1985 redux

Listening to: Anthology disc 1-Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Fi plays netball at the courts in Taita. Which are across the road from my primary school, St Michaels Catholic Church School. I thought I'd wallow in nostalgia for a while and show you what it looks like now. 2Treesandahorse should like this, as he attended also. We have known each other for a very long time. Anyway. things have changed a little since my final year of 1986 (standard four. The girls stayed to complete form two, but the boys were evicted after standard four, usually to go on to catholic boys intermediates such as St Bernards. The girls would usually go on to Sacred Heart College. Consequently, this was the only time I attended school with my elder sisters).
Everything is smaller now. The path (which is straight in reality) runs from the front gate past St Michaels church to the School at left. Visible at left are rooms 11 and 12, although the adjacent rooms 9 and 10 have disappeared, so I'm not sure if the numbering is the same. Rooms 9, 11 and 12 were mine. I never had my home class in the older rooms that make up the rest of the school. The fenceline in the background at right is the source of my '1985' post. Except it was a hedge then. In the far distance (beyond the rugby posts) there was a small building which has since disappeared. I never figured out what it was for, but it had bright paintings of cartoon characters on its inner walls. The huge gum trees in the foreground were young 3-4 metre tall saplings in my time, which were too small to climb (it's the trees that really show the passage of twenty years). They would attract Emperor moths (probably still do), with the attendant huge caterpillars, which were endless fascination.
Somewhere out on that field I lost my 'Kenner' Luke Skywalker's stormtrooper helmet. It's also the same field where I hit a home run at Danish Rounders, and beat Raymond Changtung in a sprint race to become (briefly) the fastest kid in school. On the days it was mowed we would build forts out of the grass clippings and throw wads of grass at each other (this was during my brief 1982-1986 non asthmatic/hayfevery period; probably couldn't do that now without the aid of large preemptive antihistamine doses). The rest of the school with its courtyards, other classrooms, library, admin and playground are out of shot to the left. The smaller field in the foreground is perfectly sized for games of bullrush or rugby.
I wouldn't mind visiting the school someday when its open, to see what the inside looks like now (smaller no doubt). That could be a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure one teacher from my era is still there.