Things I miss Part 1: Craigie Senior High School

This is the description…thanks to Wikipedia.

One of 2 logo's i'd have tattooed on my person...

Craigie Senior High School was a State high school in the northern coastal suburb of Craigie, in the city of Perth, the capital city of the State of Western Australia.

Craigie SHS’s main feeder schools when it opened were Craigie Primary School, Camberwarra Primary School, Padbury Primary School, Lymberner Primary School and Springfield Primary School.

Craigie SHS opened in 1976, and was closed a few years ago,^[when?] The last year group to graduate was in 2003. Despite local protest including from the local MP Mal Washer, as part of the Local Area Education Plan. It was demolished not long afterwards. Students from Craigie SHS moved to nearby state high schools – Duncraig Senior High School, Belridge Senior High School or Padbury Senior High School. Many of the important historical items from the school are preserved at Padbury Senior High School.

Thats the WHOLE fucking thing!

3 of the best years of my life…now 3 paragraphs on wikipedia. My history is being deleted (more that statement in a future blog). The now very dead high school was the source of my best teen years…maybe not Year 8…but who has a good year 8?

I’d have love to have a get-together with the crew I grew up with (those were my formative years 97-99), I love the that school, because it was a scummy, rotting piece of shit. Rough as guts and fights were common, drugs were reasonably common…but not as much as they were before and shortly after I left.Yet I still love that crater in he earth.

Note: It was actually situated on a hill….

Before Belridge and Clarkson took over as the “school your most likely to catch a steak knife to the guts from”. Craigie was rough school, my time at Padbury High was marred by me STAUNCHLY defending it…seriously my loyalties were to my friends and my local school (I hope they appreciate how much I loved my crew, yo :P).

No matter if I left that damn school because it didn’t have the educational lines I needed for my crack at a radio career. In hindsight…I should have stayed at Craigie…I would have still made it, TAFE degrees don’t get in you into commercial radio, skill does and personality does….I wish I had that knowledge 10 years ago.

A picture says a thousands words...:P

Craigie High always has a place in my heart, it’s the birthplace of my soul…my best childhood memories are with those people I went to Craigie with. I did some dumb shit, like in a fit of rage throwing my hat in the air in a indoor soccer game and it getting stuck in miraculously in the rafters at the gym, I was an awkward nerdy kid (still am) but I was treated well (for the most part) by my peers. We played basketball, wrestled (when WWF wrestling was big for about 10 months), punched on (I didn’t but others did), did juvenile delinquent shit and we’re just a typical teenagers but in rough ol’ school on a sand dune.

There was all the stupid bullshit like gossip of teen sex, dead arms & legs, acting hard (we all did it and you know it), listened to 2pac and Snoop (Doggystyle is STILL a good album) and Cypress Hill…before graduating to Wu-Tang Clan. Pop music was especially awful (this was when Boy Bands and the Spice Girls OWNED the radio!). I also discovered JJJ during this time and fell in love with radio…and Rosie 😛

This an era (for me) just before mp3’s, mobile phones and MSN. People still had fucking cassettes….CASSETTES! I remember my mate letting me dub his Wu-Tang (Forever not 36 Chambers) tape…I was stoked that night…Triumph (still makes me wanna smash shit).

I remember having a crush on Ms.Chesson (who had the best body on a teacher I had ever seen), sorry if you’re reading this Ms.Chesson but I was gawking at you most of the lesson (yep like the horny 14 yr old I was)…now you know why I was nice you and not anyone else….but I think you knew that. Mr.Barrett was a dude, but hilarious due to mid-life crisis (muscle tees and a Harley…yep). Seriously, I’d buy you a beer if I saw you in a pub, sir.

Having another soft spot for a girl named Jayne (who now has 1 kid and another on the way) & Michelle (she was a bad girl and that excited me to no end), being scared of Jasmin (different girl, same name did some damage a few years later too…i’m avoiding Jasmin’s from now on!) because was the queen bee type (I was SOFT…still am really)…and other assorted teen stuff which was important at the time….trivial as shit now.

The scariest stuff like the fights (someone of them quite nasty), or my deep hatred of Mr Beck (by accounts he was a total c**t to brother in his time at Craigie because of his dislike for me…poor form Beck, seriously). My run-ins with Beck were legendary (cheeky shit that I was), every school drama has to have THAT teacher doesn’t. He was an arsehole though and if we crossed paths it’d still be icy…possibly violent. One of the few people I would’ve liked to cause physical harm to….seriously….we were mortal enemies.

I still have the book I got people to sign at the end of my time at Craigie. I will never let that leave my collection of memories. I’m a sentimental kind of bloke underneath all this cynicism and sexual tension.

I still remember our basketball team “Craigie Chaos” dominating a weak division of junior basketballbat Craigie Leisure Centre , a team I organised (from the people I played ball with at lunch) and they played I guess for the friendship or each other and possibly me and just for a run on a Saturday morning. Boys, you guys showing up every week alone was good of you…us winning a shitty trophy together will never leave me. Cheers to Rob F, Mitchell, Rob L, Josh, Chris & Tom…did I forget anyone? It meant more to me than you guys will ever know.

I guess before I get anymore misty-eyed about those years. I will say thanks for the memories, the toughening up and loyalty that you showed me, I had never really had a bunch of friends…you were my friends. It’s been 10 years and I hope you look back at those days, the same as I do. With a smile, not matter what’s happened since.

Regards

Gav