Spring Term 1959
1 Feb
Thank you for sending the shirt. Was there supposed to have been a letter with it? I wondered because I haven't heard from you for over a week.
I haven't been well for nearly a week. On Wednesday I got the curse and before that I was depressed. I had a very bad back ache for four days and had to go to bed on Friday but am O.K. now.
Saturday afternoon we had a hockey match at home and lost 3-0. None of us were particularly bothered because we don't like the other team. They are terribly snobbish. Ruth C-B and I played in pin curls because of the dance.
The dance seemed to go awfully quickly mainly because Dermis wanted to take some photographs of me. As I have said I set my hair in pin curls and rollers and wore two underskirts. Cassy's comment was that I looked ravishing - which is something because he hardly ever comments.
I have just received £ 1 - thanks a lot. I must buy a new bra soon. The two nylon ones are just about done for.
I don't know whether I've told you but Cassy is head boy this term. I have been reelected secretary to the Senate. Ruth C-B was nominated but she declined so there wasn't even a vote. I am also sec. to the insurance committee. My life seems to be spent in calling meetings, writing minutes, seeing May about tuckshop orders and trying to remember when to put up notices etc. In fact I think I will have to chuck something in, it's taking such a lot of time.
I was talking to Brian last week and he said that I mustn't chuck the Senate in because it is the one thing which "shows me up and thrusts me forward".
On the latest tuckshop order I asked for Liquorice cuttings and Jap deserts. I didn't think we would get L.C's so I asked for Pontefract cakes as well. When the order came, to my delight they'd sent both so I've kept the Pontefract cakes back until the cuttings have gone. I bought half a pound on Thurs and said to Cassy - "all we need now is a TV and a bottle of pickled onions" .
Cassy applied to the Royal Acad. last week but hasn't heard anything since. If I take Maths G.C. this summer and retake History again I have a chance of getting 5 o-level subjects to do Library work.
8 Feb
Last week was quite hectic. One evening I was going downstairs to do some ironing when Stephen stopped me and said that someone had broken the tuck shop window. I didn't believe him but thought I'd better go and have a look. - sure enough nearly the whole window was out.. First Martin had to be found so that he could board it up and then May so that I could have the key and get in to move sweets etc. On Friday evening somebody came and told me that people had been sliding the boarding back and getting their hands into the sweet bottles. I had to burst into the councellors meeting to get the key from Kenneth because May was out. Anyway the window has been put in now so I've got nothing to worry about. I have now got a stock of airmail letter forms. We've never sold them before and as lots of people write abroad I thought it would be a good idea.
We have also had trouble in the library. A pipe from the girls bathroom has corroded away to almost nothing because of age and water has been dripping through to the library. For about a fortnight we have had bowls placed under the drips. On Sat. the plumbers came to mend it - but on Sunday morning it was worse than ever. All the plaster is coming down and the floor has started to rise because of the water. In other words we are in just about the same mess as you! ! !
On Sat. evening we had a lecture about the World Health Organisation and afterwards Cassy and I played records. We were in the middle of playing "The ride of the Valkyries" when the light went out and gramophone screeched to a stop. A fuse had blown and the whole school was in complete darkness. Cassy had to take the record off, put it away and switch the gramophone off - in the dark. When we finally managed to get to the hall after banging into chairs, doors and a blackboard everybody was wandering around with torches. Some couples in the upper part of the school who were supposed to be going up to bed took advantage of the dark and hid from Rosamond who was frantically calling people.
Cassy had to stand by in case the pump stopped working and there would be no water so I thought the best thing to do was to get out of the way and go to bed. I was dozing off to sleep about 20 rnins later when the dorm light went on, the English room light went on and all the other lights. Of course we had forgotten to turn the switches off. All the dorm started to shout and laugh and finally at 10.45 pm the poor dorm leaders managed to quieten people down and get to sleep. What a school!! !!!
Irene's baby is due in just under a fortnight - Sat 21 st is the latest. On Sat. aft. Cassy and I went up to the flat to talk to Brian and to get to the study we had to pass through the sitting room where Irene was asleep on the couch. She did look sweet. The other day I asked her if she would play hockey with us but she said she would be the ball for us.
Yesterday aft. we had a mixed hockey match against Wetherby mixed, (they are grownups) and I got a goal. The score was 2-2 - a draw. The game throughout was very even but it was tough. If we had slacked one tiny bit they would have got more goals but we fought on to the end. It was the first mixed match I'd ever played in. So there might be hope for me to play against the staff at the end of term. I hope so.
15 Feb
Our drip in the library cleared up on Friday so I suggested to Brian that we polish the floor this afternoon. It took Judy and I one hour and a half to polish it properly and we had to miss a bit of a lesson. There is still a big hole in the ceiling and the floor has risen about 1/4".
Everybody here seems to have got coughs - assemblies are terrible; one can't hear the speaker for coughing. I developed a cough on Friday and as a result have had to skip choir for this week.
The new P. T. teacher is teaching ballroom dancing and ballet on Tuesday evenings so I think I'll go and see what the ballet is like.
Last Thurs. I had my first violin lesson - Cassy is teaching me. I can play the scale of G major and A major after a fashion. I'm brilliant.
On Sat. Cassy and I went to Harrogate. I had to get a new bra and he wanted to get some guitar strings. We also bought some tiny bootees and mits in white and lemon for Irene's baby - it's due on Sat. The lady in the shop was most helpful - saying we couldn't have blue or pink if the baby hadn't arrived yet. When we had finished shopping we went to see a film "Tom Thumb" and afterwards bought a portion of cooked chicken for 2/9 at a chicken roasting place, and a bottle of pickled onions. We ate the chicken and pickled onions as we walked along the York road. Just as we had finished we were picked up by someones parents who were going up to school which was quite a bit of luck 'cause we would have been late for tea.
We also had the mid term film on Sat. "The African Queen" Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. I remembered bits from seeing it before. The bit about the leeches especially.
We've got a concert this Sat. in Harrogate. Dvorak's Carnival Overture and other odds and ends which might be a bit of fun.
Cassy and I have just been having a moan about G D (Music). He is such a genius that he gives us assignments which are much too difficult for us. He shows us harmony at the piano and not on paper so that we don't know how to write things and if we don't understand he says he cannot wait for us and we must find out by ourselves. He spends most of the time in lessons dictating notes which are essays and he never plans his lessons. In fact he's quite hopeless and we haven't learnt a thing this term. WHAT ARE WE TO DO?
Well I don't think there is any more news except that I have just finished reading H.E. Bates "The jacaranda tree" and some Oscar Wilde short stories - The Selfish Giant etc.
PS Please excuse scribble. This has developed from taking notes dictated by G D at 3,000,000,000 words per second.
2 March
Irene's baby was born at 11.10 pm last Monday. It is a girl and they are calling her Sonia - she weighed six and a half pounds. Cassy was in London at the time so I sent a telegram down to Oxford where he was staying with his sister for the night.
On Wed. morning a letter came for Cassy from the Acad. Ruth McColm thought he couldn't have got in because when Vivien applied they wrote and told her straight away that they couldn't accept her. G D wanted me to open the letter as Cassy wasn't here but I wouldn't. When he came back in the afternoon everybody was subdued. I gave him the letter and he went upstairs to read it. A few seconds later he came tearing down shouting "I'm in". I can't understand why because Viv was up to grade 8 at piano and grade 5 at 'cello and she didn't get in. Cassy's very good at the violin but he doesn't play another instrument. All he did at the interview was play two pieces on the violin and have some aural tests. They didn't ask him any History questions and he thought they stopped because he was hopeless. Anyway he's in whether he passes Advanced Music or not. First he's having a year in Canada and then starting at the Acad. Christmas 1960 - 2 years from now.
By the way if this paper stinks - it's marmite. Cassy brought me a jar back from London and I sit dipping my finger in.
On Thurs. aft. Cassy and I took his stage makeup round to the pottery and made each other up.
Friday - the whole school had a holiday. We were taken in coaches to Pateley Bridge in the Nidd Valley and from there we split into groups and walked. We had packed lunches, started at 10 am and arrived back at school at 5.30 pm. Our group walked about 6 miles. We took our time. The weather was gorgeous but the wind was rather cold at times especially on top of the hills. We stopped at the Nidd Valley reservoir and mucked around on the dam. It's funny seeing land on one side of a bridge and water on the other. The idea of the outing was a sought of half term holiday but mainly to get rid of the flu bug I think. Anyway I was fagged out by the time we got back to school. I wasn't physically tired - no aching bones or anything - I was sleepy and couldn't keep my eyes open.
Saturday night we had the dance but we only managed to get an hours dancing because it took so long to do dance committee, but on Sunday morning Roger let us stay in til11.0 so we could dance.
4 March
Irene is coming out of hospital tomorrow and Sonia is going to wear the mittens and bootees Cassy and I bought for her, according to Brian.
On Sunday aft. Cassy and I cleaned out our form room. It looks quite respectable now. Alan has moved over to the other form room so there is only Philip, Wendy and I left - we've got bags of room.
Yesterday afternoon we couldn't have hockey because the pitch was too wet so Miss Tysner, the woman who takes us for PT, Games and Ballet told us to run to the bottom of the drive and back. When we arrived back we had three quarters of an hour ballet lesson. I'm stiff. I managed to persuade Cassy to come along because he likes it and has done it before in Canada. It was rather amusing because in religious history Frances said that couples should have an interest in common such as music but she also said they should have a constructive hobby as well so Cassy and I are taking up ballet and at the end of term we are going to show her what we can do - NOTHING!!!!! We also play duets - him on the violin and me on the piano!! so we will probably give a recital at the end of term as well. HA HA!
By the way I have only had £1 of my pocket money this term. Do you think I could have another £ 1 soon. Don't bother to rush if you can't afford it just yet.