PARADE is feeling a bit nostalgic this week and there’s not much he can do about it.
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The reason? The oldest of the young people in Parade’s family threw his mortar board into the air (metaphorically speaking) this week as he was formally farewelled from primary school.
Watching the formalities, Parade went through the usual stages of emotion at this sort of ceremony: shock (wasn’t it only six months ago that this young person was going into kindergarten?); disbelief (is he really in year six? Wasn’t it year five this year?); bargaining (if Parade is willing to focus more on each day, will time be willing to slow down?); and, finally, acceptance.
Not that the young person in question knew that any of these thoughts were running through Parade’s mind, of course. He was too busy smiling and thinking about his coming school holidays.
The farewell for year six – like most things – made Parade think of the American classic Catch 22.
“A second ago you were stepping into college with your lungs full of fresh air,” one of the characters warns another in that book. “Today you're an old man.”
Paying the price of catching up
THE other event that had Parade looking back this week was the release of the HSC results.
As Parade read the stories of students receiving their results electronically, he had a clear vision of opening up a big formal looking envelope as he got his TER (Tertiary Entrance Rank) many, many years ago through what is now referred to as snail mail.
Parade was on holidays with his parents on the Central Coast at the time and spent the next hour or so feeding coins into a payphone and ringing his classmates to find out how they had scored.
It all seemed terribly important back then, but Parade has to admit that he can’t recollect any of his mates’ TERs all these years later (though Parade’s own TER is seared into his mind).
It was undoubtedly a simpler time back then, but it wasn’t all beer and skittles.
A payphone on the Central Coast could swallow a handful of coins surprisingly quickly, for one thing.
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