Page 94 - Through a glass brightly

From Glenda at 21.32
Wednesday, 20th May
At a reunion about three or four years ago (maybe longer) I told the story of the swimming gala. All I could really remember was that I had gone in in full (male) evening dress playing a violin (which had been handed in to a jumble sale at home) and that the violin filled with water and nearly drown me! I thought it was Ann who went in as a scientist with a microscope? And I thought it was Cary who was dragged in screaming and shouting as though we had forgotten one of the people in the relay. However, absolutely no one else remembered this and by 12 o’clock on the Saturday evening (I think in Val Turner’s house?) everyone was beginning to suggest that I was suffering from early-stage dementia et cetera. Then, on the Sunday morning Judy and I came down to breakfast in Val’s house in Wheathampstead to find Val missing. She was down in her cellars looking through her old diaries! And she found this:
Notes from Val's diary about the swimming gala
'? Said, "is Valerie Townsend in the water?” I hastily got in and before it started had to ask her what it was! We were disqualified from the Rally because Ann Newcombe jumped into soon. VIA knew they couldn't win their Relay against VIB and the upper fifths so they thought they'd steal the limelight. EriKa stepped onto the diving board with a band round her, saying "I love Ian Black" and an umbrella. She was presented with a bouquet of daisies by Lesley, dressed in a frilly dress and white socks. Number two was Dunny, who was hauled up baths by a rope attached to a rubber ring. (By this time everyone was in hysterics!) Number three dived in complete in black cat-suit! Number four swam up with a beer bottle and a message stuffed in the neck. When she got to the other end there was apparently an argument between Gill Choates, dressed in school dress and panama, and someone else as to who should get the message out, and Gill was push in among shrieks of laughter. Half-way down she started to "drown" and had to be life-saved by Dunny. The last swimmer was Nita Speck Taurus, dressed as a surgeon, complete with rubber gloves and white coat! Very grateful to VIA for warming us up by making us laugh so much. We hurried back to change.'
From Mag P. at 21.55
I have absolutely no recollection of that swimming gala. What was the actual date and I will look it up in my diary. Hope everyone is doing alright. I am rather afraid that I am getting used to this relaxed way of life and wonder if I will cope with hurly burly again. Love to you all.
From Ann at 22.02
I do remember a relay when our team swam in costume. I swam in a lab coat. It was probably in our final year.
That is a separate 'race' from the one in which I did not swim straight and was really trying hard.....So probably that swimming gala was a different year; indeed may well have been LV.
From Glenda at 22.25
I have thought long and hard about writing this but if we are hoping to put a copy of our “memoirs” into the archives then it’s quite important, I think, that we reflect all aspects of the school.
I, of course, joined halfway through the lower fifth having started my O-level studies in the north of England under the Northern Joint Matriculation Board which had a totally different syllabus. It was a daft time for my parents to move! On the plus side my parents were delighted that I was accepted into Queen Elizabeth’s and I remember both they and I (when I was old enough to realise it) being very impressed by the breadth of the curriculum. Sandy brought her notes from “Changing World” to one of the reunions and we were all astonished at the depth
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