Memories were shared and created at Renwick School on Saturday as former pupils gathered together to celebrate 150 years since the founding of the school.
About 340 former pupils from as far back as 1919 travelled from around Marlborough, New Zealand and the world to go back to the school they hardly recognise, but have fond memories of.
Gathered in their decade groups, they marched through the school gates and were welcomed by two lines of applauding students. They stood in perfect rows in their groups for a school picture which would have surely taken them down memory lane.
As part of the celebrations, a plaque was unveiled at the Upper Wairau Cemetery on Friday in a simple ceremony commemorating the first principal of Renwick School, William Moore, who was buried in an unmarked grave.
Among those revelling in the festivities was Colin Miller who started at Renwick School in 1939.
He remembered his time at the school as "lovely" and his teacher Miss Panting as "motherly".
Mr Miller later owned the Blenheim Transport Company, bought his first 27-seater Bedford bus around 1958 and did the school bus runs around Rapaura, Renwick and Havelock.
He would pick up the school children from their farms and should they be late he would wait for them.
If they had a really bad morning he would pick them up on the second run – if they missed that bus then "we stiffed you".
"[The students] would have the day off," he joked.
He said it was good to see his old classmates and students he used to take to school – "they still call me Mr Miller".
He said it was "very moving" walking through the gates with the students applauding.
Another former student Bill Nicholas remembered when the school was just two classrooms near the community hall.
Mr Nicholas began at Renwick School in 1948 and said construction of the rest of the school had just begun.
He remembered getting "six of the best" straps across the hand for a prank in which he and a few mates blocked up the boy's toilet with toilet rolls.
"It was pretty hard, but we knew not to do it again," he said.
Jubilee committee chairwoman Angie Holdaway said it was a fantastic weekend.
"All the hard work paid off," she said.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
No comments:
Post a Comment