Page 73 - Through a glass brightly

And Jenny (additions in red) at 17.14
Hello Glenda and thank you so much for the record of your Welsh coastal path Walk with Val last year - and also my visit to you both in Barmouth. That was such fun! I think after the early Prosecco drunk from, if I remember correctly, tooth mugs in your hotel bedroom, followed by good food in the local pub and yet more alcohol, we became very ‘jolly’ and totally unaware that our conversation was being overheard by an elderly gentleman sitting at a table nearby. Do you remember him leaning on the back of the spare chair at our table and saying how lovely it was to hear three ladies enjoying themselves so much?? Well, he was right! But was it a subtle way of saying we were noisy? By that time we didn’t care...
I have read with great enjoyment the school day memories. Maggie (Westley) has emailed me recently noting Sandy and I sat at the back of the classroom where at break we amused ourselves hand jiving. Also, you will recall I was hardly the willing ‘sporty type’ and P.E was not a favourite lesson - other than we didn’t get homework for it! Shipwreck always conjured up a sense of fun but at the same time I knew full well I would not complete the course! Somehow my arms always failed to withhold my weight (no good my mother telling me I took after her father - a 6ft 4” Grenadier guard - as if I should be pleased about that!). All would go well at the start. I just about managed to hang from the wall bars without touching the floor, walk carefully along an upturned bench, etc. BUT having struggled to set myself astride a ‘horse’ and then be expected to grab a rope, swing across an ever-widening chasm and land on a box opposite was just taking any hope a tad too far! Every year I leapt off the horse, clinging for dear life to the rope, only to find my bum dusting the floor and heading for the inevitable ‘crash’ against the side of the box!!! Hey ho....
Who remembers the crocodile walks up to the boys’ school for swimming lessons? Oh grim. The changing rooms were freezing and had heavy canvas, badly fitting curtains and concrete floors. You have all heard the story many times before of how after swimming I moved my bag of clothes from one changing cubicle to another but somehow or other managed to drop my navy blue knickers onto the wet concrete floor (without noticing) until I started to get changed. My salvation was that Sandy was in the cubicle next door and after a short conversation about whether I could walk back to school on a breezy day with no knickers on, she lent me her 'spare pair' as she always wore a white pair underneath the navy ones!!,The pool was always cold and had a very suspicious ‘green line’ all round the pool at watermark. My woolly swimming costume itched and became at least three times as heavy as soon as it got wet, hence needing constant ‘hitching’ about the shoulder straps! And the white (?) rubber swimming caps. 'White helmets' if you could swim 25 yards - otherwise coloured ones and you stayed in the shallower end
Were Miss Bryan, Adams and Dawson out to produce young women with ‘true British grit’? Well, they did, eh? My very best wishes to all.
From Janet at 17.17
Quickly - I seem to remember you both singing some songs by Nina and Frederick - is that right.
From Mags H. at 17.46
Oh Jen, the wet knickers tale (tail?) is new to me and has had me in stitches! And yes, I do remember the Everly Brothers duo. I also remember Sandy getting quite grumpy during one ‘session’ when she complained (being a pianist and good singer) that I ‘kept changing key,‘ (she was obviously skilled enough to change accordingly). Can you believe that in those days I had no idea what she meant and yet years later ended up playing the clarinet! The words ‘slow developer’ take on a whole new meaning!!! Mag
From Glenda at 17.10 (slightly out-of-order but it makes more sense)
OK - the Book!!!
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