Chemi - T and Miss Mercer

[thamesmudandbarges]

Does any one remember Miss Thompson - chemistry teacher, Irish - and fondly known as Chemi-T? And Miss Mercer - history teacher - we were convinced that they had some kind of "liaison"!!! Especially when we looked acorss the field on a frosty night and swore we saw two sets of staggering footprints heading back to....hmm...can't remember....was there a teacher block somewhere back of up tinf?

I can remember Chemi T's demonstrations - this substance (sodium something) will explode if....poof!

Always a fun lesson with her.

[englishangel]

Just put Chemi T and /or Mercer in the 'search' top right, along with Queenie and many others are well remembered

[thamesmudandbarges]

Did that and got referred back to these two posts.

Either I'm a useless searcher or your search function is useless - I tend towards the former!

I stil have to ask my kids to operate the tv and dvd and that kind of stuff!

And as for the computer - I have a 30 yr old son who fortunately is well able to make up for my deficiencies when it comes to understanding how that beast operates!

[Katharine]

Did that and got referred back to these two posts.

It would bring you back here if you clicked on Search This Topic. You need to click on the search at the top right - in the blue header band.

Good Luck!

[Jo]

The others are right - pages of memories about Chemi T and Merce, however I don't know if you noticed in the latest Old Blue Magazine an obituary to Miss Mercer who died recently. She was one of my favourite teachers, a real inspiration.

[Alexandra Thrift]

Hi Jo,
I didn't notice a latest copy of the Old Blue....what date was it....any idea how I can get one....the last one I have is a year ago.

Sorry to hear about Miss Mercer...my favourite C.H. teacher by a long, long way... ( I didn't really notice that, apparently, she taught us the "wrong" syllabus for History A level ! ).Miss Mercer also taught us History of Art, Heraldry,Runes , Logic ( in six weeks and we all got grade A at O level ) and to some students various foreign languages ( she spoke several including Latin...which she had spoken as a young child with her father !)

She always wore black as it saved her having to worry about what to wear and was the most knowledgable and erudite person
I have ever met. Somehow she pitched her classes at the right level for various aged teenagers without ever being patronising.

I suspect they aren't made like her any more.

She was always nice to me.

[Jo]

The latest Old Blue should be out any time now. I know some people have had theirs - mine hasn't arrived yet but I think that's because we haven't had post for 3 or 4 days because of the snow (if we don't get a delivery today I'll be complaining - it's not that bad).

The reason I know about Miss Mercer is because I edited the obituaries section. I was sad to hear about her death as she was one of my favourites - taught me French and History, both of which I went on to do for A Level. I wasn't a scientist so only had Chemi T for a couple of years but she was a character. She was nice to me after she discovered my father was Irish

[Alexandra Thrift]

Thanks for your editing Jo.

My Old Blue arrived today and I read Miss Mercer's obituary. Apparently she had no formal training as a teacher...but IMO she was a natural.

Chemi.T. was amazing too. Her experiments,explosions and "fireworks displays" in the lab. were huge fun but I suppose 'elf 'n safety wouldn't allow it these days !

Sometimes her answer to my questions ( such as "What makes electrons circle the nucleus ?" ) was ( in Irish brogue) "...because God made it that way " ...end of conversation.

I seem to remember that Chemi.T. had a bad leg ( war wound ?) and isn't that why she and Miss Mercer walked arm in arm ?

[Fjgrogan]

Jo, if you edited the obituaries presumably you will know who wrote the one for Frances Mercer? I would guess maybe Wendy Stone? Also when exactly Mercer died? I used to visit her fairly frequently in Kerry, so I got to know Mary Thomson as well although she was at Hertford after my time. Unfortunately Mercer was never really the same after Mary died - apart from anything else Mary was the cardriver and their house was miles from anywhere so it was impossible to get anywhere unless you were fit enough to walk. Mercer and I eventually fell out in November 2001and I never saw her again, although my daughter Kirri visited a few years ago by which time Mercer was bedridden, but still very much 'with-it' mentally. I remember once admitting to Mary that I very rarely read newspapers and being told very firmly that I really ought to or else how would I know who to pray for?! At the time I was training as a Reader in the Church of England, so the comment was probably justified!

[Jo]

The author of Miss Mercer's obituary was the one piece of information I never managed to get from the office so I'm afraid I have no idea. All the others are credited to an author and I didn't like leaving that one anonymous but for some reason they couldn't give me the information. Also I didn't get her death date for the same reason. Shame, as I would have liked the information.

If I may ask, I am interested to know why you and Miss Mercer fell out. Please tell me to mind my own business if you don't want to say, but although she was forthright I didn't imagine her as offensive.

I only remember her being cross with us once, when I was in the 3rd form and we were making a horrendous noise after break time; she evidently heard us as she was walking back from the staff room and she absolutely exploded when she walked into our form room. I think we were all shaking - I certainly was - because it was just so out of character for her. However, explosion over, she immediately calmed down and conducted the lesson as her normal jovial self. It taught me the value of keeping your loss of temper rare enough to be memorable!

Her lessons were always entertaining and I particularly remember one crafty device she used in French lessons - she called it a "Bamboozle" and the object of the exercise was to bamboozle her into thinking we knew more than we did. It consisted of a translation from French to English in which we were not to leave any unknown words blank but should make a best guess. We actually used to look forward to them because we thought they were fun. It was only later that I was reflecting on her lessons and realised that of course it was "just" a French-English translation, nothing special about it at all except encouraging the good practice of informed guesswork!

[Angela Woodford]

Jo, if you edited the obituaries presumably you will know who wrote the one for Frances Mercer? I would guess maybe Wendy Stone?

Also when exactly Mercer died? I used to visit her fairly frequently in Kerry, so I got to know Mary Thomson as well although she was at Hertford after my time. Unfortunately Mercer was never really the same after Mary died - apart from anything else Mary was the cardriver and their house was miles from anywhere so it was impossible to get anywhere unless you were fit enough to walk.

Mercer and I eventually fell out in November 2001and I never saw her again, although my daughter Kirri visited a few years ago by which time Mercer was bedridden, but still very much 'with-it' mentally. I remember once admitting to Mary that I very rarely read newspapers and being told very firmly that I really ought to or else how would I know who to pray for?! At the time I was training as a Reader in the Church of England, so the comment was probably justified!

Fjgrogan, I'm now bursting with questions for you!

Are you in touch with Wendy Stone (Lee)? Does she read The Forum posts? What makes you think she wrote Miss Mercer's Obituary?

I should love to know something about the retirement of Merce and Chemi-T! Did they remain in good health for a long time? I do hope so! Details... please? How did they occupy themselves? I do remember that Chemi-T had a limp which sometimes became more pronounced. I just love that "who would you know who to pray for?" So like her...

A house miles from anywhere. Oh! Difficult!

And I do feel a certain curiosity about why you and Merce would have had a falling-out. Sorry if this is an intrusive question!

[Fjgrogan]

Hi Angela
Wendy stayed in touch with Mercer throughout her life and Mercer was very fond of Wendy's whole family. I reappeared on the scene after a long gap in about 1985. As far as I can remember Wendy and I were the only people who would have been familiar with her life in Kerry, which is why I assumed that Wendy must have written the obituary. Also as far as I know Wendy is not a contributor to this forum, but I note that she is involved in a number of CH chariites - I googled her!

When I first started writing to Mercer I used to send long chatty letters and receive in return a beautiful postcard - often an original photo - of local scenery, with just a few lines of writing on the back - very frustrating and enigmatic! Then we started to swap audio tapes instead - I still have many of the tapes and intend now to listen to them again. She retained to the end her Oxford accent even when uttering strange Irish expressions!

I understand that when they first settled in Kerry they used to make a living by growing and selling vegetables and herbs. By the time I first visited the garden was in decline, but there was still a good crop of Welsh onions and lots of herbs on the window sills. For a while Mercer had taught at the local school, but then she continued to tutor a succession of children who came to the house. I remember one family of three boys who could not possibly afford to pay for their tuition - the eldest had a Saturday job so paid for himself, the next one was paid for by the parents and the third was paid for by the provision of bags of turf (peat) for the fire!

Bear in mind that I never knew Mary as a teacher. When I met her she used to drive me around the local places in Kerry. I remember she had a running feud with Kerry County Council about the state of the roads, which tended to be repaired in the summer for the benefit of tourists going round the Ring of Kerry, but left in disrepair the rest of the year when they were only being used by the locals whose taxes were paying for the repairs! To me Mary seemed to be a dragon with a heart of gold - a real old Irish character; she originated from Cork, but had spent part of her life in Rhodesia.

I could go on at enormous length about life in Kerry, but this is probably not the place to do so, or maybe I should do it in instalments? There is almost enough there to write a book - not sure about that though!

Re my 'falling out' with Mercer - well by the time that happened she was not the same person we all knew and loved. I never returned to Kerry after that because I really wanted to remember her as the person that she had really been. In retrospect perhaps I left it a little too late for that, but I was sorry that I did not know sooner about her death. I would have liked to go to her funeral, and if she is buried nearby I would still like to visit her grave. It is possible however that she would have (as Mary did) donated her body for medical research - I may never know.

Shalom
Frances

[englishangel]

Character, Mary Thompson....never, (I really need that tongie in cheek smiley Katharine was looking for).

She once took to the field for a staff versus school hockey match in a tweed skirt, brogues and carrying a shinty stick in lieu of a hockey stick.

Heart of gold...absolutely, and as previously stated a very accurate shot with chalk and/or a board rubber.

[Fjgrogan]

Another Mary Thomson anecdote: Mary and Mercer refused to pay the part of their council tax applicable to rubbish collection - Mary used to take their rubbish when she was out in the car and dispose of it who-knows-where? - possibly in a ditch, certainly in bottle banks or whatever. On one occasion she and I were parked in a car park admiring the sea-view and eating ice-lollies. When we had finished Mary took the wrappers and sticks and dropped them into a wheelie bin that he been put out for collection on the opposite side of the road outside a hotel. She had just got back into the car when an irate hotel-owner came storming across the road shouting about tourists who misused the facilities he paid tax for. Mary, whose car had an English registration number, wound down the window and told him in her broad Cork brogue 'Young man, I was paying tax to Kerry County Council for 20 years before you were born!'

[Angela Woodford]

Frances, thank you so much for these memories. How I've enjoyed reading them.

Funnily enough, thinking of the two ladies growing and selling vegetables and herbs reminds me of something I did retain from Miss Mercer's history lessons. It was the layout and practical functioning of the mediaeval monastery. Merce drew rather splendid diagrams of the cloisters, Chapel, dairy, beehives, pigeon-cote and vegetable gardens. I rather think we made a relief model of a monastery too. Merce did strike me as maybe similar to those of a Benedictine calling - it's very charming to think of her in her retirement tending a vegetable and herb garden.

And as for Miss Thompson eating an ice lolly in a car park...! The only time I saw her really furious was when she found me swinging my legs whilst sitting on a desk. It was not ladylike, she stormed! I was surprised really, but amused. I had not thought of Miss Thompson as particularly ladylike herself, such had been the occasional strong whiff of whisky that I detected during my brief experiences in the Chemi Lab.

Wendy Lee interested in charity work. Well! I have never forgotten Wendy Lee, but have written of her before.