“No case is really answered until it has had a fair hearing”
― George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier
IN 1963, WE WENT to Sandgate on a school excursion with Brothers Forrester and Marr. We had a packed lunch of egg and lettuce sandwiches in a cardboard box, which I found to be exotic because my mother used to make my sandwiches out of mixed fruit and dates.
After a swim in the wading pool, we walked out on the flat near the pier. We had come all the way from Indooroopilly in the old school bus across the rickety old bridge that was the longest bridge I had ever seen. I was 12 years old. Ian Curr
We all knew how to swim because our school had a small pool down the back near the Brisbane River Maiwar. During the lunch hour it was my job along with my best friend Michael Beatty to clean the pool.
We would often have water fights that delayed us back into our fifth grade class after lunch. I remember brother Marr banned us from the school choir as a punishment for arriving in the classroom all wet from one of those water fights. This was a great disappointment to me because at that age I loved Gilbert and Sullivan and the songs that the choir were learning were from The Pirates of Penzance. I learned all the lyrics from the back of the classroom:
With cat-like tread,
Upon our prey, we steal;
In silence dread,
Our cautious way we feel.
No sound at all,
We never speak a word,
A fly’s foot-fall
Would be distinctly heard –
Ian Curr, 12 April 2025