It’s only 4.45 pm and I’ve taken Maggie round the Avenue FOUR times today. Each time she has done the business, so I guess all is well and the heat isn’t getting to her quite so badly now. We had some tremendous rain yesterday evening which has cleared the air a little so we all slept better last night.
Passing under shady trees with fresh grass cuttings, my walking thoughts today took me back to my school days. Junior school in fact.
1963-1965
My Dad built the foundations for the portable swimming pool for the school on the council estate where I was born. It meant no deep end, but as youngsters it was nice to have proper swimming lessons without having to go the local baths on the bus.
The school was set in grounds containing trees, lawns (grassy areas!) and flower beds, and on lovely hot summer days we had our lessons outside. We would carry our chairs out to the shade of the biggest tree to our classroom and read books borrowed from the mobile library which visited once a fortnight. I loved those lessons.
When the grass had been mowed, I would collect the cuttings and make little nests on the ground, hoping the birdies would come and choose one in which to lay their eggs, such was my naivety.
After the summer half-term, some of the grassy areas were sectioned off and marked for Sports Day events.
In those days I loved to run, and the school had four ‘houses’ named after hill ranges:
Red : Chilton
Blue: Cotswold
Yellow: Purbeck
Green: Malvern.
My house was Malvern, and I won several gold stars for my Sports Day efforts.
1965-1967
We moved from the council house into a property Dad had built and it meant a change of school.
This had two playgrounds, but no green areas or trees, and definitely no swimming pool or lessons outside. Our Sports Day events meant a walk to the local recreation ground where another school would also be holding theirs, but it was never an interaction thing.
This school also had four ‘houses’, and again mine was green, but I can’t for the life of me remember what the house names were here.
The school was demolished years ago and is now site to a small housing complex.
Such are memories of growing up in England! 🙂