Page 61 - Through a glass brightly

There were I think about 30/31 who started in IIIF and we gained at least two in Ann and Glenda (and Sally too) and did we lose anyone? There are lots of names coming back to me - rather a sad subject but who has not lived as long as we have from our form?
Val - what a wonderful memory you have with your diary entries. Poor Miss Rhodes - cooking - well I remember doing something with fish and even the cat wouldn't eat it when I took it home. You say Miss Rhodes never taught science again after her ordeal with us. I seem to remember a French teacher Mrs Shipton? but I seem to think she didn't stay after her probationary year - does anyone else remember her?
And Miss Girling too who taught us French in IIIF. At that time many of the middle aged/older teachers would have been of the age group who would have lost possible fiancés in WW2 (I believe Miss Hillier was one such). Am I remembering correctly that Mrs Olga Barber was also killed in a rta?
I do still have the souvenir of the Queen's visit and agree with Jen and Maggie that I can remember being surprised at how small HM was.
Jen - you always were a great encourager and could make us laugh and cheer us up - so please don't stop!
From Ruth at 18.57
Hello Maggie, Were you the one-time Maggie Westley? (I just mentioned your name in my last email!)
Just wanted to thank you for these poems. I particularly liked the illustrated one and am going to forward it to my friends who edit the Wheathampstead church magazine. You never know! A poem from the other side of the world is quite something, and that one says it all. Lovely.
I didn’t know about the rabbits and myxomatosis, either. Fancy eating a myxomatotic rabbit... Hardly gourmet fodder for schoolgirls, was it? Usually we had lots of stodge after the first course of a school dinner, that’s what I best remember. Glenda gained notoriety by organising a protest once and got into trouble for quoting Churchill. “Never in the history of mankind have we all waited so long for so little” – or something similar – which upset the kitchen staff, so there was quite a furore. She’d stuck a notice on the canteen door or something. Was that it? I know that the head was involved! I bet Glenda can recall it in more detail.
I do remember those French afternoon teas we used to have in the canteen with school governors. Chocolate came into it, and they would give us helpful advice about how to live ...
And didn’t we play pirates in the gym as a special treat just once a year when all the equipment would be put out? We had to try to get all round without touching the floor and had to climb up the ropes.
It all keeps flooding back, doesn’t it? Must stop now and go for a walk. It’s no good sitting at the computer all day, is it?
Here’s a photo of a recent reunion – well ten years ago. To remind you of what some of us now look like. Love to you and Australia,
From Ruth at 17.21
Hello Glenda, Have just enjoyed your amazing images and words on Julian of Norwich. I’ve not made any contribution myself. Not familiar enough with the setup. Realised I already had a few tape recordings from local oral history in my Dropbox. Now it contains something sacred.
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