Don't know much (Sam Cooke)

The footsteps of dawn (You may say I'm a dreamer - Chapter 3, part 1)

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took
But I do know that I love you
And I do know that if you love me too
What a wonderful, wonderful world it would be
(Sam Cooke)

The gates to Royal Oak Primary are still there.

Royal Oak Primary, Manukau Intermediate, Mount Albert Grammar School. They all tried hard with Warren Purdy.

Front row, stripped shirt, 1963.

Inextricably, the Royal Oak area of Auckland and Royal Oak Primary are intertwined with my happy childhood memories. They were safe and warm places to grow up and they never let me down. 

When I was growing up, Royal Oak was pretty much my entire self contained universe. When I visited the Penny Lane roundabout in Liverpool I understood what Paul McCartney was on about in his famous song. 

Penny Lane contains Paul's memories of the banker, the barber, the firemen and so on. I get it (Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes. There beneath the blue suburban skies). 

Royal Oak was my Penny Lane.

The shops at the Royal Oak roundabout included Walls and Roche (chemists), a butchers, a menswear, three stationers where I'd buy my comics, and a dairy (ice creams, lollies, cokes). I took tennis lessons at the Royal Oak grass courts and joined the Fernleigh Road tennis  club (off Pah Road). I'd return glass coke bottles to the Pah Road dairy. Close by was the cubs/scouts hall that Ross and I went to. Seymour Park was where I played football for Eden FC. Ross and I went to St John's Church for Sunday school. Our doctor and dentist (Nelson and Bridgeman) were in the area, too. 

Everything was in walking distance. When I got my bike in 1967 it was even closer!

In terms of schooling, everything was accessible from Oak Street or Korma Road: Mrs Rogers kindy; Royal Oak Primary and Manukau Intermediate.

Middle row, proudly wearing my patrol badge
(love of my young life Adrienne is middle row, second left)

After School Patrol duty, I'd walk home along Pah Road towards my happy home at 18 Korma Ave. The tins were full of good stuff. I could swim in summer or kick a football around our empty pool in winter. I could ride my bike and play games with Ross. We could go on holiday and I never wanted for anything. It was a sweet ride!

I loved primary school.

But then, after my last term in Standard Four (1968), a transition had to happen. I had to leave Royal Oak Primary and head to a new school. I had to trade in the scouts uniform and put on the intermediate one. 

Dib dib dib - me and Ross with cool uniforms, but not for long

Manukau Intermediate (now rebranded as Royal Oak Intermediate) was just down the road, in Trafalgar Street. I'd been there for choir performances (that will be a shock to my students and colleagues). At that time, I remember being slightly overwhelmed by its size.

Luckily, a lot of my friends also made the move. John Dawson and his brother walked me to school that first morning in January 1969. Interestingly, I am no longer in any kind of contact with anyone from primary or intermediate school. Funny how that happens.

I enjoyed a lot of things about Manukau, but Mrs Kay was not one of them. A chain-smoking, nicotine stained, obese woman was to be my teacher for both my form one and form two years. Yikes.

For the only time in my entire school career I felt the injustice of corporal punishment when she gave me the strap, on the hand, for talking during one of her abysmal French lessons. The shame and the injustice has stayed with me. 

It was such a shock.

One minute I'm sitting at my desk, next the two of us are called up in front of the class. I have to hold my hand out while she uses a large leather strap to whack my hand. It stings like hell and when I return to my seat I'm crying with embarrassment and pain.

It continues to sting!

On the plus side, I spent two years learning new things. Woodwork and metalwork were the only two practical subjects I ever took and I enjoyed them, even though I was an absolute clutz in them most of the time. 

Mr Lindsay with his team (I'm
second from left in the front row)

Intermediate was a valuable time in transitioning from childhood to teenager.
In 1970 I caught a glimpse of my future. An inspirational teacher took us for maths, Mr Lindsay. He was young, competent, and my soccer coach. Suddenly, these new thoughts about being a teacher seemed to make sense.

As a Manukau Intermediate pupil I was zoned for the local Onehunga High School, also within walking distance from Korma Ave. At the time though, the local word wasn't favourable about OHS.

Instead, mum and dad sought the more difficult option - to bus me over to Mount Albert Grammar, where dad had been a student. 

As I was out of zone, I had to attend an interview with the Headmaster, Maurice Hall.  It must have gone well, or else he was impressed by my stated desire to become a maths teacher, or else dad being an old boy swung the deal. 

Whatever - I was in! I was going to be a MAGS boy!

Love and peace - Wozza

Always, no sometimes, think it's me (John Lennon)

Get Back (You may say I'm a dreamer - Chapter 1, part 9)

October the first, 1962, was huge! 

The Beatles signed a contract with Brian Epstein on that day in England and I started my education at Royal Oak Primary after a stint at Mrs Rogers Greenwoods Corner kindy. The year was also memorable in other ways - down in Dunedin, a few months earlier on April 14th Jacqueline Frances Smith was the first child born to Patricia and Brian Smith.

Like millions of people I can identify with John Lennon's lyric to Strawberry Fields Forever when he says, 'No one I think is in my tree'. From the start I knew I was different. I loved words and reading right from the start. Probably totally pretentious, but I'd love to try out new vocabulary on my parents, and peers at school. I was experimenting and I read A LOT!

Nose in a book - typical!

Grandma bought me Look and Learn magazines each week, I loved the reading boxes at school, I borrowed books from the library and I would have books bought for me to read. And there were always the adult books in the bookcase at home that I'd gaze at when bored. 

My imagination was stirred AND shaken. Look and Learn had some great comic strips, The Trigan Empire series and others. There were informative articles and my books were adventure oriented but not of the usual Enid Blyton kind.

The year 1962 was also tinged with sadness for my father and grandfather. William, my great grandfather, our solid link to Rochdale origins, passed away.

WNP, WNP and RGP

I can't say I ever really knew him, I was 5, but I definitely remember him. He was a kind of shadowy figure but he was a definite presence. The house called Roch-dene in Reimers Avenue, opposite Eden Park, belonged to him, not Deedoo as I always believed. My father and his parents lived with William rather than the other way around.

I feel a real connection to him, I share his initials, I proudly wear his gold wedding band and his roots in Rochdale feel deeply ingrained in me as well. Without William I wouldn't be here, so I owe him a great debt.

On the first day of school I arrived with my mum and immediately found a friend, or more accurately, he found me. I seem to have a knack for making strong relationships with people and Billy was the first. My first day of Primary and this little boy befriends me, a total stranger one second then we're mates! Just like that. Billy's open invitation to be a friend has stayed with me, long after the event.

Wherever you are, Billy, you did good to a funny little guy.

Royal Oak primary was a magic school and a wonderful start. I can still picture teachers and students and even individual lessons like they were part of my recent past: plays I performed in; getting cards from reading boxes; playing goalie and diving around like a maniac; being catcher for the softball team; playing four square; getting a kiss from Adrienne - my first love; drinking warm milk from cream sized glass bottles; being on school patrol at the Pah Road crossing; doing a speech about a family holiday to Australia; singing in Mrs Alexander's choir; protecting Ross from bullies; getting on the bus to the murder house (dentist traumas that linger still) and playing rugby at Te Papa Primary.

These things are all as vivid in my memory as if I'd read about them in a book. Yes - Royal Oak primary was magic, as was my childhood in the otherwise turbulent sixties.

Love and peace - Wozza

Our wings were flying in the sun (Dragon)

Get Back (You may say I'm a dreamer - Chapter 1, part 8)

On holiday at Tutukaka, Northland, NZ.

Purdzilla's early years were all at 18 Korma Ave., Royal Oak. My stable paradise; we lived there from 1959 until 1974.

18 Korma Ave., Royal Oak, Auckland, NZ

Backyard pool at 18 Korma Ave - good times

If I close my eyes I can picture every room. I see floor coverings (the garish sixties swirls), the mantle piece around the fireplace with rimu bookcases either side with ornaments and books, the venetian blinded windows, the solid oak furniture. I can smell the under-house garage, the compost heap. I can feel my bedroom, the camellia and rose gardens, the brick white pointed letterbox, the trellis and the swimming pool, the shade house with mum's orchids. Everything.

It was a magical home. I loved it. It was where I grew up. It was full of love and a big dose of sibling rivalry as well at times.

Our section backed onto a large woodland area that belonged to a kind of monastery. This was a great bonus - an overgrown playground for climbing trees, running, laughing through wild flowers, playing war games and adventuring.

Ross and I had a changing group of friends that we grew up with and we'd happily play in this area for hours. 

In many ways, we were typical brothers - although our games of league, football, boxing, monopoly and so on would often end in frustration for Ross (as in he'd throw a tanty), we'd always make up pretty quickly and be ready for another go. I'd always win because I was older and bigger and more sporty. He would often tip the monopoly board over if he was losing and table tennis games would often end with him throwing the bat at me.

Although we are vastly different in so many ways, and began to grow apart as teenagers, we were 'the boys', and we went everywhere together in those young years. My overwhelming feeling of those years together is one of family unity and happiness. Oh sure, there were days I got into trouble somehow and was punished and howled and hated my parents but I can only think of a few. Once I could outrun the bamboo stick I was sweet!

Mostly life in the sixties was simple: smiling, reading, going to football at Seymour Park, playing on my bike, reading, going to Royal Oak Primary, reading, playing games with Ross, reading, being a son, being a big brother, being loved, and loving back.

Two branches of one tree and it was solid oak

As far as I knew the whole world was like this. At the time, I didn't know how lucky I was. My parents didn't argue or hate each other. Just the opposite - they actually seemed to like each other and support each other. Not that I ever thought about this because it was just normal life. It was the way we were.


Love and peace - Wozza

You’ll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above (Bob Dylan)

Those pictures rock me to the core!

I had dental work done recently - went for a clean and the x ray spotted some large fillings coming loose. Of course it did. 

Ho hum. What are ya gonna do? Your own dentistry? I think not.

Jaw was still a tad sore a few days later. I know - get a concrete pill. The actual work on the fillings didn't hurt though, alhamdulillah. 

Anyway, while I was there getting the last of them done I spotted some old dental equipment being used as a prop. Sent chills down my spine.

Back when I was a student at Royal Oak Primary School (Yay Royal Oak Primary!), along with my classmates, I had to go on a bus to what we called, The Murder House. 

It was gruesome. Rows of women like the one in the picture learning to be dental nurses, effectively practising on young kids. It was brutal.

I hated it! With a passion!  

The psychological damage done to us innocent children cannot be calculated. The bus ride was hideous; the walk into the place horrible; the pain we underwent unconscionable.

Euuuiihhhhh (that was a shudder). Glad that doesn't happen these days. That's progress I guess.

Love and peace - Wozza