I grew up in sugar country. A crushing mill below
1949
Proserpine
I think it was in 1949 when I was about 6 that I went with my parents for a holiday in Proserpine.
My parents very seldom went away on holidays but at that time we went to see Aunt Maude in Proserpine. Maude was my mother's favourite (younger) sister.
It is from that time that I remember my uncle Chris Monkhouse. My mother thought highly of Chris and I know why. (My mother was a great critic and theonly other person I remember my mother speaking well of is my cousin Shirley. Shirley [Smith nee Luxton] certainly is a lovely person).
Chris really was a lovely man. Very big and kind and gentle. My brother was named after him. Chris Monkhouse was only in his 40s when he died of a heart attack. It was a great shock (though he was overweight). I remember vividly seeing him sitting dead under a tree after having mown the lawn
Innisfail State Rural School
I first went to school (Innisfail State Rural School) from the blue house.
I remember that for my first day of school my mother dressed me in a T-shirt with a "Superman" motif printed on it. This caused me to be harassed by other kids, which upset me. An unwise mother. I doubt that I wore it again.
I also remember being plagued during my primary school years with the fact that my name was the same as that of a popular American "crooner" of the day -- Johnny Ray. I was called the "little white cloud that cries" and suchlike by teachers and students alike from time to time but I just ignored it.
A "Rural" school meant a school that offered both primary and secondary classes. It was only after my time there that a separate High School was built at Innisfail.
I remember that my first alphabet book in Grade 1 had the wording: ""A" like an apple on a Twig". When noİone knew what a "twig" was the teacher changed it to "branch". What an incompetent bunglerÜr Ü the author must have been! Or perhaps he/she was just English.
In Grade 1 the teachers would bring out a pile of blankets after lunch and expect all the kids to have an afternoon nap on the floor. I did not understand that at all and just sat there. I was too lively for siestas in those days.
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E.&O.E.
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