Interesting Stories and Notes

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 'A Life of Lily' 

CHAPTER 3 

My School Days

Sometime after moving to Latchmere Grove I went to school at Shillington Road, Battersea.    I used to play in the infants play ground, and go on the bars and do head over heels.   If we fell we would bash our brains out, as it was all concrete. One day as I was going to school, I was about seven years old, when who did I see?  A soldier carrying a kit bag on his shoulders was walking towards me. To my great surprise it was my Dear Dad.   I rushed over to him and I forgot about school, as I was so excited. I wanted to see what he had in his kitbag. He had brought 3 Rosaries for Ann, Hilda and I.

Eventually I was old enough (about 11 years old) for the girls' school.

We had a blind school and a woodwork school all in the same building.    I'm afraid it isn't there now.   How times change.

We would firstly go to the Assembly Hall to sing the daily hymns and say prayers. Then we would be dismissed to start the classes from 9 till 12 and 2 till 4.30 in the afternoons.

I was always in trouble and all through my school days I was always told you are not like your sister, Ann.  We weren't allowed to play in the Infants playground any more, but we all did.  I was always unlucky to be caught and I used to get the cane.

The Geography teacher did not like me, as I had a cousin in my class who was very good. She used to pick on me to come out and point to different places on the map.  I didn't have the foggiest idea but one day I got the better of her. She said the next lesson would be about Italy. I told my Dad, and he said, "Where is the boot on the globe?" (We had a tin globe of the world). He showed me so that when I went to school the next day she called me out to show her where the boot of Italy was.  She nearly passed out with surprise and said I wasn't as dumb as I looked. I said, "Thank you very much."

The teacher in the next class up was Miss Brown; she was an old cow.  One Monday she locked me in after school.  As it was late my Mum came up from doing her washing and went up to the teachers room and sorted her out.   As I wasn't her favourite, I sat at the back of the class, never near the fire, and always shivered.  In my time at school the class­rooms had large coal fires in the corner of the room near the blackboard.   One day she sent me to stand outside the classroom.   At this time a new headmistress had started at the school, her name was Miss Bond, the same surname as myself.  She asked me what I was doing outside the classroom and asked me my name.  When I told her she was shocked and took me to her room and put a black mark against my name in her register.

I had one nice teacher called Miss Arter but we all called her Miss Farter. She would give the child who had the best fingernails a toothbrush, or toothpaste, and I nearly always won (the tooth paste was a very small tube but was very welcome.   I think she felt sorry for me.

Also we had a nurse who used to visit our school to look to see if we had any flees or nits in our hair.  We all called her Nitty Nora.  She didn't find any fleas in my hair or that of my two sisters. The reason was that my Mum used to use a small toothcomb and wash our hair with carbolic soap.  Every night we had to put up with that treatment as we all had long hair.  We used to roll up the hair in clean rags to go to bed in.  If the nurse found anyone with nits or fleas, they were marched in procession to the local washing baths where they were all disinfected.

If you were found to be undernourished, you would be given a big spoonful of Malt in the middle of the morning and a sweet.    No such luck for any of us.  The dentist used to come and look at our teeth - not often.     Also a doctor to hear your heart beats.

Every week we went to the Laundry, which was in the same school grounds. One morning, the class went over to the Laundry each carrying a pillowslip, which we had been told to bring from home. My Mum said, "You aren't going to take my best ones, take this unbleached calico one."   I did, it looked like a khaki sack.  Well, I cut up the soap and put it in the copper, which boiled right over with soapsuds spilling on to the floor. This made the teacher very annoyed.  Then I had to make the starch.  I made it so stiff that the pillowcase stood up like a tin soldier, did she tell me off!  She got her own back by saying," Who does that disgusting pillow slip belong to?"

I said, "It's my Mums."

"Tell her you need to bring a white one in future."

I said, "When it has been boiled a few more times it will be as white as the driven snow."

She reported me for being insolent, so I got the cane again.

Now I will tell you my secret. Everybody used to cry and said the cane hurt.   I always had slices of lemon (they cost 1/4 penny), which I rubbed my hands with when I knew I was going to get the stick.  Ha, Ha, Ha, to them all!

Another time it was a sewing class.    Even now I cannot sew well.   I decided that when the monitor came to empty the ink wells from the desks, I would keep one red ink well back.  A little later I called out, "I think May (that was the girl who sat next to me) has pricked her finger on the needle and splashed my fabric with blood." I was told to go to the basin to wash and get it out.  This kept me out of the classroom for the rest of the afternoon.

Another time I was in disgrace because I was caught swinging like a monkey on a pole.

The pole had special spikes on it to prevent kids from doing this. To make an example of me, I was taken next day to the Big Boys School. Daddy Lucking, he Boys head teacher), caned me in front of the assembly. He gave me six of the best.  He thought I would cry; I didn't, because I used my secret piece of lemon as usual.

We also had cookery classes, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The school supplied all the ingredients; the currents and sultanas were kept in large stone jars. If we got the chance we would put our hand into the jar and eat the currants.

I was quite good at netball and was chosen to play it. I thoroughly enjoyed it but the only problem was that I used to fall over and get a great big potato hole in my black stockings.   At four pence three farthings a pair my Mum was not pleased and she was always telling me off.

One day I had to take a tray of dinners up to the teachers' room. As I didn't want to do it I put a mouldy old carrot on one of the plates.  It was a picture to see their faces. I scooted downstairs quicker than I went up them.

I remember one of my friends at school, called Nellie, as we both used to go to our Gran's.  She had a terrible life as she had to look after her brothers and Dad, and do the shopping and cooking.   Well, one day as we parted she said, "Cheerio Lil."  They found her floating at Chelsea Bridge.   I was the last person to see her alive.    The Police came and asked me if she said she was going to commit suicide.  I said, "No."  We got a collection up at school for flowers and she was buried near my brother George at Streatham Cemetery.  She was only 13 years old.

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