In the 1940s at Queanbeyan Public School many of the students had no shoes, nobody wore a school uniform and the most popular game to play in the dirt was marbles.
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Merv Britten recalled being dragged to school by his brother most days, but he looks back on that time fondly.
He is the driving force behind a school reunion happening at the school on Thursday, September 8.
The walk down memory lane will take former students back through the corridors of the school to show them the changes from then to now.
Mr Britten will travel to Queanbeyan from his home at the Gold Coast for the reunion. He said there are about 60 people registered to take part from across New South Wales and Queensland.
It was 1943 when Mr Britten started school. He started a couple of classes behind at the age of seven, because of a difficulty he had with speaking.
“This school holds a lot of memories for me,” Mr Britten said.
“I love coming back here.”
Mr Britten recalled the fights the boys would have down the notorious lane near the school.
One memory in particular that still stands out for him is swimming across the river in early August as a dare.
How times have changed.
At the tender age of 15, Mr Britten left school.
“If I didn’t leave I was going to be expelled,” he said, after he turned up to school with no books in his bag one morning.
“That night, I said to mum, ‘I’m not doing any good at school, can I leave?’”
The condition was that he find a job.
Determined not to go back, he took the following day off to find work.
After being rejected from the dry cleaners - “I’m sure they didn’t like the look of me” - Mr Britten knocked on the door of the plaster factory on Yass Road.
He became an apprentice plasterer, and thoroughly loved it.
“That’s what I’ve been all my life, a plasterer,” he said.
While he lived in Queanbeyan for a while after he left school, he said it was harder to keep in contact with people in those days.
“Everybody has gone their own way. It’s hard, you can’t believe you can live in a town like Queanbeyan and after you leave school get married and never see anyone again.”
The walk down memory lane will start at 10.30am at the Queanbeyan Public School. It will be followed by lunch at the Queanbeyan Leagues Club. Memorabilia will be for sale on the day.
Contact Merv Britten to RSVP on 0407 200 944 or email mervbritten@yahoo.com.au
CLARIFICATION: The date of this event is Thursday, September 8. A previous version of this article listed the wrong date.