I’m not sure if 1956 was the year that made me, but as a Melbournian it was certainly interesting and for me personally, very exciting.  It was the year of the Olympic Games.  The streets were full of sailors in different uniforms and people of varying colours in varying tracksuits wearing footwear called thongs.
 
The most exciting thing about 1956 for me was that I started at Brighton High.
 
In those days there were schools called Central Schools where students did Years 7 and 8, getting their Credit Certificate ready to go into factory work.  I went to Caulfied North Central, which had been the school I went to through what for me were the horror years of primary school.

Central School opened the door to timetables; different teachers for each subject; softball instead of rounders; rooms upstairs and a uniform to be proud of in the marching team.  Most of all there were exams to see who was good enough to go on to the Macrobertson High School for girls, or Melbourne High School for the boys.

I wasn’t good enough for Macrob but was offered a position at a brand new high school being built at Brighton for the ‘Baby Boomers’.  It was certainly a building site and being a wet year in ’56 was awash, with sticky clay everywhere. 

I loved my new school and felt at home from day one.  Our school colours were purple, green and gold and I was in purple house, Grant by name. 

I was keen on all sporting activities and the first up were the swimming sports.  I had given up ballet lessons to follow up my first true love, swimming and had a great coach, Marj McQuade, who had swum for Australia in the Empire Games (later to be known as the Commonwealth Games)..  Dad had struck a deal for a free lesson with Marj, who was just starting out as a coach, so when I started winning races I could tell people Marj McQuade was my coach.  Perhaps I showed some talent for she agreed to this arrangement.  Anyway, I won first the house sports and then the inter-school sports. 

In those days all the students went to the sports, swimmers or not.  I became well known in the small population of our new school, so was voted into positions of responsibility such as Prefect.  I shudder now when I think of how I carried out the duties allocated to this role.

One of the tales I have told over the years that have passed since ’56 is of sitting in Year 9 History with Miss Drummond upfront trying hard to interest us in the importance of modern history to our everyday lives.

Dawne, who was sitting next to me and at the time was one of my best friends, whispered, ‘Which of these boys would you go out with?’.  ‘None!’ was my answer, as we girls at this stage liked our boyfriends to be more mature and outside of school.  For instance, I was keen at the time on the best diver, (who happened to be 18), at the Malvern Baths.
 
Dawne kept pushing as Miss Drummond droned on, so I looked around and picked out the redhead two desks over.  At that stage I wasn’t that sure of his name, let alone my ‘for better for worse’ destiny with the redhead two desks over.
 
So it was that 1956 was an important year in my life. 

Christmas, when I was a child, was always a wonderful time in our house, mainly because it started on Christmas Eve, my birthday.  Hence the name Carole.  Even though my mother never tired of telling me, or whoever happened to be listening, that my birth had been long and arduous and she had had to forgo Christmas dinner in 1941, she always made it a special day for me.

As there were a large number of cousins on my father’s side, they and their parents, Aunts and Uncles, made up the gatherings.  Uncle Frank brought the red cordial, why I’m not sure.   Our family was teetotal and the adults must have had to go without – or topped up the red cordial without my parents knowing!  Dad, who rode track work at the Caulfield Racecourse, would always make sure there was a pony from the stables to give the kids a ride.

The most memorable of these birthdays was when I turned twelve.  This may have been because an uncle brought a camera and there was a photo to remember it by, or it may have been that it was the first time I held the gathered groups’ attention, just as I was to do in politics well into the future.  Mum had organized a large, natural Christmas tree which stood in the corner of the front verandah.  How this came to be I’ll never know, but I can assume it was one of Dad’s schemes where he would tell someone a racing tip and get a Christmas tree in lieu.  Mum had hung a birthday present on the tree for every child at the party and I, as the birthday child, handed out each of the presents.

The other Christmas I remember was again as a child when I received Shirley, my sleeping doll.  The box was at the end of the bed with Shirley written across the lid.  I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world.  It must have cost mum a pretty penny to buy her and money was always tight in our house.  My reaction to this Christmas present must have been ‘just right’ as it was spoken of often at family gatherings.  Mother for years later always made new outfits for Shirley for my Christmas stocking.

Christmas get togethers years on are not great gatherings at our home in Benalla.  The Marples have had many home bases over the years and it wasn't our family home when our children were growing up.   As grandparents, we now make sure we see both offspring and their partners and children on Christmas day.  One for lunch and for tea with the other, with small presents all round for the grandchildren, who now have partners.  So Christmas rolls on.  No family assemblies for my birthday now, which suits me just fine!