One of the realities of living through the senior years are the regularity of anniversaries and jubilee celebrations. Some of these include family jubilees of weddings, anniversaries of deceased relatives and the growing list of unforgettable achievements of a young boomer. In recent years I have notched up:

• 70th anniversary of my Baptism (1953,- 2023)
• 60th anniversary of my First Communion (1960 -2020)
• 60th anniversary of my Confirmation (1963 -2023) as well as my first visit to a pub as a young newspaper boy at the now demolished Oriental Hotel in North Geelong.
• 60th anniversary of my first interstate plane flight (1964 -2024))
• 50th Anniversary of my First Vows as a Capuchin Friar
• 55th anniversary of my Year 12 graduation (1970 -2025)) from St Joseph’s College. 

This year, 2024, also marks the 60th anniversary of my completion of Grade 6 in primary school at   St Patrick’s in Geelong West . My brothers, my sister and I were the second generation from both our parents’ families to go to “St Pat’s”. If I count in the various cousins, the name Robertson is well and truly etched into the history of this parochial school.

My memories and images of those formative years are grounded in the joys and hopes the grief and anguish of the human experience. Now with hindsight I look back at those days with mixed emotions.

My primary school days were spent in the last years of Pope Pius XI1 prior to the impact of the Second Vatican Council. When I began my primary education the names of Bolte and Menzies dominated the Victorian political scene. Local and world events of the era have been etched  in my memory. In 1960 I shared the communal anxiety of the news of the kidnapping of Graeme Thorne. I can still remember the Melbourne Herald headlines in 1963 when the deaths of Kennedy, Mannix and Roncalli joined the lexicon of history. It was also the year my tribal connections to Geelong were celebrated with the VFL Premiership win and in 1964 the Beatles Tour captured my imagination.

In the midst of social, political and religious upheaval my primary education was formed in the sectarian world view in which we were not encouraged to form friendships with the local kids at Ashby Primary School. which was the Protestants school. I cannot remember any of the major world events being discussed or raised apart from the death of the Pope and of course the legendary Daniel Mannix.

St Pat’s was founded by the Sisters of Mercy,The women, lay and religious, of the late 50s and early 60s taught me the basic three Rs and for good measure threw in the “Catholic R of religion” with its mix of rituals, doctrine and tribal loyalty.

I look back at my First Communion  group photo featured above and realised that the sisters who spent hours preparing us for this event were left out of the picture when the big day came around.The names of many of the kids in this photo are forgotten in the decades of lost connections.

There are 53 kids in that photo and most of us spent our primary days in the same room year after year until the boys left after grade six and girls had an option to stay on for grade seven. The women who taught us were gutsy to take on such a task. Miss Elsie Carroll was one of those legendary single women who taught two generations in a lifetime commitment to St Pat’s. She features in this pic wearing the striped dress. To her left is another legend of the 60s, Mirs Barnes who took us through prep. And, yes, that is me from my days as a Capuchin with a full beard and mandatory long hair. The other two “old boys” with me are Kevin Hennessy CP and Peter McMurrich SM.

This set is a snapshot of Australian Catholic history from 1964 when the local Geelong group of Altar Servers boarded their TAA flight to Hobart for a national gathering where we were invested in the Guild of St Stephen.I was wearing my favourite duffel coat, the height of fashion at the time. My medal is now in the archive collection of St Mary’s Basilica in Geelong.

My time at St Pats included the love of music and singing that I gained from days when every teacher played the piano. The school was part of a vibrant Catholic parish in Geelong West where we were introduced to great contemporary choral singing with a young organist, Roger Heagney.

 I also recall my first introduction to ABC radio through its school service broadcast via the old speakers which hung over the class altars.

We had no introduction to the Indigenous history of Geelong.. Multiculturalism was not acknoweldged despite a high number of students who were children of post war European migrants.

As a young Catholic lad I never questioned the fact that girls could not get time out of school to make pocket money as altar servers by serving at funerals at the parish church.

I wondered why our recreational times at school were segregated with the boys having access to the back paddock with a cricket pitch and the girls given a nice asphalt covered yard with basketball rings

This anniversary year of my Grade 6 graduation in 1964 invites me to reflect on where I have come from and how my current choices have been informed by the experiences of a different time and culture. May the spirit of wild Patrick stir the hearts of past and present students to be adventurous, and seek the divine in life.