Before I Sleep

Before I Sleep by Ray Whitrod Read Free Book Online

Book: Before I Sleep by Ray Whitrod Read Free Book Online
Authors: Ray Whitrod
prongs for shanghais. To these we fixed rubber bands and then cut out the tongues from old shoes to make a pouch to hold the BB shot or small stones. We hunted birds in the east Parklands. This was before I had made the Scouts’ promise to be “kind to animals”.
    In the evenings there was usually something on at the Mission and I went there with my mother’s approval. Friday evenings were reserved for the scout troop. I never developed a habit of doing homework. I disliked schooling, both primary and secondary — partly because I couldn’t see much advantage in it, and partly, I suspect, because of an administrative move at Norwood School. After I had been in Grade 5 for a term, four of us were moved into Grade 6 on the grounds that we were bright enough to cope with that year’s standard. But I think the real reason was to balance out class sizes. These were, in any case, quite large by modern day numbers: forty children in a class was common. I did catch up scholastically with the rest of the grade 6 pupils eventually, but there was an unexpected bad outcome. The Grade 6 boys spent Friday mornings at a distant carpentry school learning woodwork. We four arrived in second term, but the carpentry instructor — he was a tradesman rather than a trained teacher — made no effort to provide any elementary instruction for us. I felt unwelcome. We were three projects behind the rest of the class and I, for one, had never held a plane or saw in my hands before. I hadn’t the slightest idea how to sharpen a chisel. I tried hard at woodwork but just made a mess. Nobody came to my rescue. Teachers and principals were not as approachable then as they are now; it didn’t occur to me to ask them for help. I became so fed up and miserable that one Friday morning I stayed away. Since the roll was never called, my absence was not noted, so for the rest of that year and the next I wagged it from woodwork lessons. I would spend Friday morning walking the lanes of Kensington in the hope of finding an empty bottle or two that I could return for the penny or halfpenny deposit. I never received a proficiency certificate for my woodwork, but I didn’t care.
    Joining the Mission brought me into contact with local lads of my age and participating in the various activities gave me some experience of teamwork. One of these lads, Keith Davies, lived nearby with his parents, and four brothers, in an attached cottage similar to ours. Keith was our enthusiastic wicket keeper when we played scratch games of cricket in the Parklands. I visited the Davies’ home on a few occasions after school to borrow a bike spanner. Each time I found Keith and his three younger brothers studiously doing their homework under the eagle eye of their mother. The Davies boys all succeeded in adult life in varying professions. In later years I have regretted that in those days I was not similarly organised in relation to homework. Relying on a good memory and some intuition I was able to do reasonably well at primary school without any homework. I topped my Grade 7 class at Norwood Primary with a qualifying examination result of 610 but there were two Grade 7’s and another lad topped the school with 630. This gave him a small scholarship when he went on to high school.
    At Adelaide High School, I similarly coasted along and managed to pass each year, but with increasingly less success. I still did little homework. I had no goal in mind: I was just passing time. I could not have been an attractive pupil. I wore a heavy serge suit that had belonged to my mother’s brother, Bill. He had developed stomach ulcers on the stations around Birdsville and had retreated to Clara’s house in Adelaide to die. He left no will and few possessions apart from his suit. Bill had been taller and thinner than I was, so his suit fitted me very poorly. Most of the other boys had better fitting school blazers and, of course, the girls in

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