Daramalan Class of ’69

Well done site administrators

Thanks, Roger and thank you to everyone else who's also joined the site.

We had a lovely evening last night: Fred and his wife came over for a BBQ dinner. Fred left me a very old [1965] Dara yearbook to browse through. There are lots of great old photos of younger versions of the kids who would eventually leave school in 1969 as well as photos of the school and sketches of what the school would eventually grow into. I'll scan them soon and post them onto the site.

I went to bed last night thinking over how I could write a story about "grumpy old men". Although we're comfortably set in our rituals we're far from being grumpy and I'm not sure that the old part is an appropriate adjective, either, as my my father always used to tell me that he considered old to be anyone more than 15 years more senior than oneself. But, as I debated whether I should allow others the right to consider me something of a grumpy old man - a GOM - I struggled with how to write a story about GOMs, the plural of GOM. Surely the plural of grumpy old man is grumpy old men and therefore should not the plural of GOM be GOM? Fortunately sleep came upon me early and I've forgotten how I eventually resolved the argument.

Cheers

Using some old photos from the 1965 yearbook, kindly lent to me by Fred Wensing, I've constructed a Daramalan - then and now page.

Today I researched the famous "gang of four" letter and I've written an article about it. See The gang of four.

If you want to comment about my article, please start a new discussion thread.

I got an e-mail this morning from Michael Backhouse who was responsible for putting a lot of photographs of school life from 1969 at the alumni website. Looking back today, in those days it was a rarity for kids to own a camera or to have the means to support photography as a hobby let alone take a camera to school and take pictures of one another. It's very different today, of course, because kids have their mobile phone/cameras. Even so, a quick look around doesn't reveal too many photos taken by the students appearing on the 'net ... which makes Mike Backhouse's photos that much more important.

I went to the National Library again to do some more background reading about the "gang of four" letter episode.

Hi

Mike here. I thought I'd join up as I am interested to find out what my fellow class mates are up to.

Moved from Canberra to the Sunshine Coast with my family in 2007 and we are renting a house on the beach. I love looking out to sea with a glass of wine and contemplating the meaning of life. Still loving playing guitar and writing my own songs for fun, and putting them up on my myspace and youtube pages. Would like to do some travel with my wife after (if?) the kids leave home.

I'll put up those photos Mike talked about after I clean them up. They're the same ones as on the alumni site. I'll also eventually find my old photos to see if I've got any more (but I doubt there would be too many). They're still in boxes along with much of our other stuff after our move up here.

All the best.

G'day everyone. Welcome, Mike, and thanks for joining. :cheer:

I don't know what possessed me this morning - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? Wanting to Commune with One's Navel? The Wrath of Beelzebub? - but I was rummaging through old memorabilia that I've kept over the years and I came across a school report of mine, printed on fading thermal paper (ah ... the technology of The Sixties, eh?), the closing remarks that read:

"Pleasant enough. Expresses himself well in some subjects (esp. Anc. Hist.) but appears to lack sufficient depth in English. Concentration does not come easily. Some comment on his tendency to chatter."

All I can say, in my defence, is that my concentration has improved - medication has been a blessed relief - but I think it's reasonable, looking back, that I should blame "The Boss" for the torture I endured after leaving school: What the $#@* was "pleasant enough" supposed to mean? :huh:

Hi

I've posted some photos I took at Dara in April 1969 with (I think) a Kodak instamatic. I took them as a reminder of Dara when I unexpectedly had to leave to accompany Mum and Dad overseas on a posting. The photos were in poor condition, but I have tried to enhance them with 'Picasa' by removing scratches, blotches and improving contrast etc. (Not sure why Ray Roberts was in civvies that day).

Does anyone else have some photos from Dara that they could post? (I don't think I have any more).

Thanks, Mike [Backhouse], for posting some great photos in our photo gallery from when you were at school. One of the photos features Father Kev Bowden.

You might be interested to know that Father Kevin St. Laurence Bowden MSC passed away in 1993; he was aged 54. Here is a link to his obituary notice and here is a link to a photo of his memorial.