Ivan (Spadger) Sparrow - 1957 to '60
As I remember, Mr and Mrs Trask, they were the caretakers during my time at The Tech between 1957 & 1960. They were never in the forefront of school life, but were always there in the background. Mr Trask, a well built man with a good head of white / grey hair, was often busy filling and carting those long coke-scuttles to the workshops, and the classrooms that were lucky enough to have “central heating” (the tall black stove in the middle of the room), or coke for the forge. At other times he could be heard down in the basement stoking the boiler, or hosing out the “Bogs”, or may be seen sweeping up the leaves and rubbish around the school to make it look as smart and pristine as we all kept ourselves (Ummph!). Mrs Trask was a small grey haired lady, with a soft and quiet voice, who was always on-hand to administer a headache tablet, TCP or Dettol on a grazed knee, safety pins for a split trouser seam or tear, and for the girl’s needs. I can remember her assisting the Health Dept. people when they came to the school on a TB (or some such) immunity campaign, that was carried out in a basement room. When our class was called we had to file down into the basement (almost like going into never-never land), Mrs Trask crossed your name off the list and up to the nurse (I hope it was a nurse) you went, where upon, after you had rolled up a shirt sleeve, the nurse said in a bored voice “You won’t feel a thing” (Oh! Yeah! This is a Tech Boy you are talking to – that’s exactly what the Dentist says – which really put me at ease), she plonked a mechanical device, not unlike a gun, on the inside of your forearm, then she squeezed the trigger. After moving away you could see the tattoo of a number of pin-pricks. Instruction was then given, to keep “the site” clean and not to scratch it, and to front up again in a number of days time for it to be inspected. I think that if it had come up in a blister you were OK, if not you had a “jab” in the shoulder (or the other way round). I am of the belief, that It was Mr Trask that saved a number of The Old Tech artifacts and memorabilia from the bonfire that was held when The Tech was closed down.
Good on ya!!! Mr and Mrs Trask.