Jon Travers of Mollymook recalls that his “economics teacher,Mr Thomas Deamer,at Homebush Boys High School in the ’60s,did not wear a tie (C8) and also had longish hair when ours wasn’t allowed to touch the collar. He once explained that he was on the casual teachers list (although he was,in fact,full-time) and as such did not have to comply with the permanent teachers’ code. He enjoyed bucking the system in this manner.” An unconventional character in Sydney by the name of Deamer? It couldn’t be a coincidence,and Jon confirms that his teacher’s father was indeed Column 8’s founder,Sydney Harold Deamer.
In her Dip Ed year at Sydney Teachers’ College (C8) in the mid-1960s,Valerie Little of Tathra recalls that “we were told not to wear red dresses to school (no jeans/slacks allowed in those times) because red could ‘excite’ the senior boys.”
Regarding the ties v casual recollections (C8),George Zivkovic of Northmead thinks there is a place for memories of stereotypical teacher fashions of years gone by. “It was always easy to play spot the geography or maths teachers with great success,wasn’t it?”
Call him old-fashioned if you wish,but when Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook attended “a Governance and Risk Forum,suited up and wearing a tie with a Windsor knot (C8),I looked around the room and could not see a tied collar on any other male present.”
“Why wait for the nuclear option (C8)?” asks Peter Riley of Penrith. “Our current fleet of diesel/electric submarines could be plugged into the power grid today,and because diesel engines can run on used cooking oil,Sydney would smell like fish and chips and battered savs. Win/win.”
According to Warren Menteith of Bali,as an impecunious student in 1962 “ripple-soled suede desert boots (C8),known as brothel creepers,were a must. The ripple soles meant much longer wear as they wore down,as the nap left the suede you polished them and when the stitching – soles or elsewhere – gave out you replaced it with fuse wire. It became a point of honour to have a pair of much resurrected boots. I was the proud owner of a smelly,shiny black pair that had started out two years before as sand-coloured suede.”
John Christie of Oatley would like to make a public service announcement. “Lest anyone think that Proust would be more readable in French – he isn’t.”
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Include name,suburb and daytime phone.