school holidays
When I was at school we had two weeks holidays in May, two weeks in August and seven weeks summer holidays starting just before Christmas. The long summer holidays seemed endless. Once the excitement of Christmas and Boxing Day has passed, life settled into a routine for a while. My Mother took us into town from the farm, more than a forty-five minute drive, for swimming lessons. I started swimming lessons early because I was the youngest, just sitting there and as Mum said, “You might as well swim rather than sit on the beach watching.” She’d chat with the other mothers surrounded the wet towels, thongs (flip flops) and discarded shorts and shirts. This meant I’d completed all the levels of swimming before I was nine and couldn’t do the Life Saving Medals for three years.
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My two older brothers and I played cricket. We could have done with a few more players because the dog and I were usually fielding. The cricket, broadcast on the radio, would be on where ever Dad was working. I was 12 before we got electricity; prior t that we had a 32v generator and when it ran out of fuel it spluttered and stopped. Suddenly we were plunged into darkness and total silence, but usually the three children were in bed by then.
Prized Christmas gifts were books. With no access to the school library for seven weeks, the books received as gifts were very welcome. When I’d read my books, I’d read my brother’s books. I loved Biggles and Tom Sawyer. When they were tired of their Lego, I played with that, too. We had a platform up an olive tree set up as a cubby house and I’d disappear up there, but I had other hiding places for uninterrupted reading, too. We’d swing for hours from a branch in the almond tree and bounce on a large tractor inner tube.
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I had a Barbie doll from America, brought back in 1965 by my Father, and I made clothes for her, plus furniture and decorated cardboard box rooms for her, too. Always interested in decor and houses, I’d pore over the women’s magazines my aunt passed on to my Mother. I was always making something.
Kids were expected to help when I was younger. We’d climb the apricot tree, picking warm apricots to eat raw, preserved or made into jam. We’d be sent to pick mulberries, almonds, grapes and my favourite, nectarines. We grew rock melons and water melons and masses of vegetables. Do children still spit water melon seeds at one another? Our pocket money was earned by sweeping the verandas, under the grapes and the path, opening gates when we were going up to the front gate plus chopping wood. (My Father gave my son a tomahawk for his six birthday and taught him about chopping wood.)
Late in the afternoon when Dad had finished work outdoors we’d go to the beach. Like every other farmer on the beach, Dad’s dark tan would finish at his ankles where his boots covered his feet. He also had a tanned V neck line and tanned arms. As kids we were permanently sunburnt and competed to see who could peel off the biggest piece of burnt skin. Paying for that now!
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School holidays also meant going to Perth to stay with our Aunt, Uncle and cousin. Bliss. Television was like magic for farm kids! There was another girl to play with, things like icecream were served regularly because the shops were nearby. (By the time icecream got from town to the farm it was melting and messy.) My Aunt was always busy so we’d go out frequently, to shopping centres, her friend’s places and to see films. For some years they were involved in a marina and I often went to stay on Rottnest Island with my Aunt and cousin. Bliss. But more sunburn.
Going back to school meant catching up with friends on the school bus. My husband grew up in the city and I asked him to reminisce about his long school holidays in the 1950’s. He said that due to limited finances and transport not much happened. He learned to swim at the Hotpool in Dalkeith and when he was old enough to ride a pushbike by himself he would go down to the river with his dog to swim or fish. The very hot unairconditioned summers meant long days of lying in the shade on the lawn reading books or playing board games with friends. Building and flying kites was another pastime.
Thinking about primary school aged children I know now our school holidays probably seem very different. No play dates, no devices, no television on demand. I would have loved a trampoline! We were outdoors more as children. Please share your memories of school holidays.
