Class reunion: Tongala Primary School students from 1956 are, from back left, Merryl Cussins, Keith Price, Rosemary Hudson, Jocelyn Reich, Rhonda Lethlean, Diane Purss, Paul Watson, Stewart Coombes, Chris Shelton and Merv Wild, while front is Roma Aldous, Helen Lang, Jan Newman, Joy Vine, Heather Umpherston, Thelma Campbell, Carol McGregor, Gwen Firmer and Janet Tinning.
There were some distinct parallels with the interaction and behaviours of about 20 former Tongala Consolidated School students and the primary school versions of the same people who attended the school in the 1950s.
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While the events of almost 70 years ago were a little clouded, it didn’t take too long for the stories to start rolling as the now septuagenarians enjoyed each other’s company for the afternoon.
It wasn’t too difficult for the former classmates to recognise the “naughty kid’’, the ”goody two shoes’’ and the “cool crew’’, despite a lot of them having not been in each other’s company since the last bell of that final primary school year.
While the excited men and women who gathered for the Year 5 and 6 reunion at Tongala’s favourite watering hole, the Old Tongala Pub, were much calmer than they were as primary schoolers, the event took a similar path.
They are all now in their late 70s, having been in Year 5 and 6 at the school in 1956.
And while their teacher, Joe Ryan, is long gone and did not have the ruler in his right hand, pacing between the 52 students that made up the class, there were plenty of memories of a very different form of education.
“There were 52 in our class and we managed to contact 23. Ten that we know of have passed and we had a few apologies,” co-organisers Rhonda Lethlean (Oswald) and Heather Umpherston (Argus) said almost in unison.
“I was with a friend at the Kyabram Club when I saw this lady (Heather) and asked if she was Heather Umpherston,” Rhonda said.
“She said ‘yes, Rhonda, I am’. We talked about this (the reunion for a while and brought in Merv Wild, Diane Bell (Purss) and Gwenda Firmer last June.
“Between us we worked it all out.”
School’s out: Merv Wild with the school bell at the weekend’s Tongala Consolidated School reunion with co-organisers of the event Diane Purss, Rhonda Lethlean, Gwenda Firmer and Heather Umpherston (and copies of the class photo).
The result was a strong response from students who still live in the area, along with people from Geelong, Warragul, Ferntree Gully and Bendigo.
Among the class was a retired school teacher and celebrated artist, Chris Shelton, along with everyone from a nursery manager to a bus driver, a legal secretary and too many other careers to mention.
One thing most of the class had in common was that they had come from dairy farming families, and several remained strongly connected to Tongala.
The school bell was prominently placed at the front of the room and several had made the effort to have a look at the modern equivalent of their former school, which in 1956 had an estimated 350-plus strong population.
Rhonda took charge of organising the group on the day, assisted by Merv’s bell-ringing prowess, and Paul Watson shared a story that would have hearts in mouths for most modern teachers.
As an 11-year-old he cut his leg on the swing, he still has the scar to prove it, and received 10 stitches.
That wasn’t before, however, he had been dismissed by the teachers because they were involved in a meeting and walked home to seek first aid of his own accord.
Roma Bethune, who was one of nine Aldous siblings, produced her report card showing she was the second-ranked pupil in the grade of 50-plus.
“My sister used to call me ‘miss goody two shoes’,” she said.
The event finished with the students voting a series of the awards, testing the memories of the former students and rewarding outstanding stories from a long-gone era.
Straight A student: Roma Bethune with the report card from Year 5 at Tongala Consolidated School when she was ranked second from a class of more than 50 students with her grades.
