Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Ajarn Philip wrote:cj, I do believe you're a genius!

JR, yes, removing a few worked a treat, but "setting" them so that they were barely touching the frame and all fell out with a huge clatter was much more satisfying!

better was leaving enough to make the bed look OK but so few that when the person put their weight on them at least one of them broke. 3 was usually enough.

DavebytheSea wrote:What on earth are lace-up knickers?

David - How could you ask that question

Even if you haven't seen the old Hammer Horror Jack The Ripper films, surely you remeber those exquisite lace up bloom......

This is a cry for help!.

Does anyone know how to conugate deponent verbs into the passive subjunctive?

Sorry, Gemma. I pass on that one. Queenie Blench threw me out of Latin a month or so before O level (we are talking Hertford) because she felt that I would not succeed. So conjugating anything is now way beyond me..
But I WILL forward the question to a contemporary who went back to school after we had left (and before she went to Oxford), to teach Latin in Queenie Blench's sabbatical term away.
I bet Joanna will know the answer.. I will let you know!
Kerren

For heaven's sake Gemma, have the decency to start a new 'Latin' thread.

and JR, just one more thing Horsham had that Hertford didn't.

We had horsehair mattresses and pillows, we did have metal matress bases rather than boards, but we had two school blankets, a regular 'natural' one and a top blanket of a blue tartan.

I think 'apple pie' beds are universal.

Oh thank you so much!. I'm in such a quandry at the moment. I've never done most of the subjunctive before and Kennedy is the single handedly worst book I've ever read in terms of helpfulness ( I'm sorry Josh when you read this, but it IS ).

So thanks alot!.




On a slightly more celebratory note!. I have finished my sewing.

When did blue tartan over blankets come in? I don't remember them but then I do have rather a selective memory, given that I am approaching my OAP.
I do however remember ghastly yellowy/goldy rather heavy curtains which we had to learn to fold precisely in three and then throw over the bar around the top of our 'cubicle' and leave so that the folds and lines were absolutely precise - to match the hospital corners of our under and over sheets, blankets, etc...........
And the basket under our bed, containing nightdress, dressing gown, slippers, hairbrush etc, had to be absolutely square with the bottom of the bed. Sounds like an army camp....

The blue tartan blankets did come in during our time there Kerren. There were the plain blue ones when I started but they were replaced sometime, can't remember when though!

The curtains were never in use in 6s in my time there, and I think the posts came down, but again couldn't say when.

Each evening, the seniors' baskets were prepared by juniors and left in a queue by the bathroom door. At the end of the term the senior gave the junior a 'basket present' - or was this just 6s?

DavebytheSea wrote:What on earth are lace-up knickers?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who read it like that!

Maggie

Ahh.. I remember the days of being 'soft about' (what was the technical term we used?) a senior, and 'preparing their basket'. And then hoping that they would come and talk to us before themselves getting into bed. I can even remember the names of the (two) 'seniors' who so affected me when I was a young teenager in 2's -but when it came to my turn to be a senior I was totally bewildered by the affection shown by the 'designated' junior and had no idea how to respond.
Maybe my memory of the goldy curtains relates solely to my time in 5's as a junior 'Ward' though I think I remember them also in 2's, for a time, where I went when I was 11 or thereabouts. But I do also remember the metal poles coming down and thereafer the dormitory beds being totally exposed to each other - both foot to foot and sideways. It was after my time that 'cubis' were invented.... small compartments containing one or two beds and not much room for anything else!
But now you mention it Katharine I do remember plain blue overblankets so the step from those to tartan ones is not so unbelievable. Maybe one of DRW's improvements? I must check the book....
Sorry Gemma.. we are going off topic here.....
Kerren

kerrensimmonds wrote:I do however remember ghastly yellowy/goldy rather heavy curtains which we had to learn to fold precisely in three and then throw over the bar around the top of our 'cubicle' and leave so that the folds and lines were absolutely precise - to match the hospital corners of our under and over sheets, blankets, etc...........
And the basket under our bed, containing nightdress, dressing gown, slippers, hairbrush etc, had to be absolutely square with the bottom of the bed. Sounds like an army camp....

We didn't have "cubicles" as such until the Barnes Wallis ones were constructed in each Upper Dorm - so why do I remember these goldy heavy curtain things - just the most hideous shade of yellow? Put to use as some sort of dust sheet?

There was an art to folding your nightie to fit exactly in the bottom of a basket. Also a pleasurable skill in kicking your basket down the dorm towards the bathroom.

I did Denise Brownlow's basket because (things having become a little more liberated) she had more beauty products to arrange in her basket. Always a pleasure to do! Sixes seniors did indeed give a basket present to the obliging junior - well remembered, Katharine!

An enthusiasm for a senior was being "cracked" on her. I could never select anyone sufficiently sublime!

Munch

Thank you, Angela. Yes 'cracked' is the word. I remember by name the two seniors in 2's to whom I was so attached.. (aahh...) - and I remember the juniors who were 'cracked' on me in my time as a senior. How embarrassing.....

And they would polish your Mon's badge, and do the washing up after Sunday study tea (because that way they got to eat any fancy leftovers)
Maggie

Yes we did baskets for seniors in 2's too. I did Barbara Kempson's and she bouught me a little china horse which my daughter now has (being horse mad).

What a good memory Mary. I think it was Barbara KempsTon? Her sister Gillian was in my year. Barbara now lives in East Sussex and has surfaced for some singng activities organised by Polly Robson (nee Barrett) though I personally have not met her. Her sister lives in Bermuda or somewhere equally exotic and although I was given and used an e mail address (from Barbara), she (Gillian) did not respond.
Oh what a tangled web is made by the human connections derived through Christ's Hospital?!