What Sounds & Smells Instantly Transport You Back to CH?

[midget]

It was worse before the fish knives! Imagine eating stew with the cutlery reeking of kippers.

[chaosriddenyears]

A truly horrible thought! Worse than eating fish with cutlery smelling of fish and bluebell.
Mind you, it seems to me that all the cutlery smelt of the food we ate.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

A truly horrible thought! Worse than eating fish with cutlery smelling of fish and bluebell.
Mind you, it seems to me that all the cutlery smelt of the food we ate.

I think that it is a characteristic of silver plated cutlery. I absolutely prefer stainless steel - not just because I don't need to polish it (well, other than to rub off water marks on the rare occasion that I entertain), but because there is always an unpleasant aroma associated with silver cutlery.

Caroline

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Was the Cutlery at Hertford REALLY Silver ?
I don't know what the metal was at Horsham --- but Silver would have been melted down !

About Talcum Powder footprints -----
When I was in the Army, there was a silly practice (During drunken Mess Nights) of soaking someone's feet in soot from the fireplace (As it was in those days) and then holding him upside down so that his footprints went up the wall, across the ceiling, and down the other side ! well done, it was quite effective !

Do not enquire about "Mess Night Games" --- I am sure the Hertford Ladies are far too refined !

[J.R.]

Was the Cutlery at Hertford REALLY Silver ?
I don't know what the metal was at Horsham --- but Silver would have been melted down !

Sheffield steel, if memory serves.

[chaosriddenyears]

And did it smell of Housey food or was it only the silver at Hertford?

I love that about the footprints - will keep that one in mind!

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Was the Cutlery at Hertford REALLY Silver ?
I don't know what the metal was at Horsham --- but Silver would have been melted down !

:

Only the fish knives and forks: and that may only be in my often defective memory.

They were a gift, I think, from Colin Davies' sister(s?) who, if I remember the story correctly, had suffered from eating off fish pong infiltrated cutlery when at Hertford, and vowed that when she could afford to, she would ensure that no-one else suffered that fate.

[englishangel]

My memory serves me that tale too.

[midget]

I don't know what hapened to Heather Davis after she left Hertford, but Gretel went to a drama college (?RADA?) at one time was in the BBC rep, and had a part in Mrs Dale's Diary on the radio. I hear that she died some years ago.

[chaosriddenyears]

Going on to sounds, when I hear "Once in royal David's city" it takes me straight back to the carol service at Hertford, which was lovely. In fact the run-up to Christmas had alot of charm altogether. The choir also sang part or all of Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols which I still love and have done with choirs here in Austria.

[Fjgrogan]

There was a recording made of the Ceremony of Carols - I have it somewhere on vinyl.

[Kim2s70-77]

The festival of carols from Kings college on Christmas Eve always takes me back to the CH festival. I thought of a distinct (unpleasant) smell that is very evocative too. There was a sickly/ vaguely rotting smell of those long tablecloths when they were taken out of the drawstring bags, especially as it got closer to Laundry day. I think food and water spills did not have time to dry before being neatly folded and replaced in the bag. There was quite an art in the folding of those too, wasn't there?

[lamba38]

I've always found the smell of mud and steam - which i don't come across all that often!- instantly takes me back to the changing rooms on cold autumn afternoons on the second form. Specifically that year because by the third form the house renovations had begun and the changing rooms were never really used again, and i don't think even exist anymore. Often thought that the school must have changed more in the early nineties than in the preceding twenty or so....although i have no firm evidence and many may disagree...

[englishangel]

Is this a record? lamba38 joined in December 06, and has just made his first post.

[Chrissie Boy]

I've always found the smell of mud and steam - which i don't come across all that often!- instantly takes me back to the changing rooms on cold autumn afternoons on the second form.

Oh gawd yes, mud and steam. Reading the above grabbed me by the viscera, it did. O how I hated the changing rooms and everything about them - communal showers, accidentally stepping in pools of water whilst wearing one's dry yellow socks, hot steam and mud smell indoors while it bucketed down with rain outside the wide-open windows, slabs of dried mud on the floor with boot-stud holes in them, finding that someone had nicked one's towel or had used it and covered it in mud and/or something which looked suspiciously like excrement, finding that one's rugby shirts and shorts had been nicked by someone else just when one needed them....and of course hairy half-naked blokes hopping around on one foot with their buttocks about a foot away from one's face as they tried to dress...... Not a pleasant memory.