"ALL GIRLS TOGETHER"

[Kim2s70-77]

That is hilarious! Cheap entertainment, eh??
The lack of electronic means of instant communication in those days did mean we were forced to be creative, didn't it?!! There's no way students today could ever deal with what we did - it would be on Facebook or Youtube before you could blink! Can you imagine - if we had been able to post videos instantly of DR/ Fatty M/ Mrs Dean and their atrocities etc. Instant viral videos! Wow - the power of that is quite heady.

[fra828]

I remember your incarceration up t'inf fra828 - you must have been let out once and were sitting on a blanket on the field. Several of us spotted you (I must have been in the 3rd Form by then) but we dared not approach you because I think we had been told on no account was anyone to attempt to contact you or speak to you. It's all very hazy now but even so I can still feel how unkind it seemed to have you sent to Coventry by official decree![/quote]


I'd forgotten this Eighttwelve, but I remember getting a note somehow passed to me -from my cracklet(!) one of your year-group- I think you were close friends. Being sent to Coventry is the loneliest thing ever, I would rather confrontation any day.

[chaosriddenyears]

That is hilarious! Cheap entertainment, eh??
The lack of electronic means of instant communication in those days did mean we were forced to be creative, didn't it?!! There's no way students today could ever deal with what we did - it would be on Facebook or Youtube before you could blink! Can you imagine - if we had been able to post videos instantly of DR/ Fatty M/ Mrs Dean and their atrocities etc. Instant viral videos! Wow - the power of that is quite heady.

I tremble to think what would have happened to us if we had put DR onto YouTube, I really do.

Yes, we were forced to be creative and entertain ourselves and this was no bad thing at all. I seem to remember that we wrote a play in rhyming couplets and also performed it and this was just one instance of many "creations" that we worked on just out of fun.
The obvious disadvantage was that we were cut off from the outside world to a degree that pupils now would not be able to imagine at all - in fact no-one could imagine it who hadn't lived through it!

[Liz Jay]

Mmmmm....

Some bells ringing....think the Bronte sisters or "Flowers In The Attic" by Virginia Andrews!!!!

Liz

[chaosriddenyears]

Very true indeed! Think of how the Bronte sisters even put their arms around each other when faced with a visit from outside their particular world?
Isn't this - somehow - what we are doing on this forum?

Putting our arms around each other?

[Kim2s70-77]

Gosh! How true!

[Angela Woodford]

I'm thinking the Mitford sisters - a particular interest of mine.

Their own languages, their rituals. Particularly, I compare their confidences in the stuffy privacy of the Hons Cupboard with our intense discussions in Wardrobe or Airing Room!

[gma]

Very true indeed! Think of how the Bronte sisters even put their arms around each other when faced with a visit from outside their particular world?
Isn't this - somehow - what we are doing on this forum?

Putting our arms around each other?

And therein lies the heart of THE BOOK!

[Angela Woodford]

Welcome Annie, you are by no measn the oldest. midget is in the middle of her eighth decade and Neill the Notorious is a good bit older than she is. We all seem to have 'suffered' DR though, she did have some funny ideas. Peculiar not ha ha

I suddenly feel the return of the spring of youth !

(Tra-la-la-la-la !)

Please, JR. Don't be flippant about DR. She did enormous damage and caused massive pain.

[J.R.]

Welcome Annie, you are by no measn the oldest. midget is in the middle of her eighth decade and Neill the Notorious is a good bit older than she is. We all seem to have 'suffered' DR though, she did have some funny ideas. Peculiar not ha ha

I suddenly feel the return of the spring of youth !

(Tra-la-la-la-la !)

Please, JR. Don't be flippant about DR. She did enormous damage and caused massive pain.

I did gather that, from many posts on your beloved Hertford Forum.

Thankfully, I don't recall any of the teachers of my era at Horsham during the 50's and 60's that wielded that sort of terror over pupils.

[fra828]

I have to say, that personally speaking, I thought the housemistresses were FAR worse than DR! Think of Millie and Miss Storm, amongst others

[englishangel]

Miss Storm, how could I forget her name? The female version of McKay in Porridge.

[olefours]

I have to say, that personally speaking, I thought the housemistresses were FAR worse than DR! Think of Millie and Miss Storm, amongst others

But surely DR was responsible for the wardmistresses, and the infirmary, and all the teaching staff (including the needlework teacher), and the food? Knowing what's going on in every part of your school is essential for a good headteacher, I'd have thought.
I'm using U3a, at 68 years old, to catch up on the love of learning which I lost aged 11. Better late than never....

[anniexf]

Sally, welcome back! I do remember you but never, as far as I can recall, actually spoke to you. We didn't really communicate beyond Wards and Forms, did we? I hope "All Girls Together" didn't upset you too much - you seemed to disappear after posting that you were going to read it. Didn't you win a State Scholarship?

[icomefromalanddownunder]

I have to say, that personally speaking, I thought the housemistresses were FAR worse than DR! Think of Millie and Miss Storm, amongst others

But surely DR was responsible for the wardmistresses, and the infirmary, and all the teaching staff (including the needlework teacher), and the food? Knowing what's going on in every part of your school is essential for a good headteacher, I'd have thought.
quote]

I absolutely agree, but, after reading Half to Remember I realised that DR was appointed as a young, possibly naive, woman (who couldn't even cook, for goodness sake) with little to no experience of managing teenage girls and mature women. I suspect that she lacked self-confidence and was too immature to effectively run the school, and that little changed in the decades that she spent at Hertford.