When Barrie Marr and Mary Booth attended Williamstown Primary School, there were no computers, telephones or even electric lights.Williamstown Primary School’s oldest surviving students, Barrie Marr, 92, and Mary Booth, 93, get a selfie with three of its youngest students, Grace, Vinny and Sophie.“Just to sit here is nice,” Marr said, looking around the former grade 7 and 8 room. “It’s just so different. Kids are so different. I think we just look like ancient old people.
In Marr’s and Booth’s school days, in the 1930s and ’40s, the day began with drumming as students marched into the yard. There was no percussion when they returned this week, but the imposing bluestone building remained the same.
“We had a service in the school yard and all the kids got a medal from the king,” she said. “I was thrilled to the back teeth with it.”Mark Playdon Marr went to Williamstown from 1937 to 1943. The 92-year-old’s father also attended from 1907 and his daughter followed in their footsteps before Marr moved to Moorabbin to start a dance school with his wife in 1962.