Page 60 - Through a glass brightly

From Mag P. at 17.55
Oh my goodness, Val, what a lot of memories you have kindled for us. Thank you. I find it hard to believe we are all in our seventies and each one us has journeyed through life in such different ways and now all reminiscing as though it was only yesterday. We are truly blessed. The fact that most of us are still alive is quite amazing. I was thinking about who has died and could not remember but I know a few have.
Love to you all
From Ruth at 18.26
Does anyone else remember cookery classes with Miss Rhodes? We only had six weeks or so, but I remember making my first crumble – rubbing the butter into the flour and then having to invite a teacher to lunch – with a vase of flowers on the table. All very proper – the extent of our training as not- debutantes, I guess! That year we had another six weeks of sewing. I think I made an apron. Maggie Westley was with us in that class and used to wear a lovely perfume, Blue Grass?, to school.
I had no idea you were quite so naughty at school, Val! That’s quite a revelation. How come I missed out on all that fun? I think you were quite entrepreneurial with your animal charity, raising funds by selling mice. Amazing and amusing, all of it. So glad you’ve recorded it. The value of a diary.. . Are you still keeping one? We’ve been trying to persuade members of our history society to record their lives during lockdown. Trouble is life seems to stop in self isolation – unless you’re contacting all your old school friends, of course! Then it all comes flooding back.
Love to you all (if that doesn’t sound too much like Her Majesty)
From Ann at 18.45
Val, what happened to the baby mice that you sold to the pet shop?
On holiday some years ago, a couple in the holiday group told me that their children had pet mice, which they loved. The breeding rate of increase was too great to be manageable. So the parents agreed with the children that the excess babies should be sold to the local pet shop. What they did not tell their children was that the pet shop used them as food for their snakes.... A bit macabre.
From Janet at 18.54
All these memories that I had completely forgotten or not known about have taken me back to places I hadn't thought about in years! I had absolutely no idea that you had increased the pet mouse population of Barnet so successfully Val et al - I am sure there were lots of very happy probably little boys delighted with their new pets at the time!
I think I must have been very boring and of little initiative. I do remember getting away with wearing shoes with really small heels in UV and ?Janice Kirkpatrick being told she couldn't wear shoes with heels of an even smaller height - I think I tucked my feet under the desk.
I was speaking to a friend who lives in East Birmingham today - things are bad there - two of the doctors at the local hospital have had the virus and are now back at work but her office is right by their room and they share a toilet. So it is really very worrying out there -
I am quite getting used to life in sort of isolation (apart from the carers who come in twice a day to check on Rod) so I am not really even isolated.
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