David,
I have before me on my desk a promiscuous assemblage of authorities: Treble & Vallins, 'An ABC of English Usage'; Thompson and Irvine 'Collins Everyday English Usage'; Australian Style Manual (Fourth Edition); 'The Penguin Working Words: An Australian Guide to Modern English'; the venerable Fowler and Fowler 'Modern English Usage'; and last, but fiercest of all, 'Strunk and White', who cannot help being Americans, but make up for it with pith and verve. Somewhere, too, I have the peppery Mr Partridge and his 'Usage and Abusage', a book guaranteed to scorch the eyebrows off any slovenly syntactician, but these will do to be getting on with.
Let us consult the first page of William Strunk's little book, as he always called it; William Strunk who, despite being firmly dead, still has the 'Jr.' attached to his surname, in the same spirit, I suppose as the deathbed whisper, 'There is.... another.... Skywalker...'
On page xv - in the Preface, no less, such is its importance - we find the following by E.B. White:
Some years ago, when the heir to the throne of England was a child, I noticed a headline in the Times about Bonnie Prince Charlie: "CHARLES' TONSILS OUT." Immediately Rule 1 leapt to mind.
1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,
Charles's friend
Burns's poems
the witch's malice
Now, when we turn to the actual rule Strunk made, we find he allows some exceptions:
"... the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and is, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake. But such forms as Moses' laws, Isis' temple are commonly replaced by
the laws of Moses
the temple of Isis.
One hopes for guidance with the installation of the modern apostrophe, and one receives instead a Biblical exegesis. And the tonsils of Charles are all forgotten.
So, Strunk leaves me alone and palely loitering before the problems of
'Imants' immense canvas'
'Imants's earlier works'
'Tillers' joy when Richard Hopkinson was so soon found';
and
'Have you seen Tillers's latest retrospective at the NLA?'
What say the Brothers Fowler, that hip-hop duo from Oxford? The entry in their tyrannical handbook occupies a column and a half, and is disquietingly headed 'Possessive Puzzles'. The dudes start, like Strunk, with archaeology.
It was formerly customary, when a word ended in-s, to write its possessive with an apostrophe but no additional s, e.g. Mars' hill. Venus' Bath, Achilles' thews... in poetry the custom is retained... but we now add the s. Charles's Wain, St James's not St James' [remember this next time you take a ride on the City Circle, David], Pythagoras's doctrines...
It seems we must Imants's and Tillers's.
But stay - let us leap from Pythagoras and Parnassus, to our own day. What says the Penguin Working Words?
The broad rule is that when the noun is singular an apostrophe and s are added; when it is plural only the apostrophe is added:
one dog's nose two dogs' noses.
All seems to be plain sailing, and we note with approval these nicely judged and politically correct examples, calculated to offend no-one; no Christian allusions to insult those of other faiths; no archaisms to affront those having a postmodern education consisting only of opinions and attitudes, no British Empire derivatives to marginalise postcolonial peoples...
'Working Words' then allows that 'The use of the apostrophe is, however, quite complex...' but completely neglects the problem of the tonsils of Charles and the works of Tillers. One turns many of their pages to reach Proper Nouns, and finds 'If possession has to be shown, however [how they do love that cautionary 'however'], an apostrophe follows the plural form of the noun The Smiths' caravan; the Joneses' geese.
I have sadly to report that their entry 'Singular and Plural' has nothing to say about Singular Forms of Proper Nouns ('Tillers' not being a plural but some archaic Dutch construction, no doubt, viz. Tillers' Thews, Tillers' Heel), and does nothing to explain how the plural of 'Jones' becomes 'Joneses', while a school, pride, or pod of the Smith ilk become merely 'Smiths'. (Just one of those things in English one has to 'know', I guess. Absorbed through usage.) It leaves one wondering about another problem, this new issue being the forming of the plural of Tillers. One Tillers, two Tillerses? And what about the Tillerseses tonsils, not to mention their caravan, much less the horrific issue of how to cope should the whole bloody Tillers family be painters... The canvasses of the Tillerses?
Let us now wearily consult the Style Manual Fourth Edition Reprinted With Corrections 1990 (I haven't the heart for the other authorities. I am now menaced by a maelstrom of apostrophes, like an acid rain of mosquito larvae, writhing to and fro and around the letter s), Oh God, the buggers have recanted and Strunked it:
The pos s is generally used for singular nouns that end it s:
Burns's poems Dickens's novels Leavis's criticism
They've even... yes, you've guess it:
In the case of ancient and biblical words [note the absence of the capital B], s pos is conventionally used:
Achilles' heel Jesus' teachings Moses' law
(Inclusive Language be damned.)
White's preface to Strunk adds the caveat that good usage is a matter of 'ear'. Indeed, and this is where I say bedamned to Tillers's, James's, Charles's and those geese of the clan Jones. What much offends my ear is the Zuzzing that results. To obey this rule fills our already over-noisy world with a chain-saw cacophony of Jameszuzz, Charleszuss, Imantszuzz and Tillerzuzz, beJezuzz. Ugly locutions, that could so easily be the gentle Imants' and Tillers'.
So it is Tillers plus an apostrophe, for me.
(BTW: Fowler and the Macquarie dictionary disallow learn't in your phrase:
non-negotiable rules that must be obeyed at all that we learn't unquestionably in our simple faith in the world,
and I suggest the use of 'unquestioningly', but I leave this matter up to your conscience.)
Richard Hopkinson was the only other one of our host who took up the apostrophic gauntlet I so lightly flung, but him I abolished with many curious and puissant arguments.
The axiom is for us all to avoid the Ugly Zuzz.
At 12:42 AM +1000 3/9/06, D.Stewart wrote:
as you would never say Stephen's Gard's or Stephen's Gard for example, except for Stephen's guard.
Indeed, but neither of my names ends in s, and neither does David Stewart, and thus we clearly have never faced, or caused anyone, such apostrophical cruces.
Exercise 1: Form possessives, plurals, and then possessive plurals, from these proper nouns, and then for the sake of God, do not show the answers to me:
Miles Davis, Demis Roussos, Ross Edwards, Moss Cass, Lucas Heights, Dundas Presbyterians, and Airds Payless.
Finally: by referring to Imants as 'immense', I was punning on his achievement as an artist, although I have indeed seen a wall-sized work of his. A mountain slope, I seem to recall. Is that the example of Imants' work you were referring to? Or was it one of Tillers' earlier oeuvres?
Chingalacka,
SDG
The Bruces of Ethel Street
Hi,
I'm one of the brothers of Tracey Foxcroft of Khancoban who wrote about the
swimming pool.
We had lots of fun times trapsing through the school grounds when they were
called McConikies Paddock, after hours, watching out for "Clotty" the
Caretaker and clearing v-e-r-y quickly when disovered.
Used to see lots of boys doing strange things during school hours just
outside the grounds during playlunch and lunch-times as we lived at Ethel
Street when my father built the house in 1962 till I personally left in
1979, the rest of my family selling in 1992.
We watched the actual school being built bit-by-bit, watching it gobble up
all the houses bordering on Ethel St, Botany St and Anderson Ave.
(Investigating those houses when they became empty prior to demolition)
My father went to the school when it was at Albion St, Paddington after his
intermediate at Hurstville Tech School.
My father now lives in South Australia, I live in Brisbane Queensland, my
brothers scattered to other parts in Queensland.
Been good to spend the time looking through the Sydney Tech web pages, and
also your 1969 reunion web pages.
Unfortunately my father tells me he will not be able to attend your 11th
Sept 2006 get-to-gether because he will be back in Adelaide. But he will
attempt to come to the school about the 7th and 8th of September 2006 while
passing through Sydney on his way back to Adelaide.
Phil Bruce 1971-1976 (1962-1971: watching you from home come to school)
Robin Bruce 1950-1951
I'm one of the brothers of Tracey Foxcroft of Khancoban who wrote about the
swimming pool.
We had lots of fun times trapsing through the school grounds when they were
called McConikies Paddock, after hours, watching out for "Clotty" the
Caretaker and clearing v-e-r-y quickly when disovered.
Used to see lots of boys doing strange things during school hours just
outside the grounds during playlunch and lunch-times as we lived at Ethel
Street when my father built the house in 1962 till I personally left in
1979, the rest of my family selling in 1992.
We watched the actual school being built bit-by-bit, watching it gobble up
all the houses bordering on Ethel St, Botany St and Anderson Ave.
(Investigating those houses when they became empty prior to demolition)
My father went to the school when it was at Albion St, Paddington after his
intermediate at Hurstville Tech School.
My father now lives in South Australia, I live in Brisbane Queensland, my
brothers scattered to other parts in Queensland.
Been good to spend the time looking through the Sydney Tech web pages, and
also your 1969 reunion web pages.
Unfortunately my father tells me he will not be able to attend your 11th
Sept 2006 get-to-gether because he will be back in Adelaide. But he will
attempt to come to the school about the 7th and 8th of September 2006 while
passing through Sydney on his way back to Adelaide.
Phil Bruce 1971-1976 (1962-1971: watching you from home come to school)
Robin Bruce 1950-1951
John Booth @ Beverly Hills
Stephen
I enjoyed the Boomalacka Bulletin and am intending to visit the Imants Tillers’ exhibition – you have whet my appetite!
I have attached a photo of Beverly Hills Primary School Class 6A which may reveal a number of the class of ‘67/’69. Isn’t it great what Mums keep for posterity?
You might be able to use it in one of you competitions to see who can name the students ( I count 8). By the way none of them is wearing a skirt.
Regards
John Booth
Back Row: Fred Renneberg (2nd from Left); John Booth (3rd from left); Robert Gilford (7th from left) Peter Burke (8th from left); John Nash (10th from left) Leon Kavanagh (11th from left) and Jeff Matchett (12th from left or 1st on right!)
2nd Back Row: Michael Kells (1st on left) and Jeff Gallard (11th from left or 1st on right!)
Richard Hopkinson, Imants Tillers
From: "David Stewart"
To: "Stephen Gard"
Cc:
Thanks a lot Stephen, look forward to seeing you at the reunion! Richard has been found alive and well in Wellington NZ by Graham Leonard! Imants will be amazed.
Deborah, could you please forward this email and the following response to Jenny for Imants when he has time. This is fantastic news.
Richard was also close to Imants over a number of years at STHS and wrote poetry and was interested in history, literature, drama, metaphysics etc. Another lost brother emerges from amongst the dark slippery rocks at the base of Mt Analogue!
My wife and I both greatly enjoyed meeting you at the exhibition last Saturday and listening to your presentation about the artworks that you have curated during the “Meet the artist” session. It is indeed a great credit to you and the gallery. So much effort and time – amazing! Your unique personal approach to the “Imants Tillers -one world many visions” exhibition has certainly revealed a lot of things that have been hidden.
But I personally don’t think Imants suddenly became an artist at any particular or defined point in time and space, but rather that it was in him gradually forming from a very early age like an embryo- probably recognizable during pre-school or earlier as a toddler.
His 1985 Mt Analogue will always be an icon for me and we have completed the jigsaw puzzle to hang in our house. The sheer enjoyment of the family doing the puzzle together as a team but using different techniques was magic! The metaphysical meaning and background of this work is obviously a core theme linking all of Imants’ other more complex work and the significance of connections across time and space are important to me at least in appreciating his later works. I hope others get as much pleasure from seeing the real thing as we did. You can’t just get this from a print.
We also had an enjoyable breakfast with the Tillers family in the gallery café the next morning. We later stood on Black Mountain afterwards on the way home and looked across the terrible Woden Valley and saw that Mt Analogue spoke to us from the distant snow covered hills beyond Lake Cotter. We also think the peace plaque at the main entrance to the tower might warrant mention.
Somehow the Anglo-Saxon god of war, who was also god of the Muse, the head god and the undertaker to the spirit world was at peace with the landscape. Like a scene from the mythic Tolkien novels or a chapter from Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”- so inextricably linked it was quite special but a bond shared by fellow hobbits. Is this not our fate as mere humans to be playthings of a higher purpose seeking a goal we can never attain, or that never ends?
Best wishes
David Stewart
Engineering Manager
To: "Stephen Gard"
Cc:
Thanks a lot Stephen, look forward to seeing you at the reunion! Richard has been found alive and well in Wellington NZ by Graham Leonard! Imants will be amazed.
Deborah, could you please forward this email and the following response to Jenny for Imants when he has time. This is fantastic news.
Richard was also close to Imants over a number of years at STHS and wrote poetry and was interested in history, literature, drama, metaphysics etc. Another lost brother emerges from amongst the dark slippery rocks at the base of Mt Analogue!
My wife and I both greatly enjoyed meeting you at the exhibition last Saturday and listening to your presentation about the artworks that you have curated during the “Meet the artist” session. It is indeed a great credit to you and the gallery. So much effort and time – amazing! Your unique personal approach to the “Imants Tillers -one world many visions” exhibition has certainly revealed a lot of things that have been hidden.
But I personally don’t think Imants suddenly became an artist at any particular or defined point in time and space, but rather that it was in him gradually forming from a very early age like an embryo- probably recognizable during pre-school or earlier as a toddler.
His 1985 Mt Analogue will always be an icon for me and we have completed the jigsaw puzzle to hang in our house. The sheer enjoyment of the family doing the puzzle together as a team but using different techniques was magic! The metaphysical meaning and background of this work is obviously a core theme linking all of Imants’ other more complex work and the significance of connections across time and space are important to me at least in appreciating his later works. I hope others get as much pleasure from seeing the real thing as we did. You can’t just get this from a print.
We also had an enjoyable breakfast with the Tillers family in the gallery café the next morning. We later stood on Black Mountain afterwards on the way home and looked across the terrible Woden Valley and saw that Mt Analogue spoke to us from the distant snow covered hills beyond Lake Cotter. We also think the peace plaque at the main entrance to the tower might warrant mention.
Somehow the Anglo-Saxon god of war, who was also god of the Muse, the head god and the undertaker to the spirit world was at peace with the landscape. Like a scene from the mythic Tolkien novels or a chapter from Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”- so inextricably linked it was quite special but a bond shared by fellow hobbits. Is this not our fate as mere humans to be playthings of a higher purpose seeking a goal we can never attain, or that never ends?
Best wishes
David Stewart
Engineering Manager
Nominations for the STHS Hall of Fame
From the STHS Deputy Principal - Wed, 14 Jun 2006:
Hi Stephen,
We are updating the heritage display of the school through lots of photos. This includes a hall of fame. Are there any of your year group who have gone on to do significant things in their profession? If so, I would like to contact them to ask for a short summary and a photo for the display.
You should drop in some time to see the school as it is now - quite different from the picture you portray on your interesting site. I have been to several 30th and 40th and 50th reunions to talk about the school and it is interesting to gain the varying perspectives. I think 1968-72 seems to have been a difficult time - the Bing and Bong factor.
We are quite a different breed now!!!
regards,
Sam Dando
Deputy Principal
____________
Stephen,
Ah yes we were made (madeth?) by manners and the bing/bong factor.
Does "Boomalacka" really mean "fuckin' ay!" or did I just make that up now?
Where are the wise old Aboriginal medicine men when you need them.
Should we make up some appropriately rebellious fictitious deeds for the Hall of Fame?
As always, thanks for keeping the record.
Graeme
Hi Stephen,
We are updating the heritage display of the school through lots of photos. This includes a hall of fame. Are there any of your year group who have gone on to do significant things in their profession? If so, I would like to contact them to ask for a short summary and a photo for the display.
You should drop in some time to see the school as it is now - quite different from the picture you portray on your interesting site. I have been to several 30th and 40th and 50th reunions to talk about the school and it is interesting to gain the varying perspectives. I think 1968-72 seems to have been a difficult time - the Bing and Bong factor.
We are quite a different breed now!!!
regards,
Sam Dando
Deputy Principal
____________
Stephen,
Ah yes we were made (madeth?) by manners and the bing/bong factor.
Does "Boomalacka" really mean "fuckin' ay!" or did I just make that up now?
Where are the wise old Aboriginal medicine men when you need them.
Should we make up some appropriately rebellious fictitious deeds for the Hall of Fame?
As always, thanks for keeping the record.
Graeme
Mark Ierace - Class of 1968
Dear Stephen,
I happened upon your website, and I want to thank you for it. I was from the class of ‘68, and so much of the content is familiar. Looking back, it is extraordinary how rebellious we all were but with a sense of humour; as someone on the site observed, we were bright, but in a dull school.
Regards, Mark Ierace.
I happened upon your website, and I want to thank you for it. I was from the class of ‘68, and so much of the content is familiar. Looking back, it is extraordinary how rebellious we all were but with a sense of humour; as someone on the site observed, we were bright, but in a dull school.
Regards, Mark Ierace.
Bikey Bosler and Brian Hodge
I've just finished printing a book on Hill End and Brian Hodge is still around. He still lives on the Mudgee Road and frequents the pub. We rode to Sofala a couple of months ago and said Hi to all and sundry up there. View our web site on www.stgeorgesutherlandulysses.org for some photos of the wife and I, and a whole lot of other deviates.
Regards,
Ian Bosler.
Regards,
Ian Bosler.
Mark Smith wonders...
Stephen,
Have enjoyed once again looking at the website, especially the anecdotes (about teachers). Again let me say you have done well. But I must be getting old, memories are getting more feeble. Who was the tall thin English/History teacher that some of us had (I would say 1965-1967, ie what is now called Yrs 8 to 10)? My recollection is that he sounded very English, but he instilled in me the understanding of history as thesis/antithesis/new thesis, to be followed by new antithesis: which of course has proved to be so true, or rather as situation/reaction/back to the ‘50’s. I think his name was very English too, possibly two-syllable, maybe starting with a ‘D’?. Can you or anyone help?
As to the comment on the webpage that our years were attempting to overcome the Kipling age, did you hear about Geoffrey Robinson’s recent comment that Australia was so reactionary and conservative that the 1960’s did not finally arrive here until the 1970’s?
It reminds me that when I was living in Wagga Wagga I was once waiting at the Council Chambers and started looking along the row of photographs of former City Councillors, assembled in collective yearly poses. I was looking at a number of black and white photographs of men in short back and sides haircuts, some Brylcreamed, when I realized they were photographs of the Councils of the late 1970’s. The 1960’s still hadn’t arrived there yet.
Please note my new address, as below. My email address and mobile phone number remain the same.
Cheers,
Mark Smith
_____________
Thanks so much for your kind, and interesting mail! Now that you've joined us in the Southern Highlands (how did you survive your first Brigadoon?) I may see you now and again; we have friends in Bundanoon and other southwards places, Bree, for example. Rivendell. Mordor.
Was the English teacher Chris Ellis? He was of the tweed jacket with leather elbows and pipe-puffing persuasion, so he must have done time in Oxford or at one of its epigones. I don't recall anyone teaching us the Hegelian dialectic of thesis + antithesis = synthesis, perhaps I wasn't paying attention, but clearly, we had a crypto-Marxist among the staff. On the other hand, he did borrow my copy of Sergeant Pepper's and read the lyrics aloud to us, with a commentary. His father was the rector (or some such) at Kelso Church; we stopped there on our way to Hill End, 1965, perhaps merely to micturate.
_____________
Stephen
Warren "Swampy" Mellor, who had one blue suit, two pairs of diamond socks and three ties (I stared at him for 10 periods a week for 3 years
best regards
David Gaunt
_____________
I checked "The Journal" for 1965, lucked out with your inuqiry there but the
1969 issue lists a member of the Enlish staff named Mr B Donlon. So, your
memory is not too bad; nor is mine - I quickly remembered which bookcase
contained an ancient history document.
Cheers.
Michael Kells
(of Broken Hill since 1973 but I drove past Bundanoon Friday week ago)
_____________
Hi Mark
I have attached a scan from the 1964 STHS Year Book.
Figured the picture of Chris Ellis may prompt a thought.
Kind regards /.. Ian
Ian R Bone
_____________
Stephen,
Could it have been Miss Dick ?.........no..... wrong shape, wrong height, wrong gender
Jeff Matchett
_____________
I reckon it was "swampy" Mellor...the old thesis and antithesis...he was right of course...looking forward to some antithesis to Bush and little Johnny....cheers...
Derek Lewis
_____________
I have a host of replies which I am now making my way through. Someone might name the teacher. But he is not Ellis. He is the 4th person from the right in the photograph, behind Brian Hodge. I’ll check the rest of my emails.
As for Brigadoon: my parents moved to Canyonleigh in 1982. My father has died, but my mother now lives in Bundanoon. I seem to have been going to Brigadoon all my life (my father` was Scottish). But I’ve only heard the massed bands play ‘Amazing Grace’ right once, as a war song that chills you, not a namby-pamby church hymn, but at least I’ve heard it once. They now play it at the Closing, and if you close your eyes the massed bands do sound impressive. It scares my small dog.
Roberston was speaking at some honoury doctoral benefaction to him in the past two weeks. He is still married to Lette. Her latest book is called ‘How To Murder Your Husband’. Perhaps he should be worried. Perhaps Sydney Uni thought it better give him the doctorate quick.
The scary thing about the Wagga Wagga Council photographs were that not all the men were old!
Mark Smith
______________
Let me urge you to find a copy of 'Gregory's Australian Guide to Bowls' (by Jack Pollard, n.d., published around the time we were in First Form). I have two copies, if you are unsuccessful in your search, and will send one, to give you bad dreams, or a good laugh. The frontispiece shows W.S. Kay, Oz Bowls President, and he resembles Arthur 'Cocky' Caldwell just after the shooting incident: head like a great cube of boiled pork, heavy-duty horn-rimmed glasses straddling potato nose, hair clipped militarily short save for a tiny, overcombed greasy thatch atop, skin like a ploughed paddock, vast ears like the Parkes radio telescope, droopy, crepy throat, heavy suit... he looked like every headmaster, Shire President, magistrate, RSL committee man, or ponderous uncle who haunted our younger days. The rest of the book is filled with even more terrifying photos of even more gross males, the rulers of the world of our youth. They all looked like Bing, and they all bellowed and fulminated and were certain that the world was going to hell in a handcart, we being the symptoms of its immediate descent. The Sixties couldn't arrive until they were extinct.
SDG
________________________
Thanks Ian. Yes it was!
And now to announce the winners of the Mark Smith Asks competition, or ‘Who was That Teacher?’
The correct answer was: Mr Warren Mellor.
Yes, two syllables. But no ‘D’. Sorry about that.
Is Mellor an English name? Mellors (with the additional ‘s’ was of course Lady Chatterley’s gamekeeper: Was this what I was thinking?)
Or was it the ‘Warren’?
Like Dave Gaunt, I too had Mellor for ‘10 periods a week for 3 years’. So how was I able to then forget his name, eh?
Correct answers in time order were:
Tuesday 11 April, 2006:
1. Ian Bosler at 1.23pm
2. Dave Gaunt, correctly naming Warren ‘Swampy’ Mellor, at 3.49pm
3. Eugen Molodysky at 4.55pm
4. Ray Dean phone call at 7.04pm
5. Ian Bone with scan photo of English staff with names, at 7.23pm
6. Derek Lewis at 9.50pm, who remembered the thesis/antithesis theory, and also applied it to the current situation.
Special ‘You Poor Sorry Fool’ award to Jeff Matchett for naming Miss Dick.
Thanks to all who responded. Sorry about the delay in announcing the results. Easter intervened. Hope everyone else had a good Easter too.
Finally: Stephen, you were very good at announcing Mellor’s teaching as the Hegelian dialectic. I had forgotten that, if I ever knew it. Obviously you spent your time learning useful things.
.
Regards to all,
Mark Smith
Have enjoyed once again looking at the website, especially the anecdotes (about teachers). Again let me say you have done well. But I must be getting old, memories are getting more feeble. Who was the tall thin English/History teacher that some of us had (I would say 1965-1967, ie what is now called Yrs 8 to 10)? My recollection is that he sounded very English, but he instilled in me the understanding of history as thesis/antithesis/new thesis, to be followed by new antithesis: which of course has proved to be so true, or rather as situation/reaction/back to the ‘50’s. I think his name was very English too, possibly two-syllable, maybe starting with a ‘D’?. Can you or anyone help?
As to the comment on the webpage that our years were attempting to overcome the Kipling age, did you hear about Geoffrey Robinson’s recent comment that Australia was so reactionary and conservative that the 1960’s did not finally arrive here until the 1970’s?
It reminds me that when I was living in Wagga Wagga I was once waiting at the Council Chambers and started looking along the row of photographs of former City Councillors, assembled in collective yearly poses. I was looking at a number of black and white photographs of men in short back and sides haircuts, some Brylcreamed, when I realized they were photographs of the Councils of the late 1970’s. The 1960’s still hadn’t arrived there yet.
Please note my new address, as below. My email address and mobile phone number remain the same.
Cheers,
Mark Smith
_____________
Thanks so much for your kind, and interesting mail! Now that you've joined us in the Southern Highlands (how did you survive your first Brigadoon?) I may see you now and again; we have friends in Bundanoon and other southwards places, Bree, for example. Rivendell. Mordor.
Was the English teacher Chris Ellis? He was of the tweed jacket with leather elbows and pipe-puffing persuasion, so he must have done time in Oxford or at one of its epigones. I don't recall anyone teaching us the Hegelian dialectic of thesis + antithesis = synthesis, perhaps I wasn't paying attention, but clearly, we had a crypto-Marxist among the staff. On the other hand, he did borrow my copy of Sergeant Pepper's and read the lyrics aloud to us, with a commentary. His father was the rector (or some such) at Kelso Church; we stopped there on our way to Hill End, 1965, perhaps merely to micturate.
_____________
Stephen
Warren "Swampy" Mellor, who had one blue suit, two pairs of diamond socks and three ties (I stared at him for 10 periods a week for 3 years
best regards
David Gaunt
_____________
I checked "The Journal" for 1965, lucked out with your inuqiry there but the
1969 issue lists a member of the Enlish staff named Mr B Donlon. So, your
memory is not too bad; nor is mine - I quickly remembered which bookcase
contained an ancient history document.
Cheers.
Michael Kells
(of Broken Hill since 1973 but I drove past Bundanoon Friday week ago)
_____________
Hi Mark
I have attached a scan from the 1964 STHS Year Book.
Figured the picture of Chris Ellis may prompt a thought.
Kind regards /.. Ian
Ian R Bone
_____________
Stephen,
Could it have been Miss Dick ?.........no..... wrong shape, wrong height, wrong gender
Jeff Matchett
_____________
I reckon it was "swampy" Mellor...the old thesis and antithesis...he was right of course...looking forward to some antithesis to Bush and little Johnny....cheers...
Derek Lewis
_____________
I have a host of replies which I am now making my way through. Someone might name the teacher. But he is not Ellis. He is the 4th person from the right in the photograph, behind Brian Hodge. I’ll check the rest of my emails.
As for Brigadoon: my parents moved to Canyonleigh in 1982. My father has died, but my mother now lives in Bundanoon. I seem to have been going to Brigadoon all my life (my father` was Scottish). But I’ve only heard the massed bands play ‘Amazing Grace’ right once, as a war song that chills you, not a namby-pamby church hymn, but at least I’ve heard it once. They now play it at the Closing, and if you close your eyes the massed bands do sound impressive. It scares my small dog.
Roberston was speaking at some honoury doctoral benefaction to him in the past two weeks. He is still married to Lette. Her latest book is called ‘How To Murder Your Husband’. Perhaps he should be worried. Perhaps Sydney Uni thought it better give him the doctorate quick.
The scary thing about the Wagga Wagga Council photographs were that not all the men were old!
Mark Smith
______________
Let me urge you to find a copy of 'Gregory's Australian Guide to Bowls' (by Jack Pollard, n.d., published around the time we were in First Form). I have two copies, if you are unsuccessful in your search, and will send one, to give you bad dreams, or a good laugh. The frontispiece shows W.S. Kay, Oz Bowls President, and he resembles Arthur 'Cocky' Caldwell just after the shooting incident: head like a great cube of boiled pork, heavy-duty horn-rimmed glasses straddling potato nose, hair clipped militarily short save for a tiny, overcombed greasy thatch atop, skin like a ploughed paddock, vast ears like the Parkes radio telescope, droopy, crepy throat, heavy suit... he looked like every headmaster, Shire President, magistrate, RSL committee man, or ponderous uncle who haunted our younger days. The rest of the book is filled with even more terrifying photos of even more gross males, the rulers of the world of our youth. They all looked like Bing, and they all bellowed and fulminated and were certain that the world was going to hell in a handcart, we being the symptoms of its immediate descent. The Sixties couldn't arrive until they were extinct.
SDG
________________________
Thanks Ian. Yes it was!
And now to announce the winners of the Mark Smith Asks competition, or ‘Who was That Teacher?’
The correct answer was: Mr Warren Mellor.
Yes, two syllables. But no ‘D’. Sorry about that.
Is Mellor an English name? Mellors (with the additional ‘s’ was of course Lady Chatterley’s gamekeeper: Was this what I was thinking?)
Or was it the ‘Warren’?
Like Dave Gaunt, I too had Mellor for ‘10 periods a week for 3 years’. So how was I able to then forget his name, eh?
Correct answers in time order were:
Tuesday 11 April, 2006:
1. Ian Bosler at 1.23pm
2. Dave Gaunt, correctly naming Warren ‘Swampy’ Mellor, at 3.49pm
3. Eugen Molodysky at 4.55pm
4. Ray Dean phone call at 7.04pm
5. Ian Bone with scan photo of English staff with names, at 7.23pm
6. Derek Lewis at 9.50pm, who remembered the thesis/antithesis theory, and also applied it to the current situation.
Special ‘You Poor Sorry Fool’ award to Jeff Matchett for naming Miss Dick.
Thanks to all who responded. Sorry about the delay in announcing the results. Easter intervened. Hope everyone else had a good Easter too.
Finally: Stephen, you were very good at announcing Mellor’s teaching as the Hegelian dialectic. I had forgotten that, if I ever knew it. Obviously you spent your time learning useful things.
.
Regards to all,
Mark Smith
The Complete STHS School Song
Dear Lads,
Michael Kells has provided us with the complete words of the STHS School Song, vintage circa 1924. It seems that we were cheated of two even richer verses, and should have been singing the following. Note the subtle textual changes wrought by time:
THE SCHOOL SONG
(Tune: "Men of Harlech")
See the Tech. High School assembling,
Floors and stairways all a-trembling,
Happy smiles faint hearts dissembling,
As we tramp to school.
Trig. and mensuration,
Atomic calculation;
Homework done,
Or left undone.
And 'Manners Makyth Man" upon our hatbands.
All regard it as our motto
Some forget it too, in toto,
Till they're cautioned, voce sotto:
"Don't disgrace your School."
--------------
See us when we face the Leaving,
There's no time to spend in grieving;
All are bent upon retrieving
Time we lost last year.
Chemistry and History,
All to us a mystery;
Still we plod
Until we nod,
And face the awful paper bright and cheerful.
Some go down, and some go through it;
Some there are who live to rue it.
Masters smile and say, "We knew it,
Now you know it, too."
------------
See us when we're through the Uni.,
Some are wise and some are looney,
Many strong, and many puny
After years of work.
Some have gone a-mining,
Sugar some refining;
All essay
To earn their pay.
Some are building bridges o'er the Harbour.
Hydro-works for irrigation,
Dams enough to drown a nation;
Every fellow to his station,
In this world's great work.
----------------
Mr Geoff Brookes is of the opinion that these verses were constructed by English Master (in our time) Mr 'Tojo' Taylor, who probably didn't give up his day job... If we'd sung this every week in its entirety, assembly might have lasted until mid-afternoon. For those of you who were wondering, construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge began on 18 April 1923, and it was completed in 1932. The book from which Michael coped these verses shows a balance sheet for the school accounts dated Dec. 18, 1925. This helps to fix the era of the song's composition.
Plod until you nod,
Stephen Gard
Michael Kells has provided us with the complete words of the STHS School Song, vintage circa 1924. It seems that we were cheated of two even richer verses, and should have been singing the following. Note the subtle textual changes wrought by time:
THE SCHOOL SONG
(Tune: "Men of Harlech")
See the Tech. High School assembling,
Floors and stairways all a-trembling,
Happy smiles faint hearts dissembling,
As we tramp to school.
Trig. and mensuration,
Atomic calculation;
Homework done,
Or left undone.
And 'Manners Makyth Man" upon our hatbands.
All regard it as our motto
Some forget it too, in toto,
Till they're cautioned, voce sotto:
"Don't disgrace your School."
--------------
See us when we face the Leaving,
There's no time to spend in grieving;
All are bent upon retrieving
Time we lost last year.
Chemistry and History,
All to us a mystery;
Still we plod
Until we nod,
And face the awful paper bright and cheerful.
Some go down, and some go through it;
Some there are who live to rue it.
Masters smile and say, "We knew it,
Now you know it, too."
------------
See us when we're through the Uni.,
Some are wise and some are looney,
Many strong, and many puny
After years of work.
Some have gone a-mining,
Sugar some refining;
All essay
To earn their pay.
Some are building bridges o'er the Harbour.
Hydro-works for irrigation,
Dams enough to drown a nation;
Every fellow to his station,
In this world's great work.
----------------
Mr Geoff Brookes is of the opinion that these verses were constructed by English Master (in our time) Mr 'Tojo' Taylor, who probably didn't give up his day job... If we'd sung this every week in its entirety, assembly might have lasted until mid-afternoon. For those of you who were wondering, construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge began on 18 April 1923, and it was completed in 1932. The book from which Michael coped these verses shows a balance sheet for the school accounts dated Dec. 18, 1925. This helps to fix the era of the song's composition.
Plod until you nod,
Stephen Gard
Biker Boz
Just a quick note that I've sold the printing business and have started a Motorcycle Trike Tour Co.
Please change my email...
Speak to you soon,
Ian Bosler
Looking For Mr Whitehurst
Margaret England
____________________
Dear Stephen,
Thank you so much for your prompt reply. By all means put my letter on the web-site. I'll try through the white pages in the meantime. The site is most entertaining and I have some very pleasant memories of STHS, especially the interraction between STHS and St George GHS when "The Beggars' Opera was jointly performed sometime in the late fifties(?) Ah, those were the days!
best wishes
Margaret E.
 |
| From the STHS Journal 1961 issue, Vol. XLIV p. 54 |
Just saw a note from Margaret re Allen Whitehurst. Sadly, I read a couple of months ago that Allen died. His career after STHS moved on to Sydney High School, where he became English Master. I too am an Allen Whitehurst fan. He was my first English and Music teacher at STHS back in 1954/55/56 and had a profound effect on my academic development. In fact, it was Allen’s motivation that led me to be the only one in my year to do English Honours at the then Leaving Certificate in 1958.
Cheers and best wishes to all youse old Sydney Technicians!
Horst Bodisco (aka Harry).
__________________________
Many thanks. This is sad news. I don't think Allen could possibly have known the extent of his influence. He was a teacher gifted to the point of greatness, with a mischievous humour that was truly captivating.
Best wishes,
Margaret England (nee Powell).
Boomalacka Bulletin #1 - 24 August 2006
Lads,
A little light, lunch-hour reading for you. The STHS 1969 site attracts some interesting mail now and then. Let me share it around, and add one or two remarks.
______________________________________________________
S T A Y I N T O U C H
Firstly, thanks to everyone who keeps their contact details up to date. The database is always amended at once, but it's still shy of completeness. Have a look at:
http://stephengard.com.au/STHS/housekeeping/adbook.html
... and let me know if there's anyone you have better and further particulars about.
______________________________________________________
L E A R N I N G I T O F F P E R R E T T - F A S H I O N
This entertaining enquiry, possibly triggered by a Google search that hit on our STHS 1969 site, arrived here back in June:
Good Afternoon,
My name is Chris Lane and I work for Copyright Agency Limited (CAL).
CAL is a not-for-profit, member based Australian Rights Management company that has been appointed by the Commonwealth Attorney's General Office to collect and distribute copyright funds.
We represent authors, journalists, visual artists, photographers and publishers as their non exclusive agent to licence the copying of their works to the general community.
I need to get in contact with either Mr Ken Perritt or Mr E Whiting. I believe that they attended Sydney Technical High School back in the 60's.
I would be most grateful if you could provide me with any contact details possible as I need to discuss the possibility of copyright funds payable to these gentleman for works that they authored.
I thank you for your efforts.
Kind Regards,
Chris Lane
Copyright Agency Limited
Tel: +61 2 9394 7658
Fax: +61 2 9394 7601
Level 14, 233 Castlereagh St
Sydney NSW 2000
I have included the sender's address, in case you too, thought this letter was a hoax. After I'd decided it was genuine, and that this honest researcher had simply found the phrase 'Perrett and Whiting' at STHS '69 and drew some false conclusions, I replied:
Dear Cal,
If either Perrett or his buddy Whiting attended STHS in the 1960s, we students of the time would have heard about it, and beaten them up behind the incinerator after classes. We had their textbooks inflicted upon us when we were in primary school, so I suspect this evil pair were consenting adult text-book writers for some decades before the Sixties began, and probably were students themselves as long ago as the Forties or even the Thirties. Possibly even the Twenties - infamy knows no dawn.
My listing them on my Sydney Tech school reunion website was in the nature of a joke, as I first suspected your letter might be. You could easily track the boys via PLR or ELR if they were still grinding out their awful tomes, or at any rate copping royalties for them. Tried Dominie? Or are they defunct? Teachers may still photocopy pages from these books, but I'd be astonished if the Diabolical Duo remain above ground.
Stephen Gard
PS By the way, if there's anything unclaimed and owing to these boys, maybe I could take it off your hands? I'm already in your system as an author, so it's just a matter of creative book-keeping, isn't it?
To this, Mr Lane did not vouchsafe a reply. The matter appears to be closed, like the career of Mr Perrett, and Mr Whiting. The answers were not in the back, after all.
______________________________________________________
I M M E N S E I M A N T S
You will have followed with avidity the tracking down of Richard Hopkinson, by David Stewart, Class of 1968, but David's interesting follow-up mail needs to be shared:
Thanks a lot Stephen, look forward to seeing you at the reunion! Richard has been found alive and well in Wellington NZ by Graham Leonard! Imants will be amazed.
Deborah, could you please forward this email and the following response to Jenny for Imants when he has time. This is fantastic news.
Richard was also close to Imants over a number of years at STHS and wrote poetry and was interested in history, literature, drama, metaphysics etc. Another lost brother emerges from amongst the dark slippery rocks at the base of Mt Analogue!
My wife and I both greatly enjoyed meeting you at the exhibition last Saturday and listening to your presentation about the artworks that you have curated during the “Meet the artist” session. It is indeed a great credit to you and the gallery. So much effort and time – amazing! Your unique personal approach to the “Imants Tillers -one world many visions” exhibition has certainly revealed a lot of things that have been hidden.
But I personally don’t think Imants suddenly became an artist at any particular or defined point in time and space, but rather that it was in him gradually forming from a very early age like an embryo- probably recognizable during pre-school or earlier as a toddler.
His 1985 Mt Analogue will always be an icon for me and we have completed the jigsaw puzzle to hang in our house. The sheer enjoyment of the family doing the puzzle together as a team but using different techniques was magic! The metaphysical meaning and background of this work is obviously a core theme linking all of Imants’ other more complex work and the significance of connections across time and space are important to me at least in appreciating his later works. I hope others get as much pleasure from seeing the real thing as we did. You can’t just get this from a print.
We also had an enjoyable breakfast with the Tillers family in the gallery café the next morning. We later stood on Black Mountain afterwards on the way home and looked across the terrible Woden Valley and saw that Mt Analogue spoke to us from the distant snow covered hills beyond Lake Cotter. We also think the peace plaque at the main entrance to the tower might warrant mention.
Somehow the Anglo-Saxon god of war, who was also god of the Muse, the head god and the undertaker to the spirit world was at peace with the landscape. Like a scene from the mythic Tolkien novels or a chapter from Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”- so inextricably linked it was quite special but a bond shared by fellow hobbits. Is this not our fate as mere humans to be playthings of a higher purpose seeking a goal we can never attain, or that never ends?
Best wishes
David Stewart
Engineering Manager
David sent a .pdf attachment (available from the National Library of Australia) with the mail below, outlining Imants Tillers' career.
Stephen,
I forgot to mention that you preferably need to understand Reme Daumal’s novel about an imaginary mountain called Mt Analogue, about passing down secret knowledge etc and that Imants’ massive 7 by 3 metre painting? is made up with small detailed canvassboards as a part of his “Book of Power” and this is actually a copy of another painting in the national gallery!
The attachment also gives a clue to understanding by another unrelated artist, but you can look it up (the story behind the painting that is ) yourself on the net under an internet search of Mt Analogue. Imants on one level is playing mind games, yet serious at the same time and making an important statement that turns the art world on its head. I will reveal more later, but never everything!
I also refer you to the NGA website www.nga.gov.au/TILLERS put together by Deborah Hart in the meantime. Warning: this is addictive stuff!
Sorry about all this confusion but as I said this is normal and not unexpected, In fact, many people have said to the gallery they want to go back again and again to appreciate Imants’ art so they are asking for complimentary tickets!!
If you are in Canberra, its well worth a visit.
Best Regards
David
______________________________________________________
F A R F R O M T H E M A D D I N G A L L A W A H
Last Monday, I was sprung - and by a chick!
Howdy
Found your site when doing a google search for my brother... long story.
During the trivia quiz, you mentioned the escape route down the grassy slope into Ethel St.
I lived in Ethel St, right behind the school, from the time of my birth in 1964 until I was married in 1987. At no time was it classed as Allawah. To this day, it is Carlton. Mind you, it's close. Boundary lines run down the centre of Xenia Ave, making one side Carlton, and the other Hurstville, whilst up on Forest Road, the reservoir was the point where Bexley became Hurstville. Which meant Sydney Tech was bounded on one side by Carlton and the other by Bexley, and a literal stones throw from Hurstville.
I remember that in hot weather, we would jump the fence to swim at night, and escape from the dreaded caretaker down a hole in the corner of the fence. Sheer terror of being caught would lend wings to our heels!
My dad and four brothers all attended STH - starting in '52, '71, '72, '74 and '81( I think)
Tracey Foxcroft
Khancoban NSW
Sorry about all this confusion but as I said this is normal and not unexpected, In fact, many people have said to the gallery they want to go back again and again to appreciate Imants’ art so they are asking for complimentary tickets!!
If you are in Canberra, its well worth a visit.
Best Regards
David
______________________________________________________
F A R F R O M T H E M A D D I N G A L L A W A H
Last Monday, I was sprung - and by a chick!
Howdy
Found your site when doing a google search for my brother... long story.
During the trivia quiz, you mentioned the escape route down the grassy slope into Ethel St.
I lived in Ethel St, right behind the school, from the time of my birth in 1964 until I was married in 1987. At no time was it classed as Allawah. To this day, it is Carlton. Mind you, it's close. Boundary lines run down the centre of Xenia Ave, making one side Carlton, and the other Hurstville, whilst up on Forest Road, the reservoir was the point where Bexley became Hurstville. Which meant Sydney Tech was bounded on one side by Carlton and the other by Bexley, and a literal stones throw from Hurstville.
I remember that in hot weather, we would jump the fence to swim at night, and escape from the dreaded caretaker down a hole in the corner of the fence. Sheer terror of being caught would lend wings to our heels!
My dad and four brothers all attended STH - starting in '52, '71, '72, '74 and '81( I think)
Tracey Foxcroft
Khancoban NSW
I apologised for my sloppy map-reading, and Tracey replied:
Stephen
Feel free to share the letter. I don't mind at all. Actually, reading back, I sound like I'm telling you off! Not my intention, really.
I attended St George Girls, STH's sister school, so I had the pleasure of attending a few events at STH, the school dances being most memorable for watching boys vomiting in the driveway near the auditorium.
I have fond memories of the school, and the antics that went on there. Most of them were perpetrated by my brothers and I in out of school hours! I can remember one vividly - In the years when fireworks were still allowed, we had a massive roman candle shootout war in the grounds. We bought boxes of 10, 20 and 30 shooters and just let rip at each other. It's a wonder we didn't take an eye out!
There was a one armed WWI veteran that used to live across from us. His house backed onto the school behind the cricket nets, and he had a magnificent Mulberry tree just over his back fence. I wonder if you remember it? It stood there for a long time after the demolition of the house, and in season, we would stuff ourselves silly on the berries. His house was one of the ones bought by the Department [of Education. ed.] to create more land for the school. It was a shame to see all those houses disappear as the families moved away.
Tracey
I fixed the site accordingly. And as if this 'F' in urban geography wasn't enough, two days later, I failed spelling AND history:
______________________________________________________
I N G E N I O U S L Y O F F F O R M
Stephen,
I was bored at work and came across your STHS web-site.
There is something wrong with the following trivia question:
19. The 1964 Sixth Form muck-up day included an ingeneous prank: across the entire face of the auditorium,
celebrants had fixed a message in giant letters made entirely of cigarette packets.
What was the message?
You may realize that in 1964, there were only 5 years of students at high school
(3 Forms heading towards HSC and 2 Years heading for Leaving Certificate)
So if the final year/form/class 'mucked-up' in 1964, it would have been Fifth Year, not Sixth Form.
The second stanza of the school song reminds us of the "Leaving Certificate" that was the final external exam in Fifth Year.
Forms Years
1962 1st 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th
1963 1st, 2nd 3rd, 4th, 5th
1964 1st, 2nd, 3rd 4th, 5th
1965 Ist, 2nd, 3rd, 4th 5th
1966 Ist, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th 5th repeat ?
1967 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th
Once again I cringed, and Bruce, being one of Us, replied with those Manners That Makyth A Man:
Stephen,
Thanks for your prompt response.
I was a friend of Lawrie Yeomans (older brother of Martyn).
We were at Sydney Tech High from 1961 to 1965 - that's why I remember the Leaving Certificate.
I attended a 1965 class (40 year) reunion at Kogarah Golf Club last September.
I have, again, fixed the site. Ingeniously.
______________________________________________________
B A R E F O O T B O Y S
 |
| Can you identify these waifs? Neatest correct entry wins a pair of thongs. |
______________________________________________________
T H E G O O D S H E P H E R D
John Shepherd recently sent me a change of address notice, and added:
... any old boys feel like a drink (free) then they should drop into my bar/restaurant in Bilpin on the Bells Line of Road. I am there most weekends……behind the bar (not cooking)!!
 |
| John Shepherd's Apple Bar. |
Wonder if John is prepared for Ian Bosler's entire bikie gang to roar up and breast the bar some Sunday morning, demanding free lemonades? Ian and his crew have already invaded us here at Thirlmere a few times and blatantly consumed latte and pastries in our main street.
Which reminds me....
Was that not Phillip Meade I spied in the main street here at Thirlmere, during last weekend's Steam Museum and Crafts Fair Hoopla and Huzzah? Seated outside the Whistlestop Café, large as life, and twice as natural, and appearing to enjoy himself amidst a crowd of women? If I hadn't been so busy rushing down to Cellarbrations to stock up on Scotch for my mother-in-law's seventieth birthday party (an inescapable fixture), I'd have stopped and said 'Boomalacka' to him. What with Bosler blasting through it, Martin Yeomans flying over it, and now Meade seated steaming himself here, I'm beginning to feel a stranger in my own town.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
This occasional bulletin will appear again when I (we) have something to share. In the meantime, I'm still studying the problem of where to place the apostrophe of possession when using the words 'Imants' and 'Tillers'. Neatest correct entry wins a pair of apostrophes.
Boomlacka,
Stephen Gard, 1E.
Ross Dixon - 9 Jul 2005
Dear Stephen,
Here I am at the office on a quiet Saturday morning to catch up on some work
and I stumble upon the STHS 1969 page. It's been quite a distraction. I was
one of the quieter ones in the year. In looking at the photos I'm not sure
it is the same year. Everyone is a lot older. Since those days I went to
UNSW where I started in a Commerce Degree, then switched to law when the new
law course started up at Uni. Although he probably doesn't realise it Rob
Hodge was partly responsible for my switch!. On graduation I practised in
Inverell for 4 yrs then came to Nowra where I have been since Oct. '80, in a
practice with 3 partners. My greatest accomplishment: 3 great daughters, 2
married and one still at home, and 30yrs of marriage, just celebrated.
My details:
Ross Dixon
Here I am at the office on a quiet Saturday morning to catch up on some work
and I stumble upon the STHS 1969 page. It's been quite a distraction. I was
one of the quieter ones in the year. In looking at the photos I'm not sure
it is the same year. Everyone is a lot older. Since those days I went to
UNSW where I started in a Commerce Degree, then switched to law when the new
law course started up at Uni. Although he probably doesn't realise it Rob
Hodge was partly responsible for my switch!. On graduation I practised in
Inverell for 4 yrs then came to Nowra where I have been since Oct. '80, in a
practice with 3 partners. My greatest accomplishment: 3 great daughters, 2
married and one still at home, and 30yrs of marriage, just celebrated.
My details:
Ross Dixon
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