here and there: favorite teacher

I didn't have a school photo to put here, but I pulled this one out of an album I had that is of me in high school which is when I am writing about.  I look so young!!

My favorite teacher's name was Mrs. Clark.  She was my high school Grammar teacher.  She created huge dioramas in her classroom.  She had long bushy blond hair and long flowing skirts.  She was a free-thinker.  She made sure we thought outside of the box.  She wrote brilliant commentary along my creative writing assignments each week and I remember at the very beginning of Grammar class she told us "first you learn all the rules, then you can break them".  I have always remembered that through this very day.  Mrs. Clark is the reason I feel it is okay to forgo capital letters in my blog and write in fragmented sentences.  For this post I will use capital letters in the correct places and try my best at proper grammar in honor of Mrs. Clark.  

My nemesis in writing in high school was commas, too many of them.  I put them everywhere.  She was always crossing out commas.  When I write now I still find too many commas.  I'll read a blog post over and realize, oh there shouldn't be commas there but I leave it.  I like to write the way it sounds coming out of my head.

Mrs. Clark looked like SARK if you have ever seen her.  I remember years, many years, after my school days I came across a book by SARK and I thought "OH my gosh, it's Mrs. Clark".  She looked remarkably similar, but no, after further research I found out not Mrs. Clark.  But SARK encompasses the same spirit that she brought to our classes.  Be creative.  Don't be afraid.

I loved literature and writing classes.  I loved climbing into books and discovering what they held and I loved trying my hand at writing, especially with someone so supportive to encourage you.

In your Senior Year (last year) of high school  there are only so many credits or courses you are required to have to graduate, so you have a lot of freedom to either a/ take goof off classes or b/take the classes you like.  Goodbye physical education!  Hello English!  I had all my required English credits,but in that senior year of school I took British Literature, World Literature and Grammar.

When I suggested that we write about our favorite teachers this week I knew exactly who I wanted to write about.  I have been lucky to have some really good ones, but this is the one that really stood out to me as leading me where I wanted to go. 

Here and there: my favourite teacher

This is a photograph from when I was in Infant School. I was in the same class, with the same teacher, for three years. I think this may have been a taken before we left to go to Junior School, aged about 7. The lady on the left is my teacher, Miss Roberts, on the right the Headmistress, Miss Hobson. I am the very tall girl at the back.

I loved Miss Roberts. She was quite strict, but fair. This was back in the days when teachers would smack a child if they were naughty and I narrowly escaped one time. Miss Roberts had to leave the class room for a few minutes and me and my friend Mark, for some reason decided to get up and stand on the table. On Miss Roberts' return, the other children told her. She asked us if it was true. I always told the truth (until I was a teenager, anyway!) so I said yes, I was standing on the table. When she asked Mark, he denied it, and received a smack. Can you imagine a teacher being able to smack a child these days?  It was a whole different culture back then.

Miss Roberts was, I guess, in her mid thirties then, so younger than I am now, which seems unbelievable to me now. I remember I used to finish my sums early, and she would get me to mark the other children's work. I also remember being called out to stand beside her desk and read to her. The reading scheme was called Tip and Mitten, and was about a cat and a dog. I will always be grateful to Miss Roberts for teaching me to read, and instilling in me such a love of stories. As soon as I could read, I was away! I permanently had my head in a book for my entire childhood, and pretty often even now.

I still either know or hear news of, several of the other children in the photograph. In fact last week I bumped into one of the boys in the supermarket car park, and I have had met up with two of the girls in the past month. Strange to think we have known each other almost forty years. Miss Roberts and I still exchange Christmas cards, and I would love to see her again.

That time of year

Autumn. Tiny red berries, carefully cupped in my four year old hand, running ahead on the long walk to school to pick them . Looking down on my hands in black fingerless gloves, wrapped around a mug of hot tomato soup at a bonfire party, the steam from the mug mingling with the fog of my breath. I lost those gloves at school and have had many pairs since, but never ones as warm or comfortable as the ones Nan made. Boys with  effigies of Guy Fawkes destined for the bonfire, chanting 'Penny for the Guy' hopefully outside the shops. Coming home from school with a free ticket to the firework display. Collecting leaves with my little boy and making a huge tree collage for the wall. Greatfields Park, wading through swathes of fallen leaves, crisp beneath my feet, and kicking them up in the air, flurries of russet and gold.  The one time I succeeded in catching a leaf as it fell from the tree, and making a wish. I wish I could remember if it came true.


This Autumn I am wishing  for country drives past beautiful golden, orange and red trees, my first walk through crisp leaves for years, shiny brown conkers on the ground and maybe one perfectly smooth one in my pocket. 'Helicopters' spinning down from sycamore trees. Fireworks, baked apples and hot soup. A toffee apple. Curtains closed early against the dark and chill, a warm fire, a blanket and hot chocolate with marshmallows. A new scarf on my knitting needles, and a pair of warm brushed cotton pyjamas. And before it gets too cold, planting some sweet pea seeds and bulbs in anticipation of the Spring.

Memories

The Girls. Debbie, Lisa, me, Gail, Jackie 

Well hello there, Rock Chick!

Sounds like you had a great time! Did the thunderstorms hold off? I was thinking of you as I went to bed last night, imagining you getting ready and then travelling to the concert full of anticipation. What a wonderful experience for you and your friend, building memories, as you said. You made me think of my closest friends, pictured above with me at my wedding in April, and how long it is since I have had a get together with any of them, except of course for the wedding, when I barely had time to see much of them at all. 

Let me introduce you. 

There is Debbie, who I have known since the first day of school aged 4. My brother and his best friend were both called Darren and two each of the Debbies and Darrens made for a lot of confusion at our house when they both came over to play. We even shared a flat for a while, where Debbie did all the housework and cooking and even ran my bath for me in the mornings! She has always been very organised, I think it's because she had six siblings. 

Lisa came to work in my office when she was 16 and I was 20, it seemed a big age gap then and of course it isn't any more, though I still think of her as much younger than me. It was very strange when she turned 40 earlier this year. She is bright and bubbly and full of fun. I have a brilliant video of her on my 21st birthday, in her Brosette gear, singing 'Happy Birthday to You' at the top of her voice and taking up the entire screen, waving her arms around. 

I have known Gail 14 years, since our children were in the same class in Infants' School. We were both single parents, and shared a lot of meals, outings and day to day worries with each other over the years.  We have usually seen each other at least once a week, even if it was just popping by for a quick coffee. She moved up north a year ago, and I have only seen her a couple of times since, I really miss her.

Jackie I met through mutual friends on a girls' holiday when I was 19, we shared many laughs and Indian meals over the years and she is my son's godmother. I have hilarious and wonderful memories of three different holidays with Jackie years ago, we had a lot of fun. 

My goal for the next week or so is to make arrangements to see every one of the four lovely ladies above very soon, and make some new memories.