Singing Competition

[Alexandra Thrift]

There you are Liz!
Here's a link to a pic of me with "Friend of Alex" (Chris from Kings)

viewtopic.php?t=906

(scroll down past Ollie Beak)

Also check out this link to see **YOU** and your "Crufts" Beardie

viewtopic.php?p=19799#19799

Lots of other pics first...you should remember everyone ....scroll down and eventually you will get to YOU !

[englishangel]

Oh right, I do remember the before, and the first three lines of after...but not the bit about the Royal Family at all. It's rather a nice grace apart from that bit which sounds a bit ingratiating and must have been written in for some esoteric reason.
Did we all leap to our feet to the sound of a hammer? No wonder I ended up so twitchy about sudden loud noises!!!!
Was it just me or we were really cold and hungry most of the time? I got thinner and paler with each passing term, yet seem to remember some buxom comely wenches ...wherever did they obtain sufficient calories to look so healthy???

Liz (ex 6's '66 - '68 )

I am not sure, I did like spotted dick.

[englishangel]

Maureen Marshall (?) 3's and leader of the altos had singing lessons.

[Katharine]

Was it just me or we were really cold and hungry most of the time? I got thinner and paler with each passing term, yet seem to remember some buxom comely wenches ...wherever did they obtain sufficient calories to look so healthy???

I was a perverse junior and prided myself on being the last person in the school to put on a jersey!! I can well remember the inward rejoicing as I looked around Dining Hall and could see a sea of dark blue and ME!!

Now that we have returned to Britain after years in the Tropics I am the reverse and always cold!!

As to looking healthy, weren't they the days of fresh air and exercise? It was supposed to be all we needed to stay healthy.

[Alexandra Thrift]

Maureen Marshall (?) 3's and leader of the altos had singing lessons.

I know Maureen did ,Mary ( her name wasn't Marshall it was Murray:)) but it was in some mysterious way ....I remember thinking that I would have loved them. The possibility was never mentioned.

[englishangel]

Maureen Marshall (?) 3's and leader of the altos had singing lessons.

I know Maureen did ,Mary ( her name wasn't Marshall it was Murray:)) but it was in some mysterious way ....I remember thinking that I would have loved them. The possibility was never mentioned.

gosh Alex, you are at it again, amazing memory.

[Liz Jay]

Hi Katharine or should that be greetings fellow number 6:30

As for fresh air and exercise, I think I had so much at CH it just about put me off for life....! As a young child I lived in Singapore and found England very cold.
Was there something called "All Out" whereby even if you didn't have any organised games to participate in, you had to put on your mac and exit into the freezing winter weather for a period of time. A stylised version of "hanging around on street corners"????
I used to like it better when it rained.....was Sixes the only house that did the Rain Dance? Mugs of water hurled in the air and some ritualised clapping and chanting?? It worked quite a lot of the time as well which was probably as much due to the vagaries of the British climate as anything else!
Alex, what about Midsummer Revels?? I was very fond of my polished stone and nearly took it with me when I left....

Liz (ex Sixes '66 - '68 )

[englishangel]

sixes must have been the 'weird' house. I remember something being found on the field and whispers about 'devil worship'. That must have been 6's I think.

We definitely had 'all out'. Our side of the square (1s to 4s) hung out by the gardens behind the classroom and science blocks, did 5s-8s hang out on the other side?

[Katharine]

sixes must have been the 'weird' house. I remember something being found on the field and whispers about 'devil worship'. That must have been 6's I think.

We definitely had 'all out'. Our side of the square (1s to 4s) hung out by the gardens behind the classroom and science blocks, did 5s-8s hang out on the other side?

Weird - us? No way we were the sanest of the lot!!!

Midsummer revels were a complex rite of passage or something. As I recall it, we each (LV downwards) chose our stone and the night before put them in a circle n the hallowed school field, with a soft toy. During the night the fairies added a sweeties to each stone ( actually DR it's in 'Half to Remember'). In the morning we did the dance then sacrificed the youngest member of LV before bringing her back to the cloakroom. The dance was 1-2-3- hop the hop (I think) was raising the SAME arm and leg whichever feels most unnatural. I have just hopped across the room and can't work it out. (Come in Alex and Liz and help me!)

As for all out we also crossed the square to hang out.

[midget]

Oh right, I do remember the before, and the first three lines of after...but not the bit about the Royal Family at all. It's rather a nice grace apart from that bit which sounds a bit ingratiating and must have been written in for some esoteric reason.
Did we all leap to our feet to the sound of a hammer? No wonder I ended up so twitchy about sudden loud noises!!!!

Liz (ex 6's '66 - '68 )

There certainly was a hammer, loudly banged by the Steward Robertson, Robinson? His 2 daughters were in 8's I think. After he left their house was used for the UVI.

As for the grace was/is it still the custom to whisper "charitable benelephants" into the ear of the poor soul about to read grace in hall for the first time?

[Alexandra Thrift]

As for the grace was/is it still the custom to whisper "charitable benelephants" into the ear of the poor soul about to read grace in hall for the first time?

mmmm....I've never tried saying that grace after a few drinks,midget !


Midsummer Revels

I had forgotten sooo much before you and Liz reminded me,but loved it at the time.I'm slightly mystified by DR's encouragement towards something so blatantly pagan!

I had totally forgotten the "polished stone" and the hours we spent lovingly putting shoe polish on the damn thing.

I do remember rehearsing the day before (but not "breaking the ring" ie.walking through the circle).

At about 1/2 past 6 am we ran onto the school field like loonies, clutching a fork and a towel. We washed our face in the morning dew, dried it with the towel and then placed our towel by our stone (which was preplaced to make part of the ring ,the night before???was it?).

Then we did the one,two three dance that Katharine described.After that we took it in turns to do a handstand round the circle twice (or was it three times ?).Then we wrapped the sacrificial person up in the towels and carried her back to house ,all the time stabbing at her with our forks !!

Oh yes ...and DR left sweeties by our stones.

I wonder if the tradition continued right up until 1985 ? Rebecca Wharton should know.

[Angela Woodford]

At various times the ability to bring on rain with this Dance has been invaluable. At CH, I mostly performed it to avoid the hideous exertions of hockey, but the Dance successfully brought rain during this summer of drought. As a Gardener at a historic house, this skill was tremendously useful.

The main benefit I have from a CH education (so, so useful) is an ability to recite the Rivers of Yorkshire - yes! the Swale, the Ure, the Nidd, the Wharfe, the Aire and the Calder.

[Angela Woodford]

Hello Liz Jay!

I remember you very well - you were effortlessly, divinely slim... I was one of the buxum. It was not easy to lose weight at CH - don't you remember Syrup Stodge? Thames Mud and Barges?

There is a Sixes query to which I have never known an answer. When I entered the House in 1965 (eek!) the cold dank loos at the side of the cloakroom were known by a Latin name. I believe it began with a 'v'. Can anybody help?

Munch

[Liz Jay]

Hi there Angela and I'm so glad you put "Munch" on the bottom of your post because I remember you well!! And your lovely poetry....
In fact somewhere I have (in a safe place) a poem you wrote on my twelfth birthday for Siobhan, it's not that long since I found it and re-read it and put it away safely.
I'm amazed and touched to think you saw me as "divinely slim" - Ye Gods! - I was like Little Orphan Annie all stick limbs and knobbly knees. I remember being hungry a lot of the time but revolted by most of the food especially the margarine and the so-called veg pie with a crust over all the week's leftovers.
Anyway you'll be delighted to hear I didn't stay skinny all that much longer and nowadays am buxom and comely enough for anyone and almost permanently on a diet, probably a delayed reaction to being force-fed with cod liver oil and malt for a couple of terms!!!

Pleased to see this list has come back to life again, the reminiscing promises to be fun.

[Katharine]

There is a Sixes query to which I have never known an answer. When I entered the House in 1965 (eek!) the cold dank loos at the side of the cloakroom were known by a Latin name. I believe it began with a 'v'. Can anybody help?

Welcome to the forum, Angela. If you came in August 1965 we overlapped just until your first Christmas, when I left from the third year Sixth. I have to admit I cannot remember your name, you however might just remember mine!

In my time in 6s those loos were the Arlas (never written down just said) I think it was supposed to be Latin for a wing, but haven't got a Latin dictionary so can't check.