Today’s journey is a new fiction work by Sharmini Kumar: School Days Past. The optimum place to listen to it is on the route 59 tram, starting at stop 41, Essendon North Primary School & Keilor Rd, and ending at stop 59, Matthews Ave, but it can be listened to on any tram at any time.

A woman has taken her 12 year old daughter for high school orientation at a school near Essendon train station. As they take the tram home (towards Airport West), the mother tells her daughter about her own high school days, the memories she has of catching the tram, of meeting boys at the Airport West shopping centre, and her experiences of high school. She talks to her daughter about enjoying life, about friends and family. It is clear that the daughter is not particularly interested, even though she loves her mother.

Credits

Written and read by Sharmini Kumar
Commissioned by David Ryding
Edited by Elizabeth Flux
Recorded at the State Library of Victoria
Produced by Beth Atkinson-Quinton
With music by Steve Hearne

Tramlines is a podcast created by Broadwave in partnership with the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office.

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