Barbara Healey (née Goodenough)

If I begin at the beginning I must say I had my ego squashed right from the start. To qualify for entry into ATHS, we had to get over 600 marks in our Qualifying Certificate. I did get that, 627 in fact. I was used to being first, second or third in each primary school year and when I arrived at ATHS I was amongst others who, in fact, did much better than I. Instead of being top of the class I was relegated to the middle, and that did not do my ego any good for the first half of first year. It was then that I realised I was privileged to be there amongst others with better brain power than myself, so I knuckled down.

I enrolled in a commercial course in 1944 and had as class teacher Miss Balchin.²⁷ We had 43 students in our first year and 38 in our second year class. Miss Balchin taught us English. I was an avid reader and still am but I really couldn’t get interested in the writings of Shakespeare. I believe other teachers semi-acted out some of the Shakespearean plays and this helped students to grasp his written word. The English language, as such, was no hardship for me, but Shakespeare – ugh! Miss Balchin had a delightful copybook handwriting and my report book is a delight to read. What a shame good handwriting has gone out of the window!

Other teachers I remember were Miss Topperwein (‘For-it’), Mr Haskard, Miss Crane,²⁸ Mr Cannell, always nicknamed ‘Dog Box’ for obvious reasons, and at times Mr Moore. Miss Topperwein had a little eccentricity. After every sentence she would repeat ‘For-it’: I never ever reasoned why, but we all liked her and gradually never heard it after the first few weeks. She was a great teacher of geography and made our lessons most interesting. I had always been interested in geography and our world, even in primary school. I did manage to gain a credit in geography in the Intermediate exam, which says a lot for Topsy’s teaching.

Mr Haskard taught geology – why it was in our commercial curriculum I never did find out. I hated the subject, but can always remember a field day trip to Hallett Cove to see the glacier markings. I did enjoy the aspect of drawing in geology – with the sectionalised parts of our mountains and rivers. Mr Haskard taught us about Douglas Mawson and his trip to Antarctica but I can’t distinguish between what I learned from him and what I found out later. I can remember Sir Douglas Mawson’s wife coming to the school at some stage. Her name was Chicquita, or something like that – an odd name to the mind of a 14 year old girl.

The war had an impact on myself and my family, but not much on my schooling. I went to Iron Knob with one of my school mates at ‘the Tech’ who lived there and we went to Whyalla to celebrate VE day. It must have been during the school holidays. We sat for our Intermediate Certificate in Elder Hall at the University of Adelaide. In those days we sat for our ‘Inter’ in two years. Shortly afterwards it was changed to a three year course.

School life was certainly different in those days. We were always made to use the back steel staircase to go to our classes – rain or shine! It was hard on us when many of the boys were able to use the central inner staircase. Some of our classmates hated the gaps in the steps and never got over the feeling that maybe they would fall through!

Lunch time was interesting. We were not allowed to mix with the boys – we always had to sit apart from them. I can remember still the lovely cakes the women in the Royal Adelaide Hospital kiosk used to make. They were simply scrumptious. We also frequented the café on the corner of Tavistock Street – now Frome Road. Even now I can taste the slabs of coffee cake we used to purchase from there. It was a plain vanilla cake with a creamy cinnamon topping. I just loved it when I was allowed to buy my lunch, which was not often. Usually a pie or pasty went with the cake, at both venues of the kiosk at the Adelaide Hospital and Tavistock Street café.

Many a time I rode my bike to school from Prospect and, if I caught a tram to North Terrace, sometimes I would board the Tramways Trust two-tier bus and ride down the terrace to the school. It was the open top deck bus, painted yellow and brown. We always had to wear hats and gloves to school.

Sports were played down Frome Road where the Medical School now is. My brother, Leith, played cricket for the school and was a successful slow spin bowler. We also had eurhythmics in the Brookman Hall under the guidance of Miss Heather M. Gell. I can recall the grey slip-type tunic we girls wore with a cord tied at the waist. We were taught how to walk and dance gracefully to music – I think it was by radio. I remember that, as a 13-year-old, I thought Miss Gell was ‘OLD’. I always had dirty feet after these sessions as we had to ‘dance’ in either bare or stockinged feet.

There were ballroom dancing lessons. I was fortunate to have been taught ballroom dancing at a local institute and I was asked to partner those girls who were not so lucky. If my memory is correct, we used to have a dance in Brookman Hall once or twice a year. At night, I think. Boys too! Wow!

The other thing which comes to mind is our singing classes held in the Brookman Hall. The late Sable Grivell was our teacher, and he himself had a great voice and his wife – I think Elsie Woolley – attended too. I can remember learning to sing ‘The Marseillaise’ and to this day I still can sing most of the words.’ Jesu Joy of Man’s’ Desiring was another of my favourite songs taught by ‘Spit and Dribble’. We sang these and other songs at end-of-year functions.

Those of us who were fortunate to have been taught at ATHS will always feel a certain amount of pride and, whenever we meet someone who was a former student, we can’t help but talk about old times. A certain amount of camaraderie is and always will be present amongst us, especially those who went to North Terrace.

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