Page 130 - Through a glass brightly

From Ruth at 22.30
The Gelder family arrived at Barnet in 1913 and lived in Normandy Avenue. When my dad was 7 or 8 years old he used to ride his tricycle down the High Street! Much of the traffic in the 1920s was horse drawn then. He remembered darting about under the bellies of the horse drawn cabs waiting for passengers outside Barnet Station.
Talking about the history of cycling down Barnet Hill, in his late teens dad also used to cycle to the Academy Cinema in Oxford Street to watch Russian, French and German films (he didn’t think much of American films then.) The journey took an hour there and an hour back. He made friends with the man who looked after the heating and was allowed to leave his bike in the boiler room while he watched the film. (It’s all in his book “A Barnet Boyhood”. Oh the value of writing everything down!
Cycling’s coming back into fashion now, isn’t it? What with having to wear masks to go on public transport nowadays.
Wednesday, 24th June
From Maggie R. at 03.10
Thankyou for all your interesting stories regarding your journey to school.
I went to school on a green bus, the 303A. It ran hourly and I never missed it, as we would not have got to school any other way. It was fun and we all tried to get upstairs. Pauline Duffy got on in WGC and Wendy Gray at Welham Green, so they all got the coveted back seat. The QE Boys were also on the bus and they were generally very nice to us girls! A little bit of teasing. The conductors wore gloves with open fingers on cold days as the bus was open. We got bus passes.
Other passengers, initially from our year, were Ann Seaman, Bernice Watts, Carolyn Beale, Brenda Leckie, and Sandra...........who went into Forensic Science. As we got older, we would get off the bus at Brookman’s Park and have a milky coffee at The Pantry Café.
The bus did not run during the snow drifts or during a strike, so we got the train. When a dense smog descended, we got to catch an earlier bus.
We are coming up to a second wave, in Melbourne. The increase in the virus cases are the result of family gatherings in certain hotspots. The rest of Australia is doing well, and they do not want us to travel other parts of Victoria nor Interstate. So on it goes...............
From Judy at 09.46
I’ve so enjoyed hearing about our various journeys; I don’t think I’d ever considered it much before. I lived in East Barnet so nearly always took the bus, though I do have memories of walking home with friends, talking...Pat Ross comes to mind as she lived in Park Road, not that far from me, and Stella Colkett, who was in Cat Hill. She was the year below us but (still) a great friend of mine. Later, in the Sixth form, I often walked home with Pat (Baines) , also still a great friend, who lived in Cockfosters.
I could catch the 107 bus, which ran through the village or the 34, but I had to walk further for that. I didn’t realise either, that you weren’t allowed to get on it, Val M., but I suppose I was further away. Coming home, the 107 stop was just below the school but if the 34 came first, you had to run like the clappers round the corner to the Meadway stop! I don’t remember ever being late, though I may have been occasionally.
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