Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

englishangel wrote:The board rubber was for misbehaviour, if you were just drifting off she used chaik, it usually hit between the eyes.

I remember her fitting a large rubber band up and over one of the taps (the lab style taps - tall and arched): this functioned as a bow, a piece of chalk was the arrow.

Does anyone remember her writing STILL on the blackboard, to remind herself to turn it off, and how many times we (giggle, giggle) rubbed the word out, to that she forgot and the still overflowed?

Good grief, she actually hit anyone with that stunt?

Scone Lover wrote:Good grief, she actually hit anyone with that stunt?

Yeah, but possibly not the person she was aiming for .

Never failed to bring my attention back to where it was supposed to be.

I was amused to think that Chemi-T had such an accurate aim. She always looked seriously hung over to me! She once found me sitting on a desk swinging my legs , which seemed to unleash some weird fury in her. I made my permanent exit from the Chemi-Lab as quickly as I could, of course!

I remember Chemi-T and Miss Mercer clamped arm in arm walking in the mist early every morning. Were they emerging from her place or her place? We were supposed to wish any member of staff good morning if encountered at random, but I never liked to break their companionable silence. I wonder what happened to them.

Munch

I clearly remember sitting there bored out of my brains in Latin finding out what new and totally mundane thing Caecilius had done in his damn kitchen, when BANG the black board eraser would land somewhere near someone who had actually lost the battle with consiousness. The master in question was Housemaster of Beele B and his name was Keele or something like that.

I will never forget the day I lost the battle with sleep and was woken by the eraser sticking my head at a rate of knots!

The man hardly moved when he fired, it was an incedible spectacle!

Scone Lover wrote:I clearly remember sitting there bored out of my brains in Latin finding out what new and totally mundane thing Caecilius had done in his damn kitchen, when BANG the black board eraser would land somewhere near someone who had actually lost the battle with consiousness. The man hardly moved when he fired, it was an incedible spectacle!

Ha!

We were blessed by being taught Latin by Miss (perhaps she would have been a Ms if she were teaching now) Queenie Blench. She actually made the subject interesting: well, it was interesting to watch and listen to her, and she gave us translations of Ferdinand The Bull, and possibly Peter Rabbit (although I may be confusing her with someone else on the latter). I remember sitting enthralled as she read to us from The Aeneid in latin. Couldn't understand a word, but the performance was captivating.

Angela Woodford wrote:I remember Chemi-T and Miss Mercer clamped arm in arm walking in the mist early every morning. Were they emerging from her place or her place? We were supposed to wish any member of staff good morning if encountered at random, but I never liked to break their companionable silence. I wonder what happened to them.

Munch

Hi Munch

They are mentioned somewhere else on the forum. From memory ChemiT has left us for the great laboratory in the sky, but Miss Mercer is still coaching somewhere in Ireland. Hmmmm, best not to quote me on this, as I may have got it the wrong way around: there is, however, a post about them.

Interesting that their 'friendship' was so blatant. Quess that DR took Queen Victoria's attitude towards such things.

Personal message to follow, but probably not until next weekend. Daughter's dog in car - I'm only supposed to feed her tiny amounts of low fat meals every four hours, as she is recovering from major surgery to remove a satay stick from her caecum. Unfortunately she found some greek pastries, that I didn't even know were in the car, and scoffed the lot while I was feeding daughter's cat. Don't want to leave her unattended for too long incase her stitches rupture. So home to do battle with a pile of marking, then off to Victoria for a couple of days of meetings.

Byeeeeeeeeeee

Scone Lover wrote:I clearly remember sitting there bored out of my brains in Latin finding out what new and totally mundane thing Caecilius had done in his damn kitchen, when BANG the black board eraser would land somewhere near someone who had actually lost the battle with consiousness. The master in question was Housemaster of Beele B and his name was Keele or something like that.

I will never forget the day I lost the battle with sleep and was woken by the eraser sticking my head at a rate of knots!

The man hardly moved when he fired, it was an incedible spectacle!

That is Tom Keeley and you can find some good posts about him on this forum - I did one about how he used to "interview" suspects who he thought may have homosexual tendencies, but being caught smoking or drinking could lead to one of his strange, ritualistic interrogations

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:

Scone Lover wrote:I clearly remember sitting there bored out of my brains in Latin finding out what new and totally mundane thing Caecilius had done in his damn kitchen, when BANG the black board eraser would land somewhere near someone who had actually lost the battle with consiousness. The man hardly moved when he fired, it was an incedible spectacle!

Ha!

We were blessed by being taught Latin by Miss (perhaps she would have been a Ms if she were teaching now) Queenie Blench. She actually made the subject interesting: well, it was interesting to watch and listen to her, and she gave us translations of Ferdinand The Bull, and possibly Peter Rabbit (although I may be confusing her with someone else on the latter). I remember sitting enthralled as she read to us from The Aeneid in latin. Couldn't understand a word, but the performance was captivating.

Queenie Blench! She really was a fascinating performance teacher, and despite the fact that she thought I was completely useless (these days I'd probably have a Classroom Assistant by my side) I admired her. I remember she had an astonishing wardrobe of beautiful tiny shoes in exquisite coloured leathers. You see where my gaze must have gone when communicating with her! She was often angry with me in a witheringly sarcastic way, but I didn't mind!

Well if nothing else, she had one hell of a name!

What kind of punishments could be dished out in class?

Well, not really... order or disorder reports for lateness or forgetting a book. These had to be explained to your form mistress at "Form Time" Friday midday. I remember the system was that if you spoke in class you had to stand up at your desk to answer. If the mistress wanted to speak to you or reprimand you, you stayed standing. This could often (in my case!) be angry, scornful, scathing, whatever. It was called "being blown up".

Speaking only for myself here, I remember that I never did take on board properly the reprimands and corrections that came my way - the punishment was the shame of enduring the verbal stuff in front of all my peers. I would often feel so desperately humiliated that I would cover my feelings with a comic facade of not caring.

Why could not these mistresses not have spoken to me personally, not publically? I wanted to learn!

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:

Angela Woodford wrote:I remember Chemi-T and Miss Mercer clamped arm in arm walking in the mist early every morning. Were they emerging from her place or her place? We were supposed to wish any member of staff good morning if encountered at random, but I never liked to break their companionable silence. I wonder what happened to them.

Munch

Hi Munch

They are mentioned somewhere else on the forum. From memory ChemiT has left us for the great laboratory in the sky, but Miss Mercer is still coaching somewhere in Ireland. Hmmmm, best not to quote me on this, as I may have got it the wrong way around: there is, however, a post about them.
Interesting that their 'friendship' was so blatant. Quess that DR took Queen Victoria's attitude towards such things.

Personal message to follow, but probably not until next weekend. Daughter's dog in car - I'm only supposed to feed her tiny amounts of low fat meals every four hours, as she is recovering from major surgery to remove a satay stick from her caecum. Unfortunately she found some greek pastries, that I didn't even know were in the car, and scoffed the lot while I was feeding daughter's cat. Don't want to leave her unattended for too long incase her stitches rupture. So home to do battle with a pile of marking, then off to Victoria for a couple of days of meetings.

Byeeeeeeeeeee

Correct Caroline I have been trying to find it but unable to. will keep trying.

Were you taught by this Queenie character Mary?

Yes, and I got a C at O level. she was frighteningly intelligent.

I think if you go back to old 'Hertford Memories' you will find quite a lot about her, there is also a fair bit on Friend's Reunited,

She certainly seems to have left indellible (that has to be wrong) memories on all who studied under her.