I don’t remember my first day of school. I know lots of kids cry at the prospect of being away from their mother for the first time, or maybe the thought that it could be a permanent separation perhaps? I’m sure I had none of this, yet still I cannot remember my first day.

Jumbled in that first year, I remember our classroom, that it was a portable building ensconced in a far corner of a nearby high school, because our school proper didn’t have the room to house all its students in the one place. There were over six hundred of us, after all. I remember many three-block walks to and from the main school, hand-in-hand with whatever partner you chose, Miss Evans marshalling her troops into action.

I remember our playground being a paddock surrounded by temporary fencing, and our inventive natures giving birth to all sorts of different games. I definitely remember playing kiss chasey, and how I always freely chased Julieanne Ramsay, and would for the next seven years with no real success ever resulting.