The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

Florenceem

greenbee - the boys and girls school blazers are different apart from the - which side does up - there is a vent in a boy's blazer which I sewed up last year.
nursemaggie - I think more bullying and name calling happens now than years ago when I and my children were at school. I will check with Dil about the blazer.
pollyanna_26 - Great result wasn't it? Fancy Spurs beating the league champions today - the Vicar will be happy. When I was at the civic event in town - around half a dozen blokes in West Ham shirts went by - doubtless off to watch the match in a pub.
More spiders finished.

Florenceem

The only new uniform I had when I started at grammar school was a hat. Mum bought all my uniform from the junior school lollipop lady whose Dd was a few years older than me. There was second hand uniform to buy at school and I got quite a lot of items from there as I grew.
There is a second hand uniform shop at quite a lot of schools now. My 3 Dds went to a school where the uniform wasn't available apart from the school supplier shop in town - they wore green skirts with cream blouses - back then only navy blue or grey skirts and white blouses were available in Woolworths and Littlewoods - the two biggest stores in town.

pollyanna_26

newroadahead said:

Thank you Polly 
It's so strange to think back to our school days
I attended a reunion about 11 years ago and have already lost 2 friends since then  we are not 60 yet 
Thanks to.my youngsters at work bless them I sometimes feel older than my years 
Until 2 weeks ago I hadn't seen anyone from work and we had a day out together which was lovely we have had a few births and marriages during lockdown

NRA xx

The parishioners comment on the poor girls from the orphanage made me smile. You seemed to have had a good experience at your school although you lost your mum and your dad was in the RAF.

Our early days colour our view of life. I had good friends but from starting school to finally leaving the grammar the nuns made life much harder for us all.

I had two good teachers one a man which was a revelation. I have no idea how he got through the hallowed doors of my junior school. He'd been on active service during WW2 and retrained as a teacher. He was quiet and patient and taught this left hander how to use a steel tipped pen and ink well without smearing my written work and scattering blots.

The head objected but he told her I wouldn't pass my 11plus if my work was messy and difficult to mark. Results mattered to her so she let him be while glaring at me whenever I crossed her path.

The other teacher was a lovely young woman , not a nun. She taught English and Geography and was very good at teaching. We shared a love of books I used to race through books so she started lending me hers. I remember both those teachers with gratitude. They were two bright lights in a dark and gloomy building.

I and many others never returned for reunions at either school. On reflection it was like living in Dickension times and a lot of Charles Dickens books echoed the ethos of the teaching order who were stuck in the past. The world had moved on but they hadn't.

I'm sorry you've lost two friends, so young. I'm 72 now but refusing to believe it.I had two good friends at work. We were known as the terrible trio in the staff room! I was the eldest. The youngest became ill a few years ago. My dd and I saw her a few years later and she was her usual self with her dark humour. She died a short while later, cancer she'd kept secret from all but close family. I haven't been out and about much but talking to a neighbour a few weeks ago I was asking how various neighbours were. He told me my other friend died of Covid last winter. I had no idea she was ill, in normal times I would have known but this pandemic has cut of normal things like seeing each other and keeping in touch.

it's good you had a day out with friends. We need to treasure those moments.

Take care

pollyx

Florenceem

pollyanna_26 - sad to hear that about the SA. The corps where I have started to worship are kind and caring. 
annie64 - that reminded me about school dresses - when I started at the grammar - the colours were turquoise or yellow - then they did away with the turquoise and replaced it with green - so those of us wearing old uniform stuck out until someone donated a green dress to the second hand shop and I got it.

MingVase

Sorry about yr friend Polly, lot of disruption this last year, things are a bit strange. I loved school and wanted to stay on and go to uni, was dead set on being a history teacher. But my mum & dad said not for a girl, just leave and get a "nice typing job".

So I left and a few months later eloped with a biker. As you do.

pollyanna_26

Eloping with a biker was probably the best thing you ever did Mar. Born to run and still together all these years on although slower is precious.

It was awful how parents would try to push daughters into jobs they had no interest in. Both mum and dad were keen on education and mum remained so after dad died. She chose my first job which wasn't the one i wanted , my heart lay elsewhere. I gave it a couple of years but I was never keen on spending my life in the then Civil Service.

We discussed and argued it a lot. Mums mention of a job for life made my mind up. I looked ahead to a lifetime in a boring , repetative job and told her I would hand in my notice. Things were very frosty for a while but she did come to recognise I'd made the right choice.

It's strange how many of us were pushed in the wrong direction back then.I encouraged my children to follow their heart whatever their choice and never regretted it.

pollyx

monnagran

I also went to the same grammar school that my mum had got into on a scholarship in the early1920s.  She was one of those brilliant types who went to the Grammar school at 10.  She also matriculated at 14 with distinctions in every subject.  The school were already looking into scholarships and bursaries for her to go on to university.  Unheard of for a working class girl in the 1920s, but sadly her father died and that was the end of that.  My grandmother was already taking in washing to pay for her school books, so mum had to leave school and get a job, which was just not possible for a 14yo in the Great Depression.  I believe she had a nervous breakdown.
When I arrived at the same school in 1950 the headmistress and a couple of the teachers still remembered mum and compared me to her, unfavourably usually.

It was a brilliant school though.  I didn't realise how brilliant until I met students from other schools, often prestigious public schools, and realised that our school had been years ahead of its time in the breadth of the education it offered.

When I had my own school I refused to have a school uniform.  I had no wish to have young children looking like little robots.  The furthest we went was a bright, sunshine yellow sweatshirt with the school logo (designed by one of my teachers) in navy blue.  I have a lovely photo of some of the children wearing their sweatshirts with Michael (surname escapes me) who wrote the Paddington books.  He lived locally and was often persuaded to attend various functions.

I love hearing people's memories.

As to the other subject of conversation.....I have often said that I am a Christian with a very deep and strong faith, but the word 'religion' is anathema to me. 
I am very relieved that Jesus was a rebel of the highest order, who spent his time dossing around with a group of dubious characters and getting right up the noses of the church leaders of his day.  'Hypocrites' was one of the nicest things he had to say about them.
His message was love, love and more love, and that sits very well with me.  
I have spent years studying Bible and the birth of Christianity.  Good Heavens, I even started to learn Greek at one stage, but in the end it all boils down to love.  Simple really.

On that note I will give you my very favourite quote.  You've had it before, and will probably have it again, but here it is.

THOUGHT FOR SUNDAY  (it is still. Just.)

Let us feed the hungry,
house the homeless,
stop the killing,
and provide medicine for the sick.
When we have have accomplished all that, we can sit around and argue about religion.

Suffolksue

Says it all Monna especially watching the news tonight 

pollyanna_26

My favourite quote of all yours monna. if only that could happen the world would be a far better place for everyone.

i think it was Michael Bond who wrote the Paddington books but it's late and i'm trying to persuade myself to leave my comfy chair and head for bed.

.i always ways thought it a shame your type of school didn't become commonplace. My youngest would have thrived in such a caring, supportive environment rather than being bullied by pupils and some staff.

A short while ago a young girl from that school took her own life, a lovely young caring girl with her life ahead of her. I never regretted withdrawing youngest from formal education when she was thirteen. I believe it saved her life and grieve for that other young girl and those who loved her.

Your decision not to have a uniform was brilliant. One item identifying the school was sufficient.

i liked the Kris Kristofferson song Jesus was a Capricorn. It made a lot of sense to me imagining a long haired hippie spreading love and peace.

I love hearing peoples memories whether happy or sad and believe it keeps the brain cells functioning as we look back through the years. Happy or sad they were the times of our lives. Only youngest dd is interested in the family history but she knows it and will remember in the future.

Time to head for bed. Sleep well monna . Thank you to everyone for your memories.

it's still hard to watch because it was an obvious goodbye but Freddie Mercury singing The Days of Our Lives says a lot. I could hardly watch his face through my tears as I realised he'd finally left the pain and suffering behind but it was an elegant way to say Goodbye and very Freddie.

pollyx

Hard_Up_Hester

I spend my school days being told should be clever as my mother was a teacher, instead I'm obviously thick as two short planks. 

My mother got me my first job, as a hairdressing apprentice in Knightsbridge, she hoped I'd save her a fortune in hairdressing bills.
I earned £3 a week, my train fare cost £1 a week, my uniform 10s, my parents took £1 for my keep. I was glad of the uniform as otherwise all I had to wear was my school skirt and blouses. I had to buy my food and clothes from the remaining 10s.
I started with another apprentice called Cary, her parents had purchased for her a whole wardrobe of trendy clothes, paid her train fare and took no money from her in keep. 
Six months in my parents split up and I had nowhere to live, I certainly couldn't afford to pay rent from what I earned. My grandparents took me in but it meant moving too far away to continue hairdressing. My mother tried to persuade me to transfer to another hairdresser near where my grandparents lived. But as I still had to pay off the bill for my uniform and pay keep to my grandparents I got a job in a bakers where I earned £5 a week. Also I had no need to buy food as my grandma cooked a meal every evening. I expect I got very fat as I wasn't used to regular meals.