Family affair at Christ the King
People
An important development in the Brighton parish was the establishment in 1959 of another primary school to meet the changing needs of the area.
Two Good Samaritan Sisters, Sr Agatha Mary Horgan and Sr Chrysanthus Barry, were called to staff Christ the King School, Ballara Park, commencing with 76 pupils in grade one and two.
Among the first families in the fledgling community were the Fairlies. Beth (pictured) and Chas met through Catholic youth groups and moved into a Housing Trust home at Oaklands Park in October 1959 a few weeks after their marriage in Queen of Angels Church, Thebarton.
“We came back from our honeymoon and we were in the house by the weekend…the first Sunday we were down here we went to Mass in what used to be the Warradale Institute, and the following week Christ the King opened.”
Beth, 88, has been part of the Brighton parish ever since. Her six children attended Christ the King School and she and Chas were actively involved in the mothers’ and fathers’ clubs.
“The fathers did all the asphalting of the grounds around the school, Des O’Callaghan was a surveyor so he got it all under way,” she said.
Two of the Fairlie children with one of the Sisters of Mercy.
The two ‘Good Sams’ would come to the school each day from Marymount College where the other nuns enjoyed a hot meal at lunch time.
Not wanting them to miss out on the only cooked meal of the day, Beth and some of the other mums would prepare lunch for them with some “meagre ingredients” such as “a couple of little loin lamb chops and potatoes”. Beth and the other mums would top it up with some home-cooked desserts.
“A couple of boys would drop off the ingredients and then come back and deliver the meals on their bikes,” she recalled.
“By the time they rode back to school who knows what state they were in.”
Other memories include parish picnics at Belair National Park, the annual ‘Frolics’ where everyone dressed up in home-made costumes, and home Masses with the TV set as an altar.
“Mass on Sunday was a social occasion…the verandah was full of prams and pushes.”
When Chas died at the age of 46 Beth appreciated the support of the close-knit Christ the King community, as well as help from her parents.
“We had all moved in at the same time and started families, so everybody looked out for each other,” she said.
“A lot of us knew each other already through YCW (Young Christian Workers) and NCGM (National Catholic Girls Movement).”
The NCGM had a strong netball association and somewhat controversially, games were played on Sunday.
“We had to travel on public transport to different parishes to play so we had to wear overcoats over our netball uniforms,” she chuckled.
She met Chaz at a Sunday night social at St Peter’s – “that’s how a lot of our friends got together”.
Since moving to Brighton 27 years ago, Beth has attended Mass at St Joseph’s, Brighton, and has been actively involved in parish life, including the RCIA program, and she is a member of the Vinnies Sewing Group.
