Proposed gathering at Hertford Museum - 4/5 April 08

[kayinbaja]

I won't be there, either. Hope you all have a lovely time!
Kay

[englishangel]

When I saw your name come up I thought you were going to say you could make it after all. There seems to be a preponderance of Class of '72 as we would be called if we were in the US.

I am really looking forward to it, do we have to wear hats?

[kerrensimmonds]

What's a hat?
I was going to say that I have a Chapel Cap I would be pleased to lend to someone - then remembered that it is among the artefacts etc. which I left behind at the Museum in Hertford. So you may see it on display but I guess it won't be available for wearing.....................

[midget]

You will all be struck down if you don't wear a hat when you go out into the town! (Did anyone ever try it?)
Maggie

[kerrensimmonds]

What a heinous crime.... going out into the town without a HAT......
I need to go into a darkened room in order to recover from this dreadful reminder of times past. No, I would never have DARED going beyond the school gates without a hat (until going out for e.g. crocodile walks or in the 6th form going into town in twos, after the year that the Chapel Caps were abolished). But I seem to think (??maybe I am wrong?) that even after that, when we went out with our parents etc. on Long Saturdays, or when we left the school on other formal occasions, we still had to wear our 'best' hats (whether velours in winter or panamas in summer). Anyone else have a clearer memory ......

[Liz Jay]

Maggie you've got me quite worried now!!! I don't have much of a hat selection.....this is the choice...

....I have (1) my riding hat - black, velvet, was quite chic but showing signs of fading and wear (2) a sort of Davy Crockett dog-walking thing in hunter green with pull down ear flaps -very warm but somewhat unflattering (3) a blue balaclava - for emergency deep mid winter use when unlikely to meet another human. Oh and (4) a white plastic visor thing which is more of an eye shade. In the loft I believe there could be a Santa hat left over from the Christmas festivities......a total of five variations on the hat theme.

I find myself totally unable to pick which is the most suitable for a trip to Hertford.

Can you perhaps advise me?

Yours
Anxious from North Yorkshire

[midget]

I think the Davy Crockett, as being the most likely to annoy the shades of former staff. Good luck.

Maggie

[kerrensimmonds]

I'd go with Davey Crockett and the earflaps, if I were you, Liz. Can all those who are converging on Hertford on 5th April match that.....?
I think we might have established that an uncovered head could be 'verboten'. AArrgghhh! I think I'll bring a handkie.....

[Angela Woodford]

I've got a sort of version of an Ashbourne hat in white crocheted string. If I sewed on tapes and marked it 6.7....?

[kerrensimmonds]

OK Angela.. you wear yours as described. And actually I have something similar (bought from Tescos a few years ago) with sparkly silvery bits round the brim. We will wow the rest of them!!!!! See you there!
(I also have a plain white cotton hat, just about an Ashbourne Hat, but purchased when on holiday in North Wales in a very sunny summer several years ago. I think I will keep quiet about that one......)
Kerren

[Jo]

What a heinous crime.... going out into the town without a HAT......
I need to go into a darkened room in order to recover from this dreadful reminder of times past. No, I would never have DARED going beyond the school gates without a hat (until going out for e.g. crocodile walks or in the 6th form going into town in twos, after the year that the Chapel Caps were abolished). But I seem to think (??maybe I am wrong?) that even after that, when we went out with our parents etc. on Long Saturdays, or when we left the school on other formal occasions, we still had to wear our 'best' hats (whether velours in winter or panamas in summer). Anyone else have a clearer memory ......

I'm puzzled about chapel caps, Kerren. They were definitely still in existence when I was at Hertford, which was after you. Were they abolished and then brought back again? As far as I recall, they were for everyday use in chapel, with hats for Sundays and best, including outings - certainly when I was first there. I think the rules on hats were relaxed during my time at Hertford - possibly even chapel caps were re(abolished) at some point.

[Katharine]

I too was puzzled by Kerren's saying that about Chapel Caps. It is in Half to Remember that DR decided to abolish them some time after the four year term came in, when she saw the girls wearing them in August. I am sure they weren't abolished the first or second year of the four term year - I left the Christmas of the second school year of it, and Kerren left six months after me, so she did not have another August there.

[englishangel]

AFAIR hats of all types were abolished around 1969, we certainly didn't wear them with the cherry blazers which came in that year. Come on Class of '72 you must remember.

Did Miss Tucker bring them back then? The panama had a blue and gold band round it which would have looked very odd with the cherry blazers.

Incidentally I do love a hat, even the chapel caps, and wore something very similar when we departed on our honeymoon. in brown babycord with a small floppy flower on the side, it was 1975.

[kerrensimmonds]

There's a celebrated picture from the Hertfordshire Mercury (actually I think I've seen it somewhere on this Forum....) with a group of girls including Anne Gillespie striding past the bus stop in Fore Street, just outside the school gates. They are not wearing hats. I think AG was one or two years behind me?

[Liz Jay]

Hi Kerren

My memory must be playing tricks then because the photo I'm thinking of definitely DOES have them wearing chapel caps!

Can someone lay their hands on the pic in question? It was taken late 60's either before or soon after I left (which was in 1968)