Anlaby in the 50ies (cont)

When we arrived at Anlaby in February 1952, as children of course we had to go to school. Anlaby was a large sheepstation and had at least six families, some with children who all went to the Eudunda Area School. The station had a large ute (Fargo?) with canopy which was the schoolbus. We were driven in this vehicle to the Eudunda road where we caught the Area School bus which then drove us to the school. My little brother and I were thrown in at the deep end not having any English other than a few words like "threshold" and" Thank you" and little else. I had been practicing the "th" sound in the word Threshold all the way from Holland on the ship "Skaubryn", only to find no one had a clue what I was on about till I pointed to what I meant and still remember the look of amusement on their faces as they said "oh, you mean door step ".We had no counseling in those days and we had to adjust to a totally different way of interacting with the Australian country kids and so we did.
The above is a school photo taken when my little sister also came to school. It must have been a long day for her as we left home at 8am and got home about 5pm. The photo on the right must have been taken by my mother as we walked off early in the morning to catch the little bus. The first day we went to school, I was put next to a girl who to this day remains my best friend. She was the first person who asked me to come and stay for a weekend on her parent's farm out at Point Pass.

At dinner that first night, I wanted to make polite conversation, and as on Anlaby, sheep were slaughtered and distributed to all the families as part of the wage, I asked my friend's father:"Do you kill yourself Mr Glover?"much to my embarrassment everyone around the table roared with laughter and I could not work out what I had said was so funny!! My English could only improve.
Sport was one of the things very much on the agenda and sports days were great fun. I have no idea who took the photo of us at the Eudunda oval or whose car it is in the background.I am the one in the middle with a very badly done home perm which frizzed my hair like a Fuzzy Wuzzy.