Isn't nostalgia a weird and wonderful thing? Coincidentally, I was recently contacted by the Old Port Regian Society, which was odd, since I was taken out of there within the first year, I believe.
Anyway, this led me off on a trip down memory lane, and from there to the Spyway blog.
Although I wasn't there for the full term, as it were, my memories of Spyway far outweigh those of my other prep schools, and the blog has bought back long-forgotten memories.
Here are a few, in no particular order:
- I had totally forgotten the railway set. I remember the privilege of being allowed to see it.
- The odd ability that I can still remember almost all the words of La Marseillaise and wondering why we were made to sing it.
- Swimming at Dancing Ledge (the first time I remember having my breath taken away by the cold).It seemed like a very long walk to get there as well.
- Playing rugger on frozen ground and then getting chilblains when we came off and warmed up.
- Chopping firewood, very uncomfortable seating in classrooms, those damned cold baths, sagging mattresses and open fires.
- There was a teacher who drove a yellow Triumph Stag and who had massive mutton chop sideburns - he is in one of the prospectus photographs down bythe pool. I think his surname was Dean.
- I think most of us fancied Henrietta Warner.
- I also remember being on the pitch when Eric died.
- Colonel Withers, whom I remember as being a friendly face, had known my grandparents; my memory of his teaching style was patience under fire from us children.
- I DON'T remember the Lagonda.
Also, please can someone correct me, but weren't there huge heating ducts UNDER the building which could be explored if you took the front off the windowseats in one of the rooms?
I remember my Mum coming to visit one weekend not long before the school closed and being horrified at how thin we all were. It was after Eric had died and I think times were tight and the food budget was the first to get squeezed.
Memory Lane is a selective place, but I do remember Spyway fondly, despite the obvious reasons to forget it.
