AUSTRALIA
Mamma Mia

Remember the days of the old school yard?
We used to laugh a lot. Oh, don’t you
Remember the days of the old school yard?

Ah, it’s lovely to reminisce.

We had simplicity and warm toast for tea, to quote Cat Stevens.

Why, we’d play in the street until dark! Kids weren’t molly-coddled like they are these days! All of that rough-and-tumble was character building!

Girls were girls and boys were boys; mum ran the home while dad was at work.

Life was easier in those days, wasn’t it…?

Well, the answer is “no”.

This week, writing my memoir, I revisited the ghosts of schools past.

My senior years, at Frawley College on the outskirts of Brisbane, held a rosy hue: the passion of the teachers; the camaraderie of schoolmates; the myth of “the best time of our lives”.

Anything that didn’t fit the…