on the bike on the way to the bus stop. That front drive was always treacherous..you were always getting bucked off by potholes or sliding on the gravel… So if we were running really late it was too hard to pedal down that hill and stay aboard – and you certainly couldn’t hang onto a sandwich! So they used to get thrown into the front paddock. We found out years later that Mum knew we did this – and we thought we were being very sneaky….

Footnote:

Until this school opened at the end of 1951, the school had operated since 1915 in Westral Street in Bruce Rock townsite. The post war development in the town led to the establishment of a new school facility which was opened on the same day as the scheme water supply, on the 20th December 1951, by the Minister for Education and Deputy Premier AF Watts. In 1954 it was elevated to a Junior High School status.