December 1955 School Magazine

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

December, 1955

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

December. 1955·

because he has no one else to turn to and knew that you would be only too glad to o·blige him. Such a person usually has a fatal charm of manner, so that he gradually wins you over to part reluctantly with your hard-won gains. However, in a later and much less mellow mood, you can even find occasion in your generous heart to· wish that you did not possess such a relative. Still, I always have a sneaking admiration for people who are a ble to pierce someone 's hard crust of possessiveness and make l1im contribute towards the maintenance of their pleasures. These are but a few of one's choice relatives, and I am sure that you can think of many more who are your pet aver- sions, and are also in your jaundiced eyes, a necessary evil but one which you could well do without. Certainly there are p eople happy in their choice of relatives . To these, who, I am sure, are far and few between, I give my best wishes and ex- tend to them a hearty admiration for such go·od luck and woncl erfully good taste on their part. -TAN JOO LEE (VB) SHIP Nearer it comes, Its throbbing engines in the distance Ever growing nearer: Round the bend And into view The muddy slothful water churned to foam: In its wake The sea-birds, Their voices blending strangely with the ship: I see the people on her, Hear their voices shrill across the river: The waves Splashing dully on the old stone wall, Now softy, Softly, Fading into nothing . .. The ship has passed. -JUDITH WADDINGTON (VIA) EVENSONG

Of course, it is not one's fault that they can be acquired witll such astonishing rapidity. Practically every baby is born with that handicap which looms up as large and unavoidable as its own fate, right from the beginning as they stand round its cradl e in a pretence of enthusiastic admiration. . There is that dear, s·weet Aunt Milly who knits a perfect httle set o_f blue baby clothes when one 's mother has already done one m blue and been given another in pink. She says. with the sweetest little smile and a genteel flutter of the eye- lashes that it won't matter if they're not right this time; after all, the next time, it might be a boy. All through life then, she knits multi-coloured jumpers that are usually too large altogether, whence one gives them to some destitute children's. fund, thereby experiencing a glow o.f charity and unselfishness: mingled with a f eeling of relief at having got rid of that striped horror. Aunt Milly receives a l etter from her very dear neice or nephew, telling her that that beautifully colour- ful jumper was all that was needed tc make that Christmas. warm and really happy. She murmurs through her t ender tears that really, she has such grateful relatives and must remember to knit another just like it for dear John (or dear Mary) again. Then there is the stern disciplinarian grandfather who· fought during the Boer vVar as a young man and cannot for- get that he was born and bred in the era of stern fathers who ruled their children and homes with rods of iron. As soon as. he enters the house, an oppressive atmosphere of strait-lacecl army discipline settles over it. His eagle eyes shine with a disapproving gleam and the inevitable little speech issues from his tightly drawn mouth. "Really, the way these modern children behave. You'd think they owned the world. Now, in my young days, the father was really master of the home and the children were always well-behaved and obedient. I de- finitely think you should assert your authority more, son.' ' That always leaves one with the thought that that time must have been intolerably dull with all those angelic children, and really, grandfather, you shouldn't admit to having be- longed to such an antique era. It puts you in the class of ali out-of-date old fossils belonging to a faraway and dusty past. In every family, there must be a black sheep somewhere and if you happen to have a particularl y dark one of a mid~ night hue for a relative, that is just your bad taste and lack of forethought in electing to belong to such a family. All through your life , he will turn up like the proverbial bad penny asking for that loan, always the last one and always 36

The sleepy yawls at vespers softly lay, The water lapped along the quiet quay, The sun retreated o'er her rippled way, And peaceful lay St. Ives upon the sea. The dying light its last, long, lingering touch It left upon the sails, caressing them. The fading glories in the west were such That oniy God could paint the way of them. By day, upon the tumbling, joyful sea The fishermen caug.ht their silvery shining ware; And to and fro their boats went merrily. Upon the gleaming wastes they had no care; 37