A Teachers Lot

To start, North Shore Teacher’s College, was a misnomer. It was in Mount Roskill in 1965 but moved to Northcote in 1966. To earn a ‘Teaching Certificate’, one had two years of lectures from 9.00 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. and a year in a hand-picked class known as your probationary year. My first fortnightly pay-check, was in a fact a cheque for nine pounds seven shillings and a penny, which I could easily exchange into real cash with an on-site, payday bank officer from the ASB. In those days you did not have to give blood/swear allegiance/have ID to turn an Education Board cheque into the folding stuff.

Coming from Westlake Boys High School to N.S.T.C. where the women outnumbered the men by a 5:1 ratio was the nearest thing to a boy in a lolly-shop. I met my future wife at a N.S.T.C. dance when I was in my PA year.