Kicking against my schooling!

[Katharine]

I never expected to generate so much discussion with my original posting! Second hand clothing does not worry me at all - except underwear. I certainly try to recycle as much as I can whether through charity shops or Freecycle.

The clothes I bought this time were from an outlet village so I saved considerably on other retail prices for them. I am now looking forward to wearing them and have got over my feelings of guilt at buying them! (However I have NOT told my mother how much I spent that day!!!)

[englishangel]

My mother spent £32.00 on a hat for my wedding (in 1975), I still don't think she has told my Dad how much it cost. (It was a horrible hat too)

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Mary! What are you doing out of bed at this time.

10.30am here - not used to messages appearing in my inbox until late afternoon our time

Love

Caroline

[J.R.]

We sometimes get decent films on tele at this time.

That's what I'm doing - Watching 'Daddy & Them'

Absolutely hilarious.

[englishangel]

Waiting for son to come home from work (he is a barman)

[Angela Woodford]

We also gave him for his 16th a Royal Marines surplus greatcoat which has been a coat, a sleeping bag and goodeness know what else, and at the end of the winter gets cleaned and is as good as new.

These things last forever. I have a R.C.A.F. greatcoat which I bought in 1975. Unsurprsingly it no longer fits me, but my wife uses it, and it's in perfect nick, despite the fact it had a lot of use when I was a teenager.

The coat itself is over 50 years old.

This takes me immediately to my copy of Stephen Fry's "Moab is My Washpot".

Here we are.. he's writing about his days at Uppingham, early 1970's.

"This was the era when military greatcoats were the innest thing to wear. I had a WW2 American Air Force coat that was the envy of the world, Matthew an RAF equivalent..."

However, thinking about haircuts reminds me of, IMHO, the greatest CH hair makeover of all time.

It was the beginning of the Autumn term 1964. We'd noisily run into the L1VA formroom to bag our desks, to be brought up short by the presence of our new Form Mistress who was already ensconced at her desk on the dais.

She was the largest woman I had ever encountered. She looked appallingly strict and implacable. She introduced herself as Miss Morrison. She went on to discuss routines and timetables. I thought I detected the faintest Scottish intonation behind those dry clipped tones.

"Gawd help us!" I heard Elaine Woods mutter from the desk behind me.

But it was Miss Morrison's hair which was truly extraordinary. It was iron grey, and, if let down, must have been extremely long! It was braided , and wrapped several times around her head in these immaculate plaits. The effect was very, very dated and disciplined.

(In fact, I grew to like BJM very much. Amazingly, she liked me, and would often write thoughtfully optimistic comments in my school reports. I enjoyed inducing her occasional cackle of laughter - whole-body-quiver moment - and really respected her adherence to immaculate grammar and spelling.)

However, halfway through the U1V year, we were amazed! Miss Morrison sailed into the form room. The hair was gone! The long twined braids had been amputated, and the famous hair was short and set in a Regal style...

As we lined up in the corridor to be dismissed, we gazed up close at the stiff sprayed set cauliflower perm. That waist-length hair cut off! There was only one thing to be said, and Susan Parkin said it for all of us -

"Did you need the money, Miss Morrison?"

Love

Munch

[englishangel]

What about Caroline in 1's? UVI in 1965 and leader of the choir, a plait down her back like a horse's tail or a crown which just fitted inside her chapel cap. Now THAT was a head of hair.

She had it all cut off mid-way through the year.

[Katharine]

She had it short when she started at the school, Mary. I remember her starting to grow it, yes it was quite something. She must have had it cut after I left.

[Euterpe13]

there was also Sarah Hayward, in my year, who had such a long, heavy plait down her back that it actually tilted her head back as she walked ... until one term when she came back with a short, wavy crop - I nearly cried !
And Sabina Stewart, whose hair was so long that she had to wash it in the bath ... she taught me to make an enormous bun on the back of my head by wrapping an old pair of tights around a poneytail before covering with hair - looked wonderful !

B.

[sejintenej]

re: Hair,

Although we couldn't have anything which came much below the tops of our ears, UMIST in Manchester was a bit different. When he got his PhD, my son could comfortably sit on his hair and still have some trailing off the seat under his thighs. Washing? some problem!

The hair was all cut off prior to the university ceremony; this caused some concern.
I still have relatives in the terrorist country of Ireland and this was at the height of the troubles. My wife had to go and collect a shoebox sized parcel from the post office; it came from Dublin and the handwriting of the address was totally unknown. Cautiously, my wife asked if the sorting office had any form of security devices, explaining her worries; no, but the clerk cut the parcel open, saying that "if it's a bomb then we're both dead".
We didn't even know Robert had been in Ireland but it was his hair - my wife looked in the shoebox, saw, screamed and fled. What the clerk thought is unknown.

[J.R.]

That's priceless DB !

Slightly off at a tangent. Have you all seen that funny photo of a NY Bomb Squad Officer ? On the back of his works tee-shirt, is printed....

"New York Bomb Squad. If you see me running, try to keep up !"

[englishangel]

She had it short when she started at the school, Mary. I remember her starting to grow it, yes it was quite something. She must have had it cut after I left.

I believe she started getting horrendous neck pain and headaches and they decided it was the weight of all that hair so she had it cut, probably around March time I suppose.

For those who didn't see it, even in a plait it came below her waist, and it was at least as thick as a wrist.

[Angela Woodford]

Sorry - going back a little bit, does anyone remember anything about the later days of Miss Morrison?

I know that she became Headmistress after Miss Tucker, whom I never knew, and masterminded the move to Horsham. Did she retain Headmistress-ship, or retire then?

I always considered that beneath that strict efficient authority was a very kind heart. I admired her.

Love

Munch

(Or should I have started a BJM topic? Perhaps, if there are a lot of memories?)

[Angela Woodford]

Realised too late that had posted BJM request in General Chat - Non CH!

[cj]

Sorry - going back a little bit, does anyone remember anything about the later days of Miss Morrison?

I know that she became Headmistress after Miss Tucker, whom I never knew, and masterminded the move to Horsham. Did she retain Headmistress-ship, or retire then?

I always considered that beneath that strict efficient authority was a very kind heart. I admired her.

Love

Munch

(Or should I have started a BJM topic? Perhaps, if there are a lot of memories?)

Miss Morrison was headmistress when I was at Hertford (1983-5) and then at Horsham for a few years overseeing the merger. I can't remember when she retired, but Elizabeth Cairncross took over the role during the late 80s, although I can't remember what title would have been used. Would the ladies have been referred to as Headmistress or Deputy Head? Having said that, I have a feeling that Harry Spurrier was Deputy or Second Master or somesuch title. BJM gave a teaparty for the remaining Hertford girls when she left. Is she still alive?