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On Falcon... |
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1. |
On
Wednesday, 3rd February, 1954
With boater floating on my head and butterflies galore
In navy blazer- sweater flannels – anything but cool –
I joined the other early founding members of the school. |
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2. |
Our
houses ? Bushtick golden miners’ – floors a polished red –
I moved the name “Le Patourel” and put mine instead.
When he turned up objecting, though, we had the school’s first
fight –
We then shook hands politely and I settled for the night. |
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3. |
Those early days were privileged – ‘cos everything was new –
A daily life adventure for we few, we happy few.
A small and tight-knit group of boys – we were a band of brothers
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And after lunch a silent rest with letters from our mothers. |
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4. |
Our
sports facilities were few – the tennis court our field
We’d slip upon the gritty earth until the blood congealed.
In February writhing snakes and one boy feeling poorly –
A cobra spat its venom in the eye of Roger Lawley. |
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5. |
Each
after breakfast we would walk to class a quarter mile
And Johnny Foster’s plural “Christ” fpr “crisis” brought a smile.
Our senses of smell was gladdened by the fragrant frangipani
And twice that term I had the joy of visiting my Granny. |
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6. |
And
clouds were headache white against the blue and brilliant sky
And bright flamboyant flowers flaming scarlet to the eye.
Then blessed green and lilac jacaranda made it cool
And bliss oh bliss, the time for diving naked in the pool. |
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7. |
Though gonged awake, a sometime bugle called us from our sleep
(That pre-dawn early rising is a something you can keep)
Two hours of prep and sleepy minds would very slowly waken
Then breakfast roll-call: “Pegram” adsum very greasy bacon. |
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8. |
A
recurring inactivity, I went to sleep in class –
Which earned (again) an hour’s fatigue in which I planted grass.
We planted grass and picked up stones – upon our knees we kneeled
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And then before our eyes the green of field on field on field…. |
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9. |
With
“Tank” and “Taffy”, Ash and George our teachers at the start
(A strangely odd-ball Scottish gent, our George would soon
depart).
A Cosbie-Ross who stayed two terms had but a short time battin –
And “Digger” Wells who stayed five years for cricket and for
Latin. |
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10. |
In
charcoal trousers (creases ironed) and shoes and suede of brown
His sarchastic capability forever put us down.
Sartorially jacketed, he’d always cut a figure –
He never seemed to like me, so I never quite dug “Digger”. |
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11. |
His
whiskey-drinking Labrador, a stroppy brute called “Bokkie”
Once tried to bite me through my pads when I was playing hockey.
Expressing views on school food (up to which ‘twas hard to put)
“Bok” cocked his doggy leg upon the then housekeeper’s foot. |
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12. |
I
was banished to the corner by that seldom ever scolding
And kindly dedicated Christian, David “Taffy” Houlding.
The term he left he called out names and with a final look
Divided up his library: for me “The Bedside Book”. |
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13. |
Eccentric Ashley Brooker, with shining, egg-head dome
(An “utterly” and “splendid” man who didn’t need a comb)
Once, teaching from the window sill, a quick defenestration –
Returned, mid-sentence, through the door – continued his oration. |
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14. |
An
open truck our transport – it would take us, every one –
And we’d off to the Matopos for a picnic in the sun.
We climbed the rocks and sausages were sizzling on a burner…
And then one day in ’55 arrived young Dougal Turner. |
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15. |
The
school, like Topsy, grow’d” from small to joined-up bigger houses
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I made a cage for Mac and B my two white pinked-eyed mouses.
At last we had a banner – Falcon flag with pride unfurled !
And Elvis Presley burst upon an unsuspecting world. |
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16. |
And
then the school plays: I played Portia, Blunschli, Kate and Puck
The latter saw me Leichner green with sequins (just for luck)
I shivered in a lion cloth, Pucking freezing in the “guti” –
The later formed a film night trio singing “Tutti Frutti”. |
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17. |
And
time went by … I played guitar – my bed on the verandah,
I slept beneath a million stars and wondered where I’d wander.
In education’s widest sense it gave me more than knowledge …
And now look back on magic days of founding Falcon College. |
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©
Nigel Pegram, 1954 & 2004 |
