It was little wonder that after my first night at Avondale with Gordon I was persuaded to stay. I was too ashamed to reveal my stupidity to Gordon by telling him the details of the train journey. I mentioned only the bare outlines: “I was taken down”. The next morning Gordon said, “Let s go and see the Pro”. He was George Teasdale, the Principal of the college. He had known our family in Tasmania, and soon arranged work for me in the factory making boxes for shipping Granose and other foods. This was a job to my liking. They were large pine boxes, the timber being soft compared to the hardwood timber of Tasmania. We boys used to vie with each other and became fast and proficient by practice. My wages were fourpence an hour. This had to pay for my board and lodgings plus two studies, Old Testament History and Arithmetic. It was child’s play and I revelled in it. The easy work and easy studies made me comment more than once that it was a holiday made for me to enjoy. I liked the work and enjoyed the studies.
The college program was designed to keep young people occupied all their waking hours, with little time for sport or relaxation. In fact there was no competitive sport, only a few ball games such as cricket, or half-hearted efforts at football. Most of us were too busy to take time for games. Only fullpaying students could indulge in leisure; even they were obliged to work two hours a day. This was to give them practical training and save them from becoming professional “toffs”.
We were awakened each day by the chapel bell shattering the early morning silence at 5 a.m. We would bounce out of bed, or have our room-mate pull the clothes off. Then down to the shower, with no hot water. Frosty mornings when the pipes were iced up, a bucket of cold water from the under-ground cistern would be thrown over you by request, though this was rather an unpopular act and I personally avoided it as far as possible. Gordon was more spartan. Whatever you did had to be fast, for at 5:25 the bell would ring again for all to assemble in chapel at 5:30. Both boys and girls were expected to be present; the record of attendance was taken by the senior student at the head of each line of desks at the back. Unexcused absence was a negative mark and affected your grades at the end of the quarter. This was a discipline record and was strictly adhered to. Worship lasted half an hour, followed at 6 a.m. by an hour of study at our desks. No talking or whispering. Dismissed at 7 o’clock, we would rush to our rooms, make our beds, sweep and tidy our rooms for half an hour, obey the breakfast bell at 7:30, be back in our rooms by five minutes to eight, when the bell would call us to classes. My two classes convened from 8:00 till 9:45, then I would have a quarter of an hour to change and be at work by ten o’clock. With an hour for lunch we would work till 5 p.m. Then came the evening meal, at 6, worship at 7, and study in our rooms till 9 p.m., when lights would be cut off through the college campus. A much softer daily program is expected of students today. We were regimented like the military those days, but took it happily in our stride.
