Article
MY JOURNEY TO ENGLAND
On the 12th of May 1962 my mother, older sister and I boarded the BOAC at Palisadoes Airport in Jamaica now, Norman Manley International Airport for England. I was very excited as I was being reunited with my father who had left two years earlier. I wore a pink nylon dress with streamers, black shoes and white socks. The journey was long and frightening, especially when we hit turbulence. The food was strange, it was the first time I tasted sausages, and it was tasteless. Even the apples were dry and tasteless. We eventually landed at London Heathrow Airport. I remembered there were lots of people; some were lying around waiting for someone to pick them up. My dad was not there and we didn’t have any money so we also waited, until a lady came to us and asked where we were going. It was fortunate she had a minivan, so we were packed in the van for the long journey to my uncle’s house in Hawstead Road where my dad was staying. My first sight of England was through the window of the van and as we drove along I saw white stuff on the ground, which I later found out, was snow. I was so cold and trembled in my thin summer dress.
After a couple of days I was enrolled at Holbeach Primary School, the first day at school wore my thin dress and a cardigan that my dad bought me; the sleeves were much too short. My mother’s cousin gave me one of her daughter’s coats as I was so cold. I made friends quickly; the white kids were friendly and were fascinated with my accent and how fast I spoke. A girl called Hilary took me under her wings and in September we both went upstairs to the King Alfred Secondary Girls School.
The school was very big, two floors with two assembly halls. On the first floor in the mornings, we had assembly and on the second floor hall we had PE. There were many classrooms on each floor; the headmistress office was on the first floor; a first aid room and a tuck shop. On the other end of the corridor of the first floor was the pottery room, the art room, the kitchen, the music room and the needlework room. On the second floor were the library, R.E. room and office Practice room. You were not allowed to run in the corridors or the halls, and when changing classes you had to keep to the left and walked orderly, if we became noisy the teachers would appear and tell us off. There was a chair outside the headmistress office and if you were sent to her you sat on the chair waiting for your punishment.
The halls were transformed into dining hall for lunches, I love the food, they were cooked in the kitchen and the aroma was delicious, I enjoyed the puddings, the spotty dick and custard, apple pie and custard etc, I didn’t like lemon curd, I like the pies but didn’t like the Lancashire hot pot, I didn’t like greens, other than that, I liked much of the food and would most time go for seconds.
School hours were for 8:50am to 4pm and you had to be on time; this was good discipline later in life as I am rarely late for anything. The school was divided into three houses and three colours, Ravenbourne, (Yellow); Farrier (Red) and Everest (Blue). All the girls were allocated a house on entrance and remained in that house right through school life. My house was Farrier so named after Katherine Mary Farrier an English Contralto Singer. The houses compete against each other each other in most things, only when we played against another school were there any team spirit.
There were approximately 30 girls to a form. Our form teacher would take the registration and then we would go to Assembly. Each girl was allocated a desk, the desk itself has a lid and when lifted the books were kept in the desk; there was an ink well, as we used pen with nibs. There was an ink monitor whose job was to fill up the ink well, a milk monitor, whose job was to get the milk. The milk were delivered in small bottles in a crate, the milk monitor gave out the straws and ensure all empties were place in the crate and taken away for collection. Aside from the form teacher, there was also a form prefect and a deputy, chosen by the girls. There jobs were to ensure order was kept in the form. Going to school and back home in those days were sometimes dangerous as the fogs descending quickly and you could easily walked pass your gate, if it was not the fog it was the snow. The winter of 1962-1963 were bad and the snow was also very deep but we still had to go to school, we walked everywhere in those days.
In Jamaica, I loved school and rarely absent. The head girl was from Portland Jamaica and used to go to the school I would have gone to if I had remained in Jamaica. The headmistress was born in the Victorian ere and was very strict. She made an effort to understand us, as she was getting more coloured girls in the school; she went to Jamaica for a month to get to understand our culture. At first all the teachers were white but gradually we had a black teacher and an American teacher.
At lunchtime and after school we use to go to the local shop to buy sweets; there were many small shops around the school. The tuck shop in the school was for us to buy sweets, as were not allowed outside the gates during our breaks, teachers patrolled the playgrounds and if you were caught outside the gates you would be punished. Some of the older girls that join us from another school, attracted boys that loitered around the school and the headmistress in assembly would announced that these unsavoury specimens were to be discouraged from coming to the gates.
We had assembly every morning in the hall and the scripture were read by the head girl or a nominated girl, the announcements were made then we were told to bow our heads and listen to classical music. It was there that I learn to appreciate the arts. (I love Beethoven 5th Symphony and I use to listen to classical music in my car before Premier radio came on stream). We were then dismissed to go to our various classes. We were given a timetable and the classrooms for each period so we knew where to go.
The young girls wore navy pinafore with white blouse, white ankle sock and black shoes. The older girls wore navy blue skirts, white blouse, stockings or white knee high sock and our school tie which was green and white. Our P.E kit consisted of black or navy bloomers which we had to wear under our skirt. The older ones were allowed to wear a P.E skirt over their bloomers, and a vest. P.E was compulsory and only the older girls were allowed to skip this when they were not well. Music and R.E, English and maths were the other compulsory subjects.
On the very first day of school we were given a Bible, a rough work book, and each class you go to you were given the books that were needed for that lesson. By the end of the week your arms stretch a little for the many books.
At the end of the first term at school I was given a progress report book that was kept for the remaining years at school. Each subject teacher remarked on the progress and awarded a mark for that subject. The form mistress also made her report and finally the headmistress. The report was handed to us to take home to our parent who signed the book and returned it to the school the first day of the next term.
I remember going to the corner shop to buy bread, the first time I had seen a Wonderloaf, it was in a blue wrapper and was tasty; we use to be able to buy ‘one egg’ as well. The money was the same as it was in Jamaica so we had no problem with conversion. I had never seen television before but my uncle had one in his room. I remembered seeing this thing with yellow cellophane on it and was told it was a coloured TV. My uncle at that time had two children so we used to gather around to watch the TV that was when I saw regular program like Emergency Ward 10, Doctor Kildare, Coronation Street and others...
The sequel continues.