School reunion after 62 years

Students and teachers gather for the reunion at Maclean District Services Club.

Daily Examiner

MANY years may have passed but it didn't seem to make much difference to those who attended the Maclean District Rural School reunion at the weekend.

The class of 1945-47 came together 62 years on and found they still had plenty to talk and laugh about.

The reunion was held at the Maclean District Services Club at lunchtime on Saturday and was so successful many of the ex-students and their partners gathered at the Brooms Head Hall yesterday afternoon to continue the reminiscing.

“It was like they walked out of school on Friday and continued talking on Saturday and Sunday,” Wendy Flitcroft, whose husband Don is one of the former students, said yesterday.

“It went very well and the dancing that was planned for today didn't go ahead because they were all too busy talking to each other,” she said.

“Today's get-together was a bit of a wind down and not as hectic as yesterday. People brought their lunch or bought something at the local shop and just relaxed and enjoyed themselves.”

The reunion, the first since they left school in the post-war years, was attended by about 33 former students and their partners.

It even attracted two of the school's former teachers, Una MacKay and Joyce Plater, who were known in the school days as Miss Phemister and Miss Alyward and are both now aged in their 80s.

“They remembered most of the 'kids' and could remember what the students were like,” Wendy said.

The students' lives have been documented in a book titled Oh, how the years pass which was compiled by Wendy.

Rather than waiting another 62 years until the next reunion, the ex-students are planning another luncheon in 12 months' time.