Regarding the seasons (C8), Chris Commens of Rosebery recalls having a letter published in the Herald over 40 years ago, suggesting that the “first report of a bindi puncture should mark spring. Bindis are a native of South America where they are known as jo-jo weed with the J pronounced as H but sadly ‘ho-ho’ weed was never adopted here.”
It is absolutely in the backyard of Meri Will of Baulkham Hills, with “bindis the size of small shrubs and vicious stingers as large and sharp as tacks.”
Greg Preston of Cherrybrook isn’t on-board with all school punishments (C8). “On our school bus, a student offloaded his orange peel out the window. It landed on the bonnet of a car, as we were stopped at traffic lights. The driver promptly boarded the bus and, of course, no one owned up. So, 35 boys were given the cane. The redemption of the 34 was swift.”
Is this worse than the cane? Stein Boddington of St Clair recalls that, in the 1960s, Canberra Grammar “delegated prefects to supervise miscreants on detention. They would devise creative tasks to annoy us. One such task was to write out a page of Herald classifieds in longhand. They resorted to this after the repeated ‘I must always do my homework’ times 300 was circumvented by eight biros taped together.”
From punishments to rewards (C8). Tim Donovan of Huonville (Tas) remembers that “at my primary school in the 1960s, the prized job was milk monitor. You were allowed to leave the classroom and collect the milk for the class. Not only did you get out of class for a while, you got to sneak a nice cold milk before the rest of the class got one that had been sitting on a pallet in the sun.”
“There has been a lot said on immigration recently,” notes John Storer of Bulli. “On a more whimsical note, I am a fifth generation Australian, my daughter-in-law is Chinese, and my wife’s grandmother was part aboriginal. This means my grandsons have 50 per cent parentage born overseas, three per cent aboriginal and 47 per cent whatever the rest of us are. According to the most recent census, this makes them 100 per cent Australian. Their great-great-grandfather fought at Gallipoli and their great-grandfather fought in New Guinea. If I can dig up my father’s medals, I might attend next year’s Anzac Day march.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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