‘I loved skipping school to go swimming in the weir with my mates’

One of my fondest memories growing up involves the times I would skip school (or ‘wag’) and hang out with my friends. Skipping school was always considered pretty risky, the most important thing being that my parents didn’t find out. It’s difficult, but it is not impossible.

I had a genuine love of school, but what I hated were sports teachers making me do tumble rolls in Grade 8. I was never able to do them. For this reason I set about writing ‘sick notes for Ellen’ to be excused from sport due to illness. When I knew I’d handed over too many notes, I found a more cunning way to avoid sport.

Leaving home in the morning in my school uniform, I would catch the bus and get off way past my school. My friend Margaret and I would go to the Ingleburn Weir and spend the day with two guys swinging off the rope that swung over the river. The weir was a popular swimming area for locals, but I believe today it has heritage significance.

Margaret and I were both going on 15 years, however the thought of any hanky panky with our male friends never seemed to entered our minds. At 2:30pm we would leave the weir with our school uniforms on and school bags under arms, and as we walked down the hill we blended with everyone else. To everyone around us it looked as though we’d been at school all day, but only we knew about the fun we’d been having away from classes.

Long gone are those days, but special memories with my school buddy still remain.

Did you ever skip school when you were growing up? What did you get up to?

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