Saturday School Stories

Schools have featured heavily in my life from the age of 4 when I started school to 2005 when Andy left school.  That's 51 years of school related life.

When I started school, my mother went back to teaching.  In the same school!  In reception I was taught by mother's best friend.  In middle infants I was in my mother's class.  In top infants I was in the class of another of my mother's friends.  In later years we occasionally went on holiday with her.  And my parents almost bought a house next door to this lady and her husband.  Coincidentally about 350 yards from where I live now.

School 50 year celebration 2003:  My reception teacher, the headteacher and my mother.

The reception class teacher?  She was my Guide Captain.  And before that I was in the Brownies and Brown Owl was my Godmother.  As you might imagine, I never got away with anything!

And just to add to all this when I was in my last year in the Junior School, my Dad was doing his special needs diploma teaching practice with one of the classes in my school.

The Infant School was connected to the Junior School by the school kitchen.  When I was in the top juniors my mother couldn't understand why every now and again I would have greasy marks on the left sleeve of my blouse.  Of course the cook told her!  My friend and I were on a rota for collecting the headteacher's lunch on a tray.  If there were roast potatoes, the cook would give us an extra one which we wrapped in our hankies and pushed up our sleeves!

After primary school I went to a Grammar School.  I mentioned some of my experiences in my post on qualifications.  After school I went to Teacher Training College and then I became a teacher.  I did feel that I was rather institutionalised!

I taught in various schools from 1970 until 1987.  Some experiences were better than others.  It really depended on who was the headteacher rather than where the school was.

I had intended staying at home with Andy until he went to school but I wasn't really suited to not working.  I went back part-time and then full time until I took ill-health retirement in 1992.

By this time Andy was at school so my life was still bound by term times.   It has taken years to realise that 3.30pm or 4pm isn't a significant time in each day.

What memories do you have of school?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

 

Saturday Story

"The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."  (Mark Zuckerberg)

What risks have you taken during the last 12 months?

For most of us I think just going out of the house has been a risk.  Coronavirus has been deadly and has changed the way we have lived for the last year.  However last September we did go away for a few days and I am looking forward to being able to start travelling, at least in England, from the middle of May.

Back in May 2017 I wrote a whole blog post about R.I.S.K.   Rather than repeat it here I hope you will click on the link and read it there.

The most significant R in my life is Roger.  We have been married for 38 years this year and met two years before.  Way before personal computers, smart phones, online dating and apps, Roger and I were introduced via Computer Dateline.  This was a company that took your details, put the information into a computer and churned out a list of suitable people for you to meet.  I met up with a couple of guys.  One was a prison officer that my parents didn't take to at all.  Another didn't even get as far as meeting them, I couldn't cope with the way he drove his car - I like to slow down to junctions not rush up to them and slam the brakes on!

Then I met Roger and as the saying goes - the rest is history.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Saturday Story

I bet you were expecting stories about things beginning with B today.  Certainly I was.

And then all the things in my head were about P.  In particular Paddington.

In 1967 I took myself to London to my college interview. I had never been to London and had no idea how the Underground worked! Back then parents didn't take you to see your college choices.

At this point you might be saying what has that got to do with Paddington.  Back then, the trainline from Birmingham via Leamington arrived into Paddington Station.  Now it arrives into Marylebone.  My parents moved from Birmingham to Stratford upon Avon whilst I was in my first year at college so I frequently travelled from Leamington to Paddington.  Or Paddington to Leamington.  Quite often phoning up to ask if they would send me the money for the ticket!

The year I went to college, the government of the day decided that they needed to increase the numbers at Teacher Training Colleges.  My college decided that instead of us having rooms of our own, there would be 3 rooms for 4 people.  Two of us shared a bedroom each and then 4 people shared a study room in between the shared rooms.

As an only child I had always had a bedroom of my own.  The only time I shared a bedroom with anyone was Christmas and on holiday when my cousin and I fairly frequently shared the bed as well.  Fortunately I got on really well with my roommate and we are still friends today.

In our study room, I remember reading bedtime stories to my fellow trainees.  I read them some of the Paddington Bear books!

Nearly 20 years later, Paddington Bear cropped up again.  Roger's boss bought a large replica as a present when Andy was born.  I don't think he ever played with it.  We seem to have lost his grey hat and luggage label!

This bear is modelled on the books whilst modern bears are modelled on the films.

This year Paddington has reappearedin my life.  UNICEF has set up a project where in return for your donation you can nominate a child or family to receive a regular postcard from Paddington.  Each postcard tells about a different area in the world where UNICEF is working and what it's like to be child in that country. Fortunately the scheme is available in Australia so I was able to sign up for the Hopper Minis to receive postcards.

The introductory pack included some stickers, a travel journal and the map they're looking at with their dad.

and a postcard from London

The other major 'P' in my life has been Pembrokeshire.  In my teens we had a towing caravan.  We had holidays all over the UK, but Pembrokeshire was my parents' favourite.  We first stayed in Wiseman's Bridge which is near Tenby, but then they discovered the area north of the River Cleddau.

Eventually they decided to give up the caravan and bought a holiday home in Nolton Haven.  When Dad retired they sold the holiday home and bought a permanent home which they extended and renovated.  The garden was fantastic - there was a stream that went from their garden along the boundary of the neighbour and onto the beach.  Andy spent weeks staying with Grandma & Grandpa, playing in the garden and on the beach.

Sadly this glorious garden got too much for them and they bought a sensible bungalow in Simpson's Cross, about 3 miles inland.  My mother died in 2007 and when my Dad died in 2013, we put the bungalow up for sale.  It took well over a year to sell.  We left the property for the last time on July 6th 2014 and we haven't been back to visit the area since.  Although we did drive through Pembrokeshire to get to the Irish Ferry at Pembroke Dock in 2019.

We had visited every Easter holiday, Spring Bank Holiday week, two weeks in August and again at Christmas for so many years that I didn't want to go back again.  There's so much more of the UK, Europe and the World to visit!  But maybe if the Hopper Juniors and Minis ever come to visit the UK, we'll make a pilgrimage with them to show our grandchildren where their parents got engaged.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

PS: Who knows what the next story letter will be!!

Saturday Story

 Last Saturday I talked about storytelling.  So here I am with the first Saturday Story.

A for Australia.  Not K for Koala

I am very aware that I live a highly privileged life.  For most people a trip to somewhere 11,000+ miles away would be a once in a lifetime trip.  We have visited six times between 2006 and 2020.

Some of you may know that my son went to Sydney in 2006 to study at Hillsong College.  He met his wife there who was also a college student.  She comes from Florida but they are both Australian citizens now.  

To be honest Australia wasn't on our list of places in the world to visit.  However we have enjoyed every trip we have made.  We have visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Tasmania, Ingham, the WhitSunday islands and various bits of countryside around these towns and cities.   Having three grandchildren in Sydney is a considerable draw to visiting again.  2022 perhaps?  I don't think travel will be available in 2021.

But my connection with Australia goes way back before 2006.

My father's parents went from Birmingham (UK) to live in Brisbane in the early 1920s - I'm not sure exactly when.  My Dad was born there in 1924.  He came to England when he was 7.  My mother and I used to tease him about being born in the street.  For Place of Birth on his birth certificate it said High Street, Bulimba.  We imagined Grandma walking down the street, crouching down and giving birth!

Anyway, in 2008 we took my Dad to Australia.  He had never been on a plane.  When he came from Australia it was on a ship, and the journey took 6 weeks. Once he arrived in the UK he never went outside of the country again.  He didn't get a passport until 2008.

So his first ever trip abroad was London to Singapore, Singapore to Melbourne, Melbourne to Brisbane, Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Singapore and lastly Singapore to London.  It took him several months to recover!  Not surprsing since he was 84.

In Brisbane we went to find the High Street in Bulimba.  We took the ferry down the Brisbane River.  The road is now called Oxford Street.

He could remember where the house was that he had lived in and we found it.  I doubt it looked like this in the 1920s.

We went back to Oxford Street and sat outside a cafe.  Dad suddenly said: There used to be a cinema here somewhere!  We looked up and it turned out we were sitting outside the building that had been the cinema.

A is also for Administrator.  I worked as the church administrator for 12 years.

And after administration there is art - both in life and in the dictionary.  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

According to my grammar school I was no good at art.  Well in terms of fine art, they were right and they would still be right.  But I think art is anything creative involving a variety of media.  However when it came to choosing what GCSE subjects I was to take, I wasn't allowed to take art.  I wasn't allowed to take Physics or Chemistry either.  So I ended up doing Cookery and Needlework.  And many of you will know what I think of cooking these days!

In the Sixth Form, because I wasn't allowed to do 3 'A' levels (I only did two), I had too many free lessons so I was made to do General Art.  The only valuable thing I learned in those lessons was a form of calligraphy.  And if I remember rightly I was kept in Detention to really master the art!!!

Of course the biggest A in my life is my son Andy.  His name is Andrew you understand.  We kept to calling him Andrew right up until he was about 15 when all the teachers at his school parents' evening called him Andy, so we gave in.  My parents never did!  Even for his wedding vows he said 'I, Andy ...'  Harrumph!

That's all for now! 

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice