Almost 56 years to the day they started at Pakuranga College, the class known as 3L1 returned for a tour of their old school. In 1969, many of us transferred from Howick Intermediate, and there were others who travelled from Maraetai and Beachlands.
Principal, Billy Merchant, met our group at the hall entrance and much to our amusement we discovered he was born around the time we were leaving school and heading out into the big wide world. The hall was unchanged except for handrails on the steps to the stage (we didn’t have OSH in 1969!). The Honours Board had a lot more names on it, but we found our classmate Graham on the Dux Board. We were pleased that Graham with his broad American accent was visiting with us.
We were amused to find the gym we fundraised for (but never used) was now called the “Old Gym”. Our fondest memories were around the Nelson Blocks where we had our first form room and our maths classes. We visited the science lab where the dent Ian put in the ceiling tiles with an overenthusiastic experiment was still there. We recalled being excited and gathering around a transistor radio downstairs in the end Nelson Block classroom to listen to the moon landing broadcast.
We found out how many of the boys were hung by their belts from the coat hooks in the corridor in their first week at school, and reminisced over the time Miss Sweeney’s Fiat 500 found its way to the top floor. There was mention of the atrocious rompers the girls had to wear.
The tuck shop remained unchanged, and we thought the workbenches in the workshop probably had dents and scratches under their plywood tops, made by our fellow pupils many years ago.
In our Messenger group before our visit, we had a few confessions. We now know who put the rat in Janet’s pencil case in a science class and who set off the firecrackers behind the stage during assembly.
Pakuranga College stood us all in good stead for our lives ahead, and we found, at our lunch after the visit, that we all had great memories and recollections of our times in and out of school. We might all be grey-haired and have pictures of grandchildren on our phones, but it really doesn’t seem as if it was decades ago.
Our thanks to Billy who was a gracious host.
