Ray Kelley wrote this parody in 1979 to celebrate the re-union of his 1947-48 Teachers’ Training College group when most were in the vicinity of 50 years of age. [He gives warm approval for any group to alter the words in italics to suit its purpose.]
The College at the time shared a building [now one of the QUT's Kelvin Grove Campus buildings] with the North Brisbane Intermediate School. This state school opened in April 1935, enrolled pupils for their last two years of primary schooling and concentrated its efforts on pupil success in the Scholarship Examinations. It was one of only two stand-alone Intermediate Schools in the state at the time.
The building sat atop a bare plateau. The site itself had originally been set aside for the construction of Government House but another site at Bardon was preferred. It was a small two-storied edifice similar in design to a number of schools constructed during the 1930s. Dwindling numbers enabled the TTC to share the building from 1942 until the school’s closure at the end of 1953. See “Our Pastors and Masters” for more.
Those teacher trainees who occupied the building known as the Teachers Training College [TTC] had neither any official graduation nor any official indication of completion of teacher training, but they are now recognised by the QUT as Golden Graduates. It includes them in its annual re-union of graduates and QUT officers visit gatherings of various year groups whenever they are held.
Operations of both college and school were co-operatively arranged and there were seldom any clashes. The TTC at the time was organised on the ordinary high school model of the times. The hours were from 9 a.m. to 3p.m. with no ‘free’ periods. Attendance was carefully checked with rolls marked daily by group-elected deputies. Dress was monitored for appropriateness. Male students were expected to wear ties, ladies stockings. The desks used in the classrooms were the same kind as those used by the Intermediate’s Scholarship and Sub-scholarship classes as they were called. The desks were screwed firmly to the floor. Students attended College for three days each week and two days at established Practising Schools
As one walked up the front stairs, the office of the Head Teacher of N.B.I.S. was on the right and the office of the Principal of TTC was on the left. There was a painting outside this office entitled “Point Danger – Rocks”, from which the Principal, ex-Lieutenant-Colonel James Alexander Robinson assumed the nickname of “Rocks”. While on active service in France in WW1 where he had earned a DSO and helped to re-claim Mephisto, the German tank now housed at the Queensland Museum, he was known as “Old Uniformity”. Students of Ray’s era subscribed to both descriptions. His likeness is now sculptured [Rhyl Hinwood] in sandstone on the library wall of QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus. It illustrates the three faces of “Rocks” – Teacher, Soldier, Leader.
TO US, THEN
[Tune: "Men of Harlech"]
Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty,
Over all Time puts a swiftie -
Wad some Pow’r gie us the giftie
Back in years to rove!
Back through thirty winters weathered
Since we last were all-togethered,
On that learning “plateau” tethered,
Lambs at Kelvin Grove!
Forty-seven-and eighters,
Toast our quondam status!
Beer and cheer
And all the sheer
Delights of yesteryearing now await us!
Make this night a real ripsnorter -
\Whisky neat, don’t go to water -
Do the sorta things we orta -
That we will, by Jove.
Here in motley convocation
Modest folk of lowly station
Join the mightiest in the nation
Now as equal men.
Those who lead and those who follow,
When the Past comes to their hollo
In the same nostalgia wallow,
Schoolmates once again.
Some whose fame is glorious!
Some who are notorious!
Great or small,
There’s none at all
Censorious if we get a bit euphorious!
Should we end up shlightly shickered
Not a shoul will shay we’re wicked -
Brother, have your glass reliquored,
Let’s all drink – to THEN !
