Things you brought with you from home.

Share your memories and stories from your days at school, and find out the truth behind the rumours....Remember the teachers and pupils, tell us who you remember and why...

Moderator: Moderators

White Flag
2nd Former
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2007 3:00 pm
Real Name: TA

Things you brought with you from home.

Post by White Flag »

I remember that the start of a new term was made a little easier by having a few things from home with you. In my case it was:
Tins of beans and sausages.
Sweets.
Biscuits.
Little extra money.
Civilian clothes. God how I hated being looked at at Victoria. It was just great having ordinary clothes going home. Problem was that I had parents who were so proud of me that I had to change back into uniform just before the train stooped at my home station.

But pride of place was that shiny unopened 2 oz tin of Old Holbourn complete with Rizlas. Imagine the horror when on the first day of term John Rush ( I think it was ) caught me smoking by the fives courts and took the tin. I seem to remember that he smoked a fair amount as well. ( apologies ig it was not him )
Could do better !
User avatar
Mid A 15
Button Grecian
Posts: 3172
Joined: Thu May 19, 2005 1:38 pm
Real Name: Claude Rains
Location: The Patio Of England (Kent)

Post by Mid A 15 »

Tuck and photographs of family.

Newspaper cuttings of Charlton Athletic's (lack of) progress.

There were probably other things that will come to mind eventually.
Ma A, Mid A 65 -72
User avatar
englishangel
Forum Moderator
Posts: 6956
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:22 pm
Real Name: Mary Faulkner (Vincett)
Location: Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Post by englishangel »

Tuck and photos as above.

3 books which was desperate for me as I was (still am) an avid reader. As juniors we were only allowed in the Lending library once a week and to take out a small number of books. I had finished my allowance in about 2 days and would be itching to get back in for the rest of the week.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
kerrensimmonds
Button Grecian
Posts: 9395
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:34 pm
Real Name: Kerren Simmonds
Location: West Sussex

Post by kerrensimmonds »

Photos and 3 (?) ornaments for my locker. Tuck and a jar of lemon curd or marmite. Yes, BOOKS....though I did resent only being allowed to take three and having to have them vetted by the House Mistress before one could start reading them.
Kerren Simmonds
5's and 2's Hertford, 1957-1966
User avatar
cj
Button Grecian
Posts: 1738
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:35 pm
Real Name: Catherine Standing
Location: Devon

Post by cj »

Good topic, WF.

At Hertford my round, green and white striped tuck tin was my substitute mummy, filled with all the delectables not offered by the school menu (unfortunately cementing all my eating disorders into position - but that's a different thread!). I never remember going to a tuck shop at Hertford so a few sweets must have been in there along with some sweet and savoury biscuits, hot chocolate drink powder etc, but there were problems with stealing as the lockers were inappropriately named and couldn't be, um, locked. At Horsham, once I was up in the senior dorm I used to hide it under my bed.

The one thing that was a real home comfort though was having your own duvet and covers at Horsham. Apart from the physical comfort, it softened the look of the junior dorm in complete contrast to the starkness of the boys sleeping arrangements. Upstairs in cubies, almost anything went, so posters on the walls, rugs on the floor, ornaments, books on shelves, scarves draped dangerously across the overbed light fittings, clothes and makeup for weekend activities scattered hither and thither, the whole girly shebang.

I don't think I took many (if any) photos of my family as it made me homesick looking at them. Getting my copy of Smash Hits through the post from home was pure joy as posters of John Taylor from Duran Duran were a must aged 12 in 1s and were being constantly replaced through paper thinning due to frequent kissing.

In Col A, juniors were allowed bits and bobs on their toyces/toices and a blanket or throw hung over a string looped between them for a little privacy in dayroom.

Am I correct in thinking that at Hertford we were only allowed 3 things on top of our bedside lockers?
Catherine Standing (Cooper) Image
Canteen Cath 1.12 (1983-85) & Col A 20 (1985-90)

Any idiot can deal with a crisis. It takes a genius to cope with everyday life.
User avatar
englishangel
Forum Moderator
Posts: 6956
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:22 pm
Real Name: Mary Faulkner (Vincett)
Location: Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Post by englishangel »

Quite possibly, but once in cubies we had a pinboard and I had a poster of Steve McQueen in Bullitt to which some kind soul stuck a sticker saying "100% cotton gusset" from a bathing suit or pair of briefs.

Funny the things you remember 37 years on.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
User avatar
J.R.
Forum Moderator
Posts: 15835
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:53 pm
Real Name: John Rutley
Location: Dorking, Surrey

Post by J.R. »

One jar of jam and a tub of Marmite.

I can't recall we were allowed anything else in those far off days.
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
michael scuffil
Button Grecian
Posts: 1612
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:53 pm
Real Name: michael scuffil
Location: germany

Post by michael scuffil »

The Jet Aircraft of the World: A Complete and Authoritative History of world progress in Jet Propulsion, by William Green and Roy Cross

A going-away-to-school present. It cost 30 shillings, equivalent to a whole term's pocket money.
kerrensimmonds
Button Grecian
Posts: 9395
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:34 pm
Real Name: Kerren Simmonds
Location: West Sussex

Post by kerrensimmonds »

Oh yes, pocket money. We were allowed 15 shillings a term (75p! although the equivalent would be more than that now!). In those far off days when I was at Hertford, there were no cubies and no opportunity or place to stick up posters. Tuck was taken back in a 'tuck box' which was kept in a locked cupboard in the room at the end of the Day Room. We queued up (under supervision) to take our 'six sweets or equivalent' on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Some monitresses were more generous than others in the determination of 'equivalence'. I remember a Mars bar counted as six, though...
(and I am sure we have had this discussion on the Forum before. I bet Mary or Katharine will turn it up!)
Kerren Simmonds
5's and 2's Hertford, 1957-1966
michael scuffil
Button Grecian
Posts: 1612
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:53 pm
Real Name: michael scuffil
Location: germany

Post by michael scuffil »

You know, the more I hear about Hertford in the 50s/60s, the more I say to myself: God's boots, how could they put up with it? Horsham was a holiday camp by comparison.
Euterpe13
Button Grecian
Posts: 1287
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:55 pm
Real Name: Barbara Borgars
Location: close de Saffend

Post by Euterpe13 »

I remember always taking back a set of clothes + makeup and shooes to change into on LongSats - strictly forbidden to change out of uniform, but we did it anyway.

Also remember the ordeal of having books vetted - and the frustratrion if one of them did not pass muster ! Marmite, of course, and also tuck.
Not to forget my teddy , Pooh ( because he was blue...) - my first teddy and the only one I ever owned...

CJ's description of dorm at Horsham sounds very like my daughter's room at KES - an ongoing jumble-sale / pigsty. She told me that she always kept in her cupboard a clean garment or tee-shirt washed during the holidays - because it smelt of home... poor thing !
Hertford - 5s/2s - 63-70
" I wish I were what I was when I wanted to be what I am now..."
Ajarn Philip
Button Grecian
Posts: 1902
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:30 pm
Real Name: AP

Re: Things you brought with you from home.

Post by Ajarn Philip »

White Flag wrote:I remember that the start of a new term was made a little easier by having a few things from home with you. Civilian clothes. God how I hated being looked at at Victoria. It was just great having ordinary clothes going home.

...

But pride of place was that shiny unopened 2 oz tin of Old Holbourn complete with Rizlas.


Books. Always books. Still is. Then tuck (also always, and also still is...).

Old Holburn and (Green) Rizlas were my downfall, and I still roll my own, now with Golden Virginia, though I'm not proud of the fact. You can't beat green Rizlas though.

Although I always travelled by car, I was quite proud of the uniform, but I think that was the exhibitionist in me. I do remember a civvies outfit around 1969-70 consisting of a patterned shirt (mercifully I forget the pattern) with extremely large rounded collars (with inserted collar-stiffenerthingies) and a pair of purple, flared corduroy jeans. Some things are best forgotten.
User avatar
blondie95
Button Grecian
Posts: 2590
Joined: Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:41 pm
Real Name: Amy Leadbeater
Location: Kent
Contact:

Post by blondie95 »

although i didnt board until second year my study in BaB
had various items of clothing (it got more and more as term went on), cd collection and stero-posters of Jonny Wilkinson. Pictures of friends and little knick knacks. To help make the big high walled studies of BaB better i used to take adverts from glossy magazines that i liked and collaged them on the wall with nice paper carrier bags as well.In 6th form my room was a little like a shrine to Jonny Wilkinson
Amy Leadbeater
BaB 2000-01, Gre W01-02

Check out my blog http://leadpencils.blogspot.com/
sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Post by sejintenej »

michael scuffil wrote:You know, the more I hear about Hertford in the 50s/60s, the more I say to myself: God's boots, how could they put up with it? Horsham was a holiday camp by comparison.
In some ways yes, in others, no.

Our compulsory pocket money minimum was 150 pence (new money) per term which went a long way then. In the Prep you were allowed about 6old pence (2.5 new pence) worth of sweets per week but there were also compulsory deductions for things like the Christmas party, stamps for weekly letters home etc.

We did not have the same degree of overview by housemasters - the only thing they really controlled was records (vinyl) in that they had to be "approved" but the decision was always the same "No". One subscriber to this forum had his letters read by the censor (Kit Aitken) before he received them but that was, I think, exceptional (there also seemed to be some problem about his being taken off the school grounds by his adult sister!)

I don't think there was any imposed limit on what we could bring back to school (except only one blanket in winter terms and no civvy clothes at all) but the lockers being so small and the volume of school books so large that you simply couldn't bring more than perhaps one thin book.

Somewhere there was storage for tuck and you could take a jar of jam into Dining Hall at teatime. In the Prep you could even grow your own veg in summer and take that in as well!

No posters, pictures etc anywhere whatsoever except on the inside of your locker door (- well, I think that that was allowed)

There were a lot of theoretical restrictions (verbal - nothing was in writing) but CH Horsham being so big and open there was little problem in getting out. OTOH there were ridiculous rules. AFAIR only Button Grecians could ride bikes whilst in full uniform whilst monitors could ride when wearing uniform breeches plus blazers (after having obtained permission to bring bikes to school). I got caught riding in full uniform on one occasion - it was very lucky I was under specific orders to do so and there was a good reason for being in uniform and riding when and where I was.
I was probably beaten twice a term on average - there was one boy in Peele B who seemed to get a beating every two weeks. I suppose his hide got so tough that he didn't feel it after a time; certainly he didn't seem to care a hoot.

(For the benefit of the ladies and youngsters a beating of between 4 and 8 strokes was carried out with a hard slipper or a long cane on underpant covered buttocks with the skin well stretched. Generally (but not invariably) blood was not drawn; on one occasion the implement hit me at an inconvenient moment and I passed out because my breathing was arrested. When I came round the beating was restarted from the beginning because of my actions - I probably got about 10 strokes that time. Blood on the underpants caused all sorts of grief from matron making it almost a double punishment.)

I suspect that Kit Aitken and probably Mr Page knew very well that three of us broke implied rules alternate weekends. Since we came back alive and there were no complaints about our behavior nothing was said! If that happened now I suspect that the school would be summarily shut down.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
kerrensimmonds
Button Grecian
Posts: 9395
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:34 pm
Real Name: Kerren Simmonds
Location: West Sussex

Post by kerrensimmonds »

And Michael says (earlier today) that 'God's boots... Horsham was a holiday camp compared to Hertford'.
Blimey.
I don't think so.
We certainly didn't have those sorts of beatings - although (as other threads on this Forum will testify) there was at least one sadistic House Mistress who did cause bodily harm to her charges.
Kerren Simmonds
5's and 2's Hertford, 1957-1966
Post Reply