The Fishing Trip
Asquith Boys high School, 1971: Ms Gaynors 2B Science Class, Friday afternoon.
The class itself was the usual collection of geeks, jocks and those who weren't geeks or jocks, and they were variously paying attention to what was happening outside the window, the clock above Ms Gaynor's Desk, What Ms Gaynor was saying, or Ms Gaynor herself. Of course to a 13 year old boy, Ms Gaynor was hot! a busty blonds with a penchant for wearing mini skirts and low cut tops to show off her cleavage. This was before the hormonal rush that coincided with the arrival of a new Student Teacher Ms Grant in 4th form, or the enticing Ms Eaton with her English accented long sun tanned legs, or Ms Hughes who, for a Maths Teacher, was very hot.
The last day of school before the June long weekend and time was dragging. The clock above Ms Gaynor's desk seemed to be stuck on 3.15pm. Science! not my favorite subject under the best of circumstances, but the last period before a long weekend, Ms Gaynor was fighting a losing battle to keep my attention. My mind was on more pleasant things; I was going all night fishing with my brother this weekend.
Finally, the bell went and I was out of there. I needed to move fast to catch the early train. It was about 650 yards to the station and the early train was due at 3.24pm, I had 4 minutes to make the train! On a good day you could pick the gap in the afternoon traffic at the 3 way intersection before jumping the fence at the southern end of the Railway Station to catch the train - The Train approached from the south so you usually had a good idea if you were going to make it or not depending on traffic at the intersection. I was sprinting down Jersey St towards the station, my backpack bouncing uncomfortable on my back as I ran. I spotted the train as I reached the intersection, it was 200 yards from the station, I was 50 yards away but with the intersection and a fence to get over...it was going to be touch and go. The intersection held me up briefly and I was cursing my luck as I made my run to the fence - the train had stopped and passengers were exiting. The fence was a six foot wire fence with a solid steel pipe at the top, I could usually get over it quickly by jumping at the bar and swinging my body sideways over. My backpack however jerked me off balance and I miscalculated the jump as my hip slammed into the bar and I was left in the dirt on the wrong side of the fence as the train pulled out. I would have to wait for the later train.
Waiting on the station I saw my twin brother Tom, and a few friends approach.
"Shame about the fence" Tom said with a smile "I thought you were going to make it till then".
"Yeah", I said, "the backpack put me off"
" I normally toss mine over the fence first", "yeah so do I but I didn't think I had the time today"
We settled into the last carriage of the eight carriage train in our usual spot. In the 70's the Boys High School and the Girls High School maintained a segregation policy and whilst travelling to or from school by train the girls had to sit in the first four carriages and the boys had to sit in the last four carriages. There were those who flagrantly disregarded this directive and both Tom and I had been discovered sitting in the wrong half of the train for one reason or another on a few occasions, today we were sitting in the last carriage with our mates continuing the card game we broke off at the end of lunch. We played 500 (a kids form of Bridge) nearly every spare moment at school and even on the train. The train had to travel two stops to Mt. Kuring-gai where Tom and I got off and we could generally get in between 5 or 6 hands in that time. The other guys; 'Truck' Jeff Lawrence, Gazza Noble, Erick Murray and Mick Sibley, were all from Berowra so had another stop to play. 500 is a Team Game and Tom and I usually played together. I flatter myself that we were above average players and won more than we lost. On this particular occasion we did particularly well with some early wins with a 6 No Trumps followed by 7 Clubs before Tom blitzed them with an Open Mizzare.
