So, September is here already and with that thoughts for many will turn to school: going back, and for some, the upcoming first days at school, or a new school, or memories of these. School being something almost all of us experienced.
A search of The Collection of Memories for ‘back to school’ gives one relevant memory, Growing Up in Howdon 1960s – Remembering the Past which gives vivid images of school dinners and ‘Pink Custard’.
But if you search our Collection of Memories for ‘school’ there are 77 entries that pop up. I’ve only begun to explore them, but what rich pickings already. There was one vivid memory of a reluctant first day at school that then goes on beautifully:
“I can still see clearly, my first day at Addison Potter Infants school. For some reason I must not have wanted to go, as my mother ran all the way, chasing me with a knotted towel and kept hitting me until we got to the school gates at Clavering Street. That’s where I met one of the nicest ladies I have ever known, Miss Forster, my teacher in my first class who taught me a lot. She was a really wonderful person and I just have to shut my eyes to see her.”
Childhood in Willington Quay and East Howdon – Remembering the Past
In fact from the memories I’ve looked at so far it is interesting how many are seen as good when recounted, for something so often seen as such a chore at the time.