July 1966 School Magazine

July, 1966

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

July, 1966

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A SIXTH-FORMER The sun comes UP, The sun goes DOWN. We fight to get fringes UP,

At long last we arrived, after closing too many barbed-wire gates . There wasn't even a driveway to the homestead. It was a rutty road. The home was a large, twelve-roomed, weather- board one - nothing spectacular . All the dogs barked, and to · relieve the tension I felt, I moved towards one but was told I could not afford to befriend them too much as they had to take orders from the boss . Where was my four-poster bed? There was no sign of it. Instead was a neat pine one with a pillow of wheat husks and a curly wire mattress. The kitchen was large with a table and a combustion stove , which to me looked secretive. All at once I felt that I should not have come. For dinner we had hot corned beef and sizzling onions in sauce, cabbage and potatoes. Next morning I awoke longing to ride and longing to see everything. First I saw the pigs . They didn't look like pigs to me ; they were covered from snout to tail in slushy mud and the smell and flies were dreadful. The horse allotted to me was a slow, grey mare - too old to break into a canter. No matter what I hit it with or en- couraged it with, it refused to hurry. Every member of the family was as slow as that horse. All were so very nice but all so slow. It would take Thurber to describe them. All the cream went to the cheese factory and not once did I have a drop on my rolled oats. There was one thing I shall never forget - the small church about three miles away. I spent much time there polishing the ten pews and dusting and sweeping. From this I gained comfort. The highlight of my stay was the Sunday I played the organ for the opening hymn. I felt like a concert pianist on her premiere performance. I was so homesick and disappointed . To think I had imagined that these kind folks were going to treat a natural horsewoman to a holiday. There is a vast chasm between the anticipation of an event and the realisation of it. - NANCY ERNST, VIB, Griffith House .

We fight to get hemlines DOWN. We try to get papers picked up, UP, And yet keep hats pulled DOWN. In buses we must stand UP, While girls our age sit DOWN. So we keep our noses UP, Then with a frown look DOWN.

.1..

And still the sun comes UP And the sun goes DOWN.

- "DAWN", YID, Gibson Hou~e .

"THE FACELESS ONES"

- G. JOHNS, VIE, England House.

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