Memories of Grey Lynn School by past pupils 3

Rod Hoggard

Rod Hoggard used to go to our school and he left school the same year that Lewis Rowden started in 1939. Here are some of his memories.

"Does anyone remember this? 'Victor Voss is very cross. He goes to church on Sunday, and prays to God to give him strength to belt the kids on Monday'. Strangely I don't think he was big on the strap, but he was a dead-eye dick with a short piece of chalk. I had many a smack on the ear for not paying attention.

I started school after the August holidays in 1932. I was 6 years old and could not start earlier because the government had closed schools to five year olds in an effort to save money. My cousin Eileen also attended Grey Lynn School for a few years and my uncle was doing relief work building the Bullock Track. He asked Mr Turbott, the Headmaster if we could be excused from school an hour extra at lunchtime. He took us along Surrey Crescent to the top of the Bullock Track to a shed where they stored tools. He brewed tea and asked a young man to sing for us - a song about a flea with a lot of 'Ha ha has' in it. The young man was later a world-renowned singer, Oscar Natzka. You can Google the song and hear him!

One of the great interests in Grey Lynn was the Speedway. Ron Bright lived next door. It cost money to go to the Speedway and that was one thing we did not have. We took a sheet of iron off Ron's fence and put it back again so we always had free entry. We made boats of corrugated iron usually from the tip at the bottom of Sawdusty Road and made canoes to take down to Western Springs. Trolley making was also a rite of passage, using old pram wheels fitted to a board. Many a skinned knee went home to Mum when you fell off on a big bend."

Excerpts chosen by Maia

(Rod Hoggard's full memoir was originally published in the Grey Lynn School Centennial magazine "100 years of learning: a Grey Lynn School Centenary 1910-2010", published December 2010.The photo shows Rod - front right - and contemporaries at the Golden Jubilee Ball in 1960.)

Anthony Bovaird was a pupil at Grey Lynn School from 1955 to 1960. His memories are enveloping. Here are a few of them: Flower Show

Our school had a flower show and before it took place we had ladies come in to give us practical demonstrations to prepare us for the variety of categories that we could participate in e.g. buttonholes, sand saucer covered with flowers, posy and miniature gardens. On the day of the show we made our displays and they were put in a classroom to be judged. When judging was over we eagerly returned to the classroom to see if our display had earned certificate.

This photo shows the front of the school in the 1950s with the milk stand on the right of the gate.

School Milk

Free school milk was delivered to the covered wooden milk stand to the right of the main gate. It was the responsibility of the class milk monitors to bring the milk crate to the classroom before morning play. Pupils had to drink their milk before leaving the classroom.

Excerpts chosen by Maia.

These also appeared in the Grey Lynn School Centennial magazine "100 years of learning: a Grey Lynn School Centenary 1910-2010", published December 2010.