"The College was very much into choir singing. We had a choir singing teacher (I cannot remember her name – possibly Miss Walsh), and when we performed, she accompanied us and her sister conducted the choir. I was in the junior choir (forms 1-3) and the senior choir (forms 4-6). I was the lower (alto) voice. We took part in competitions like the Springvale and Dandenong festivals. For competitions we were required to sing some set songs, and then could choose some of our own. Some songs I remember are “I Believe” and “Jerusalem.” My sister Zita Prasmutas (3 years before me) was also in the choir during her years at the college. She competed with the choir in Ballarat as well as the Springvale and Dandenong festivals. In her days, the choir was in the top three. They even had a small record made of their signing. During my years at the College the language of the mass changed from Latin to English. I remember we had a visiting priest who held masses for the classes. With the use of English, we started to sing in our masses, often modern hymns. We even had a sacred dance during mass.I studied the sciences. Our classes were small at the time. In form 5, when I studied Physics and Chemistry, there were not enough students to run the classes at the College, and the few girls walked to Salesian Boys College to study the subjects. In form 6 I studied Chemistry at Salesian. In place of Physics, I took up Biology. In that year for the first time we had two boys attend Biology from Salesian College. In form 6, I also studied English and two Mathematics subjects. In my years at the college we did not have Accounting taught. The languages taught were French and German, where you started French in form 1 and German from form 2. In form 6 when I was studying Biology, I remember we were used as a test case for Catholic schools that were taught sex education for the first time. We were even questioned by a panel about what we knew about sex and how we were learning about it. For sports, I belonged to the Xavier (green I think) team. We didn’t have many sports at the College. Netball was the main one and I played for several years, including in a final. As I was tall for my age, I was either the first goaler or the first defense. Tennis was also available. In the later years we had volleyball and some gymnastics. The gymnastics were held in the College hall with the coloured glass. Once a year we had a swimming carnival at the Oakleigh swimming pool. In the later years of my time at the College I was a librarian assistant, together with Alison O’Brien. We helped out in the library. In form 6 (year 12) I was chosen as the vice head prefect, with Anne Luscombe as the head prefect. I remember in forms 5 & 6, we had a yearly College ball in the hall with the coloured glass. One year the theme was famous couples. The girls and boys invited were given names to match up eg I was Juliet, and met my Romeo for the first dance. In form 6 we had a very small class, 26 girls. In all the school had only about 350 students. I remember spending one night during form 6, at the College. Cooking, playing games and sleeping there. I think it was after the exams to celebrate our end of year. There was a formal end of year ceremony where the best students received awards. These were often books. I remember having two nuns when I first started at the College, sisters Peter and Kristina. Later on, we had sister Teresa as our Principal. Uniforms – we had to wear hats and gloves as part of our College uniform. Cream/light brown for summer, and dark brown for winter. Our sports uniforms were dresses. I remember the nuns being very strict about the length of our dresses. It was becoming fashionable to have short skirts, but at College, the minimum length was three inches from the floor as you knelt down. I remember sister Teresa asking a girl to kneel down and then measuring the 3 inches with a ruler. Our class had a play in some years. One year we had a performance of Midsummer night's dream. We also did the Blue Danube once, and being tall, I remember having to dance the male part. These are all the remembrances I can think of. I recall enjoying my time at the College, especially being given the opportunity for leadership roles.
Memories
OF A
Lifetime
- Birute Prasmutas