The nearest boarding school was in Lusaka, the capital of Northern
Rhodesia (now Zambia). Again I was separated from my siblings because I went to
the Junior School and they went to the Senior Schools. However, I soon made
friends. One of my friends from those days recently reminded me about ‘lights
out’, which was the last ‘routine’ of the day when the matron made sure we were
all in our beds and ready to sleep. There were about 14 of us in our ‘dorm’.
That’s when I told a story – after lights out. As far as I remember,
it was always about Mrs Brown. I have no recollection of any of the story
content, just the pleasure of ending the day quietly dreaming aloud.
One school holiday when we couldn’t go home to Easter Farm, we went to
stay with our Aunt Marjory. I was about eight years old and I remember telling
her very seriously, that I was writing a play. Bless her heart, she asked me
all sorts of questions about it – she understood how I loved story-telling!
The rest of my formal education was simply that - formal. I'm sure many of you can relate to that! Of course there were also the normal teenage dramas as well as 'snot en trane' (snot and tears) through that period. Happily I
came away with what was needed for employment.
Much later, when my children were old enough, the urge to tell stories started again.
And your life of storytelling continues, Patricia.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, this is on W/L so your blogs do get through to there. J X
Thanks for commenting, Jeanne, and for letting me know that the W/L members are also seeing my blogs. It would be really good if the W/L functionality could be restored so that I could make comments there.
DeletePatricia, I am really enjoying reading about these different stages in your life. I cannot imagine being away at boarding school at such a young age but needs must in some circumstances. Are you aiming to group these altogether for your family? My OH wrote a series of scenes from his life and we added photos we took on location - sadly not many taken in the past - and the family love dipping into it and asking questions which often prompts him to tell another tale - and hopefully he will write those down, too.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the WL problem I recall you had this before. Which browser are you using and do you have the option of another you could try?
Thanks very much for commenting, Ann. These blog entries about my life are mere snippets of a much bigger life story I'll be putting together in due course, for my family. I'll be adding photos where I can, but as you say, not many photos were taken in those days and in our travels hither and thither a lot have been lost.
ReplyDeleteI'm using Google Internet Explorer, and I've also tried Firefox. I'm not very computer literate in those respects.