Housemistresses

[Katharine]

I remember Miss Lomas visiting us and she always seemed much nicer than out Hag - but she had reached retiring age, it was obvious she had not wanted to retire.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Munch - I remember you as a kind person!
Alex - expelling my sister Ann was ridiculous. don't know how they thought it was going to help. what they ought to have seen was that she was very unhappy. on the other hand, I think Ann got what she wanted in the end - to go and live with my mum. she had left when we were young, and we were brought up basically by my dad. didn't do much for Ann's formal education though. she went to a lousy school in North London and ended up with hardly any qualifications.


Su

Hello Su

Am I correct in thinking that you and Ann were at Richard Atkins with Munch, Mervion and myself?
Either way, my sister, Elaine, went through RA four years after me and was constantly compared to her sister, the wunderkind (hmmm, not sure precisely when I turned into a guttersnipe. First week at CH? First needlework lesson with Miss Richards?) Elaine develped an impressive sarf lundun accent, left high school (can't remember which one: blue uniform, somewhere in Lambeth) aged 16 with no O Levels, and has always earnt more than me .

Caroline

[su523]

Munch - how I recognise that comment about being eccentric! Sometimes I'm just burbling along being me at work, when I catch people looking at me v-e-r-y strangely ... So perhaps CH somehow made us more individual than we thought. My husband thinks I'm pathologically individual and is always saying 'but everyone else does x y or z'. He is learning that that line of argument cuts no ice with me at all. And yet, I don't think I'm weird or different. I feel very ordinary.

Caroline - er, don't think so about Richard Atkins - it's a primary school, right? we went to Holmewood Road and then to Fenstanton Junior School. I happened to drive past there a week or so ago and spotted that the 'temporary' classrooms in the playground are still there. ho hum.

Su
5's 1967-73

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Caroline - er, don't think so about Richard Atkins - it's a primary school, right? we went to Holmewood Road and then to Fenstanton Junior School. I happened to drive past there a week or so ago and spotted that the 'temporary' classrooms in the playground are still there. ho hum.

Su
5's 1967-73

Ooops. Sorry - yes it was the primary school Munch and I went to.

I have a theory that only rich people are labelled eccentric, and that the rest of us are considered just plain nuts

Very interesting thought that CH turned us into, er, individuals. I very rarely meet people who are sufficiently interested (resilient??) to pursue a conversation with me, and I am often accused of being unable to remain on topic. Not strictly true: it's just that they don't appreciate the links (sometimes tenuous) between what I am burbling on about and the original topic.

However, I had dinner on Monday night with my Supervisor, three other students and a collaborating scientist. I realise that he and I dominated the conversation; although, in our defence, our fellow diners didn't seem to have much to say. Everyone laughed a lot, so I'm guessing (hoping?) that we were entertaining, but it was assumed that we were both exhibiting the effects of the large quantities of very fine wine we had all consumed. I was told that they had never seen me this way before, and my behaviour was obviously due to alcohol. WRONG. It's actually that they have never seen me in the company of someone I enjoy conversing with.

Perhaps I should invite him to join the forum as a friendof

[Euterpe13]

I have to agree ( and I'm sure that Mary will concurr) that our years at CH developed in a great many of us an individuality, an enquiring mind and a tendency to bloodymindedness not found elsewhere....

My children realised ages ago that I am potty ( they got so used to me talking to myself that if I actually was addressing them I had to say their names loudly or I would simply be " phased out" ) , as did both my husbands - but then after 7 years at KES, Laura is starting to give me a run for my money.

But one of the best compliments I received on the richness of a CH education came during a dinner at the British Consulate in Marseilles - during the cheese-course seat changing, the Consul arrived at our table and was told that I was amazing the other diners because, no matter what subject came up , I had something intelligent/interesting to say about it ... DR would have been proud ( they didnt add that no-one else was getting a word in edgeways - probably too well mannered !)
B.

[Angela Woodford]

So perhaps CH somehow made us more individual than we thought.

Su - I do agree with you. I'm trying to think of the advantages and disadvantages of this education with DR West in charge. I still am totally un-streetwise, liable to stick in a situation long after I should have given up (no running away) and with ridiculously low expectations of enjoyment. I can have a cup of tea when I choose! I can wear new underwear!

But certainly in various jobs I've done I've been regarded as "posh" - dreaded word! - or "different". "You're an unusual girl, Angela" a senior nurse manager once said in a puzzled way.

As a nurse, I found I was able to empathise with patients from institutions, or who were unpopular or different in some way.

I wonder what were the first changes made when DR left and Miss Tucker arrived? Miss Tucker must have seen immediately how many everyday things were out of step with the outside world.

Munch

[su523]

Munch
yes yes yes.
I also stick in situations looooooong after I should have just left. And sometimes people think I'm much posher than I really am, assume middle class origins etc.
And don't get me going on underwear! Let's just say that should I ever be knocked down by the proverbial bus I shall be found to be wearing underwear that fits, is suitable for the clothes I'm wearing, matches and wasn't bought on the high street. I still think of it as a bit of luxury every day.
When I arrived at CH I was quite a small 11 year old, I didn't grow very fast and I stopped growing (upwards at any rate) when I was 13. I never did grow into some of the outfits I was allocated on day 1; eventually when I was in the 6th form and it was generally agreed that I wasn't likely to get any bigger, I was allowed to trade in some bit of Sunday uniform for a smaller size. Not surprisingly, I still have an acute sense of what fits and what doesn't; and since I'm still only 5 foot 1, the former is quite rare. I wonder what lesson I was supposed to learn from being made to wear clothes that didn't fit for the best part of 6 years?

Su
5.23
1967-73

[Angela Woodford]

And don't get me going on underwear!

Su, you are a woman after my own heart! My years at CH have taught me to appreciate the pleasure of pretty, matching and new.


I wonder what lesson I was supposed to learn from being made to wear clothes that didn't fit for the best part of 6 years?

I don't think anyone has remembered the 6's technique of garment ageing practised for a time - Alex, I think you set it up! My blazer was so nearly threadbare, but not quite bad enough for the chop. I handed it over to you + friends and it was made completely threadbare by each in turn thacking it against the cloakroom bench for maybe half an hour. I bore the wrecked garment to Nines where it was "condemned" and I was given a new blazer which fitted me. Result!

(I discovered years later that a similar technique to test fabrics' capacity for wear and tear is used by manufacturers, when I worked for a furnishing fabric company.)

It was impossible that anyone looked smart in these uniforms. I suppose the "lesson" was that nobody should look better dressed than anybody else? Whaddya think?

Munch

[Liz Jay]

Hi Munch, Su and all

As vanity was a truly awful sin, we had to swiftly learn that clothes were simply there to cover up our vile bodies!
The garments being shapeless, second hand (mostly) and often ill-fitting did even the most attractive young ladies few favours, and I can't remember the staff being good role models for any budding beauties.
Seem to remember DR always wearing the same camel coat and black hat.
It's been discussed elsewhere on the boards how this practice eroded one's sense of style. I have three sisters, and all dress with effortless taste and balance where I don't seem to have much idea! My mum used to accuse me of wearing "sackcloth and ashes", and ask me, why didn't I put some high heels on?? Even as an elderly lady she was much more fashion concious than I was! I'm grateful that my current lifestyle in the Yorkshire countryside allows me to dress in jeans and T-shirts in summer and jeans and fleeces in winter - it's actually quite a relief not to have to put a smart outfit together for work!
BTW I had a birthday recently and my musings and calculations lead me to believe that I am now approximately the same age as DR was in my CH schooldays. What a worrying thought.

[Angela Woodford]

Hi Munch, Su and all

As vanity was a truly awful sin, we had to swiftly learn that clothes were simply there to cover up our vile bodies!
The garments being shapeless, second hand (mostly) and often ill-fitting did even the most attractive young ladies few favours, and I can't remember the staff being good role models for any budding beauties.
Seem to remember DR always wearing the same camel coat and black hat.
It's been discussed elsewhere on the boards how this practice eroded one's sense of style. I have three sisters, and all dress with effortless taste and balance where I don't seem to have much idea! My mum used to accuse me of wearing "sackcloth and ashes", and ask me, why didn't I put some high heels on?? Even as an elderly lady she was much more fashion concious than I was! I'm grateful that my current lifestyle in the Yorkshire countryside allows me to dress in jeans and T-shirts in summer and jeans and fleeces in winter - it's actually quite a relief not to have to put a smart outfit together for work!
BTW I had a birthday recently and my musings and calculations lead me to believe that I am now approximately the same age as DR was in my CH schooldays. What a worrying thought.

It's true! We're the same age now as those women that taught us! I remember Carolynn pointing this out last time I saw her. (After approx three hours we'd got as far as 1967). I don't remember a single member of staff that dressed with flair or distinction.

Another thing that worried me on going out into the outside world apart from What To Wear was the blank in my mind that was Lerve, Sex and Relationships. Nil, nada, rien! Although we did cover reproduction of the rabbit last Bio lesson of the U1V. Actually, it comes back to me, the nearest my education came to this was a talk by DR herself...

All the members of ( I think) the LV and UIV were told to come down into School Hall from Dining Hall. We scraped into those noisy chairs with apprehension. DR's face was set into an expression of grim resolution. "It has come to my attention" she began "that some of you have begun to use Tampax". Oh no! Please not, DR... "You must know" she went on "that this will break a ring muscle. Your husband will know that you are not a virgin and will despise you". Then an afterthought occurred to her. "Of course it is all right for a professional girl swimmer".

A sudden image crept into my mind of the professional girl swimmer arriving home - "Darling! I won the Gold for the 1000m freestyle!" and getting the gloomy response "Hmm... but I still despise you..."

We walked out in a sort of stunned silence. Honestly!

I wish I could agree with Barbara that my education had conferred on me any sort of richness, or indeed, bloodymindedness. I learned that I was inevitably in the wrong, and once was sent by an employer for Assertiveness Training. The instructor eventually gave up hope. Apparently I was being not Assertive but Manipulative. All those tricky sessions in front of various fierce women, talking myself out of trouble obviously did it for me!

AND another thing! (OK, nearly finished) At CH, there was just not enough to read. Think about it? There was The Library. The books were all oldish, and a static population. There were battered old books in the House Library, and a Fiction Library in the Old bit of the school. No new reading at all! No new fiction, biography, history, religious reading. Does anybody remember differently?

Munch

[englishangel]

Oh Munch. what a can of worms you have opened.

I always thought Queenie had style, and great legs, but I don't remember anyone else.

As for the 'Tampax' talk, I was just a year behind you but DRs talk was along the lines that she had spoken to the Doctor about it and as there were so many other ways to break your hymen (riding a bicycle, doing the splits etc) that wearing a tampon was a matter of personal choice.

Books, books, books.

I could read before I went to school, and I am still an avaricious reader. I got my second (and last) disorder for being in the fiction library during break the day after getting my first (and losing my BA) for being back late from a walk to collect evergreens for Christmas decorations.

Incidentally I got most of my erotic education from Robert Graves book on Greek Mythology. An innocuous looking little paperback that had obviously never been read by whoever stocked the library.

Sex ed.I had got from my Mum before going to CH.

[Angela Woodford]

Oh Munch. what a can of worms you have opened.

As for the 'Tampax' talk, I was just a year behind you but DRs talk was along the lines that she had spoken to the Doctor about it and as there were so many other ways to break your hymen (riding a bicycle, doing the splits etc) that wearing a tampon was a matter of personal choice.

No Mary. The exact words are still alive in my memory. Doctor no, other ways of breaking hymen, no, personal choice - as if! Why would she have gathered us together to talk about something that was OK? Perhaps she recanted at a later date.

But you're right about Queenie. I neglected to mention her wonderful shoes on her tiny feet.

Munch

Munch

[Liz Jay]

Hi Munch

Seeing as I struggled to get my "white stripe" I don't think I could have aspired to any ambitions in the professional swimming direction.

Hobby swimmers were not viewed in the same light evidently.

I did go riding occasionally and also owned a bike, never could do the splits.....do cartwheels count I wonder.............

You should have spent a couple of terms at King's School with me, that would have broadened your outlook. it did mine - eventually - was flabbergasted at first. Would have caused DR to have apoplexy....

[Vonny]

"white stripe"

I had completey forgotten about white stripes!
Does anyone remember "standards" as well? You could get 1, 2 or 3 point standards for swimming and athletics. If I remember rightly the points from standards were counted up per house and the house with the most won.

[midget]

How cruel to mention the white stripe. What was worse you had to get the bl***dy thing on 2 consecutive years to be able to keep it.