1957

In 1957 the student body went on strike because school officials put us on detention for two weekends in a row. We marched from ‘Atele to Nuku’alofa, the capital city, about five miles away to see the ‘Ulukalala (minister of police). He was a noble and a proud alumnus who always showed love for the students. All that marching and he was not even home. He was on government business overseas. Student body leaders went inside his house and talked to his secretary. When we got back to school we were slapped with even more detention and the leaders expelled.

Later this year the people I would stay with moved to Nuku’alofa. Their property was next door to the biggest and best movie theatre in the islands. It just happened that this theater belonged to a relative of mine. Her name was Tupousolo. She had inherited it from her brother Vilipolo. Her son, Tiki, ran the theater and the projection room. When I got the chance I introduced myself to them. They were wonderful people. They told me that my father had actually built this beautiful theater. They invited me to come to the movies any time I wanted for free. So sometime I’d take a relative with me or just go by myself. I enjoyed going in the day time because that’s when Tiki would be testing out a newly received film from either Fiji or New Zealand. I have watched a lot of films over the years. Many of them were musicals and cowboy movies.

I couldn’t afford the two shillings for bus fare to town. That’s about twenty five cents. The bus was actually a flatbed truck with a fence and a cover like a covered wagon. Inside wooden benches lined each side.

Campus competitions were fierce whether it be in tennis, rugby, track and field or singing. A high light of each year was the singing competition between the campus houses. They were all named after royalty: Taufa’ahau, Tukuaho, Tungi, and Ngu. I represented Ngu. We even wanted our school to look prettier than others and it was with the exception of the rich Mormon American school, Liahona High School.

Most of the tutors (teachers) were smokers. The school allowed the sixth form (twelfth graders) to smoke on campus. There were designated areas where they were allowed to smoke. If a lower grade student smoked they had to be secretive. Then came a new principal and all smoking was banned, even off campus.