Perth Voice Interactive

AFTER 54 years a group of friends from Bayswater Primary School are searching for their fellow classmates who finished year 7 together in 1969.

Drawn together by memories of moon landings and milk bottles, they’re now organising a September reunion for the cohort running from Year 1 in 1963 to graduating from BPS in 1969, which had two classes of about 30 students each.

Former student Barry Dux says in the leadup to the reunion he’s had some phone chats with old friends, and it’s both the very big things and the very little things that pop up in their reminiscing.

“The biggest one we all speak about: 1969 was the year man landed on the moon,” he says.

“In those days even black and white TVs were a rarity, and we all remember being huddled around in one room to watch man land on the moon.”

Alongside the epic histories are the little things that stick in the memory: “And we spoke about the little milk bottles you used to get.” 

To hear their voices after all this time, he says it’s “weird! Really weird! They almost sounded the same.”

The reunion has been a long time in the making, Mr Dux says, and came about when he caught up with former classmate and reunion co-organiser Lynn Deering a few years back.

“We did fall out of touch for a long time,” Mr Dux says, until recent years when he recognised her name attached to a Facebook post about the Bayswater Historical Society, where she’s president.

“I saw Lynn’s name and thought: I know that name! 

“We stayed in touch and we finally got together, and it’s actually happening now… none of us are getting any younger.”

They’ve put the feelers out to a few others and started planning, and last Friday a group of five met up at the society’s HQ at Halliday House to catch up and look through the archives.

There’s not much in the annals from that era so they’re hoping former students can bring along any photos or memorabilia to the meetup.

It’s on September 23 at Halliday House from 1‚Äì3.30pm, and RSVP for numbers on eventbrite (plug in ‘Bayswater primary school reunion’) or call Mr Dux on 0412 912 564.

by DAVID BELL