I was born in April 1927. I attended the Elwood Central School from 1932 to 1940.

My father enrolled me in the ‘little school’ which was known as the 'bubs’ at the beginning of the school year.  The school building was in Mitford Street opposite the ‘big school’ building, which fronted Scott Street. In those days Mitford Street separated the two schools. To progress from the ‘bubs’ to the ‘big’ school was considered then to be the real start to your education.


My family was living in rented premises in Ormond Road Elwood. My older sister,Thea, was already in the big school three years ahead of me. We traversed the short walk to school by jumping over the Elwood canal. During the eight years I spent at school the family moved several times to other rented premises; always looking for a house that could easily be divided and shared with another family, in order to reduce the rental cost. This happened several times, until we finally found a more suitable place in Ruskin Street Elwood.


My memories of life at Elwood Central School are hazy. It’s a very long time ago!. I know that as a 'central’ school you progressed to grade six. At that stage boys had the opportunity to transfer to a technical school if they wanted to follow a trade, or stay and finish year seven and eight, if they intended to go on to high school. Year 7 was called F form and year 8 was E form. This was when you sat for your Merit Certificate and could leave school and get a job if you did not intend to go to high school to do Intermediate and Leaving certificates. I stayed until E form and qualified with a Merit certificate, which enabled me to leave school and enter the work force.


The teaching staff were a mixture of men and women with the classes nearly always just about evenly spread with boys and girls. Extra curricular activities were restricted, but there was a very well rehearsed ‘drum and fife' band. The band formed up every Monday morning and played some sort of spirited music to march the students into their classrooms. A music teacher was employed to come every Friday morning to teach and rehearse us in the shelter shed. The Monday morning consisted of all the students lined up facing the flag pole and reciting, hand on heart, something about ‘honouring the flag and cheerfully obeying my parents teachers and the law!


The other activity that was available to some students was singing in the school choir. Probably in grade 5 or 6, I was in the boys choir. We all had soprano voices. I remember on one occasion we competed against other schools at the Melbourne Town Hall. Of course another activity, not sanctioned at all by the school, was fighting. If two boys had a disagreement, it was expected that they sort it out by facing up to each other after school hours ‘behind the little school fence’. There was always a group of onlookers.


The school did not have a canteen or tuck shop, but there was a milk bar in Scott Street, right opposite the main entrance to the school. I think most students bought their own ‘cut lunch' to school, or went home for lunch, but you could buy hot pies and pasties from the shop. I know the ‘penny tray’ was very popular with a variety of lollies all available for a penny.


One of my jobs was to fill the ink wells every Monday morning. Ball point pens had not yet been invented. By the time you reached Form F you could discard your pencil and use a pen with a steel nib, or if the family could afford it, a fountain pen.


The usual sporting activities were available, but not in a very structured way. Learning how to swim was encouraged and during the summer months a bus would take us to the St.Kilda baths for swimming and life saving and resuscitation lessons. 


I recall that there was one day of the year called “Empire Day”. I think it was in May. It was not a holiday, but I remember that we  were all given a bag of lollies.


There was a situation, probably in 1938, when the school had to close for a a few days because of an outbreak of poliomyelitis. Or infantile paralysis as it was called then.


All the class rooms, or most of them, had a brick fire place. In the winter time, on cold days, the caretaker would set and light a fire with firewood from a big pile in the yard. 


Prior to the outbreak of war in 1939 Australia was a mono-cultural country; very Anglo/Celtic. With the growing threat of war in Europe, we saw the arrival of families migrating to Australia to escape the threat of Nazism. These were mainly Jewish families, but there were others including Greeks. Elwood and Elsternwick were favoured suburbs for these new arrivals. The school saw quite an influx of new students from Europe in the 1938/39 period.


Following the declaration of war in September 1939, there was a noticeable change in attitudes among Australians. Rationing was introduced for petrol and some food items. The population was encouraged to save and conserve material for the war effort. The children were all asked to collect and bring to school various waste materials like aluminium foil, tooth paste tubes and razor blades.  


Slit trenches (so called ‘air raid shelters’) were dug . Black paper was pasted over all the windows to block out the light at night and you were restricted to one light per room.