Page 9 - Southwell School_The Chronicle December 2021

• Pocket money on Saturdays and walking to Morris’ Store for sweets or broken biscuits.
• Being asked with Bax to collect dead cats from under the Sergels’ house!
• Mr Millar – Groundsman and ‘Jack of all Trades’, killing sheep for meat and endlessly repairing the cesspit for the overflowing lavatories!
• Pilfering fruit from Roaches Orchard.
• Football gear that we washed and hung out to dry
would freeze stiff after an overnight frost.
• Air raid practice. This was an experience which
included all of Hamilton. They even had aircraft
simulating dive bombing. We would go to the trenches dug in the bush or to the trees where we built huts by the western boundary.
• Dreaded ‘boot parade’ on Saturday after lunch. All footwear had to be accounted for. A long tedious process.
• Lining up in rows in front of the dining hall before meals for the mandatory hand and elbow inspection – “hands up and over”.
• Dividing up the slice of butter into six equal portions (wartime rationing).
The open air dormitory was a very wide open verandah with canvas blinds, two tier bunks with sagging sacks lining the back wall.
The pool, filled once a season and having no filter, turned into a dark green soup.
Instead of showering in the summer, the boys jumped over the balcony and plunged into the pool!