I passed the 11+ and went to the local grammar school. My father was superstitious about green, which was the colour of the uniform, and it took him a lot of courage to let me go there. He always maintained that whenever anyone in the family got a green object, somone died.
It was actually olive green - a colour I hated with a vengence for many years afterwards. Gymslip, white blouse, no tie provided the blouse was a style not intended for a tie (otherwise olive green and yellow diagonal striped tie), black shoes, white socks, olive green blazer with yellow badge, olive green beret with yellow badge, but that only had to be worn on school trips to make head counting easier. Olive green cardigan which could be home knitted with the appropriate brand of wool. Summer term green and white striped dress. Green and yellow striped scarf and green gabardine mac in winter. That was for the first three years. From then on the gym slip was discarded for a six-gore olive green skirt. We all had to kneel in the main hall at the beginning of each term and skirts/gym slips were checked to make sure they just touched the floor. The colour meant that there was only one shop where the unifom could be bought at an exorbitant price. Consequently the school was known locally as "the snob school". No more than two walking abreast outside school, and single file if anyone approached to let people pass on the pavement. There were no vice captains in sport (the headmistress didn't like the word vice) - I was deputy captain of the hockey team. We weren't streamed. Having passed the 11+ and therefore considered to be in the top 25% in intelligence (as it was an IQ test, it actually just meant that you knew how to pass an IQ test), we were all considered about equal. So we had three classes W H and S (Walthamstow High School) in each year and we stayed in our allocated letter (which also served as a house) for the whole of our school career. We went into the school grounds by one of two enormous wrought iron gates on each side of the schoo, depending on where your home classroom was. At 9 am those gates were closed and you had to go in by the big central gate and into the school building by the main door, where the school secretary would be waiting to write down your excuse for being late. Appropriate action was taken according to the reason. If we misbehaved in class, we'd be sent to the 'front hall', where we stood outside the headmistress's office. If she came out and saw you, she called you into her office. If you were lucky, she didn't come out, and at the next change of lesson you went back to your class. Only those who'd been called into her office knew what went on in there. It was a school tradition that no-one ever said what happened, so the fear was punishment enough. If we were late for a Geography lesson, the teacher fined us a jam jar or a halfpenny. When she had enough jam jars she sold them somewhere for a hakfpenny each, and gave the money to her favourite charity. We wouldn't dare not pay the fine, but it meant that very few were ever late for her lessons. On one memorable day during school lunch, someone accidentally poured a jug of gravy in my lap. It was removed and hurridly rinsed out. To everyone's horror, the gravy had removed the green dye and the patch had reverted to a funny brown colour, not unlike the colour of the gravy. No-one would have gravy after that. Jean in Poole To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
