Going to my school reunions has been a fulfilling experience, involving the rekindling of lost connections with fellow students and heart-warming times with former teachers.
Last time the reunion was on site at my Catholic girls’ school. We enjoyed tours of the old science labs where we used bunsen burners inappropriately, the school hall where we sometimes feigned interest in the proceedings on stage, the craft room where we did haphazard needlework (yes, we actually had a subject called ‘needlework’; another was tennis. I was appalling at both) and the home science areas where we made sponge cakes and ate them like sandwiches on the bus on the way home.
Most of these buildings had been repurposed to be used for things we couldn’t even have imagined back then, such as theatre studies and information technology.
Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Joy Phillis, one of the organisers of an upcoming reunion of Shepparton High School. This reunion is not for recent school leavers, however. It’s for those who went to school in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. I had to read that twice the first time I saw it. If you were at high school in the 1940s, then you’d have to be in your 80s, at least. There is apparently one couple coming who went to the school in 1939!
At the time of writing, Joy had more than 80 RSVPs — a pretty, impressive achievement. Apparently, this particular reunion has been going on for about 40 years and involves the singing of the old school song Labour Conquers All – a fine example of the old Protestant work ethic, if ever I saw one.
Joy recalled the shock of a being quiet girl moving to a big high school of 1000 students in 1956, from her small primary school at Moorilim, so much so that she missed many days and had to repeat the following year. Shepparton High School closed in 2019, merging with other schools to become Greater Shepparton Secondary College.
If you know of anyone who went to the school during these years, please do let them know about the reunion if they’re not already linked in. Joy says women, in particular, are hard to find, as most changed their names when they got married.
The details: RSVP by October 28. Email tbephillis@bigpond.com. Reunion at the Royal Mail Hotel, Mooroopna from noon on Sunday, November 6. Phone 5825 1840.
Terri Cowley is the breakfast presenter on One FM 98.5
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