There has been a lot in our news lately about the 'plight' of students in Exeter who cannot return to their accommodation. A WW2 bomb was discovered nearby and had to be disposed of (blown up), which left buildings badly damaged. So they are accommodated in Hotels which can't be too bad.
I drifted in my thoughts back to my student days in the late 1950s in this rather palatial Teacher Training College. Very much a 'young ladies only' establishment , we shared bedrooms with one other girl, and had two bathrooms to a corridor of twelve rooms. Students today would feel very let down!
What, no en suite?
We had to sign in at a certain time in an evening and no MEN were allowed in the place except in the Common room between certain hours. I think we were allowed two weekends a term when we could go to visit relations. It was all very proper and our house warden kept a very beady eye on us..
But....we were only a short train ride from London, and for a nineteen year old girl who had hardly ever left Cornwall I was in my element!
Never would I allow my granddaughter to explore now as I did then. I wanted to experience it all. I roamed around the Galleries, discovering wonderful places like the Wallace Collection. I watched the old traditional Jazz band playing in Oxford Street. I wonder if they still play. I shopped...though on my tiny grant I couldnt buy much.
But I do remember buying myself a 'sack' dress, the latest in fashion. C and A in Oxford Street had clothes at very affordable prices.
Of course, we all had these petticoats! They went under the yards of fabric in our Summer dresses and swished beautifully. Does anyone else remember them?
We did things then that would be very foolish today. Wearing a College scarf meant, in our eyes, that you were a protected species. I think now in horror of the time a friend and I decided to hitch hike into London! We were picked up by a very charming gentleman who told us never to do it again, and dropped us safely in the centre.
We went to ballets, concerts and occasionally a session at the inimitable Humphrey Littletons' Jazz club at 100 Oxford Street. We explored the new 'Coffee bars', one named the 'Heaven and Hell'. We may even have rubbed shoulders with the Beatles! Who knows? It was all fun, a learning experience and I'm glad we did it.
But was it really me, who with a group of students, paddled in the fountains after an evening at Ronnie Scott's Jazz club?
Surely not......
23 comments:
I've been reading letters which I wrote when I was doing Voluntary Service Overseas in Nigeria in the early seventies and I'd be horrified if a young woman told me she was taking the same risks today! But I'm glad I seized every opportunity which came my way.
Those are great memories though I winced at the hitchhiking! I did a number of things as a young college student that when I think back on them I'm frightened for my younger self.
Dear Elizabeth,
When recently we looked at a block of student accommodation we were amazed at the luxury of it all. In addition to the accommodation 'suite' shared by four students with a fully equipped kitchen and sitting room, each student had his/her own room with ensuite. However, it did all come with an eye watering price.
And, yes, how well we remember those carefree student days without fear. You certainly were very intrepid with trips to London and dancing in fountains at dawn!But, how lucky we were to have the opportunity of free university tuition, even as you say, given a small grant. Tuition fees these days can be cripplingly high and it can surely mean that some talented students just cannot afford a university education. That is very sad, we think.
This reminds me so much of my nursing school days - it's like reading my own memories!
Such innocent fun, and yet . . . indeed. we would cringe at our children or grandchildren doing similar things today!
Sounds like a very good time in your life. Young people are so adventurous they sometimes forget to be cautious! It's nice you have these good memories.
oh those are lovely memories! I feel like things have changed and there is just more fear and perhaps more to be fearful of... but I love reading about things you did, and find it of great interest! Your life has had a lot of adventure!
Oh what fun you had, and we had some similar experiences, though on different continents. I like the palatial building of your girls' school. At my college my freshman year was in Emerson Hall, built about 1850 and it looked a tiny bit palatial. We also had strict rules, no boys outside of the living room. I hitchhiked too, so dangerous, and traveled with a friend in Lebanon, Jordan, etc. when the embassy said do not do that! Unrest in the area. Fun to look back.
Wonderful memories. For myself I believe God must have been protecting me from harm because I also took some foolish risks. Times are different and there seems to be a lot more predatory men ( and it always seems to be men) around.
I enjoyed reading your memories and your adventures. When I think back on the roads I traveled and the fact that I was protected by the Lord along those roads...I'm grateful. Charming Sack dress! :)
wow you certainly made the most of it and I bet you had much less money to manage on than the students of toAday, many of whom work as well as study to supplement their grant and ensure a comfortable social life! lthough not your age group I can tell you I spent some nights at Ronnie Scotts in my younger days age about 17! as a young hairdressing apprentice my superior (a girl not much older than me) took me there and introduced me to jazz :)
I remember going up to London with 2 student friends to see "The Mousetrap" because one of us thought the run would end soon. That was twenty five years ago... And it was still running till the pandemic caused the current hiatus.
Even in the 1970s the college where I did my post grad teaching certificate was incredibly strict about members of the opposite sex being out of one's room by 11pm (midnight at weekends) and my tutor asked me why I had been sitting next to a male student on the coach to our teaching practice school. I'm afraid she didn't like my truthful answer "I was talking to him about my Christian faith - we weren't snogging, if that's what you're worried about!" (I was 21 and felt quite insulted by her side question)
Oh, this post brought a smile to my face! I loved hearing from your schooling days. So fun to imagine you paddling, hitch hiking, and being such a fun and adventurous young woman! I'm really not surprised -- you're still so fun and full of curiosity!!
I am now remembering the adventures I had growing up. Like you though I would not be doing those things now.
God bless.
I loved this story. I didn't know that you were a teacher or trained as one. Did you teach and what did you teach? I was in college, rather a junior college which was a two year school out in the middle of nowhere--we couldn't even the Rocky Mountains we were so far away. Nothing quite as exciting as hitch hiking to London. We lived in dorms or dormitories, too. Separate ones for men and women with curfews. The first year the enrollment was great that there wasn't room on campus for us, so we lived in the old hospital several miles from campus that had been renovated for girls. It was a wild place. The next year we lived in a new dorm; two to a room that shared a bathroom with the next room. After two years there, I transferred to a 4 year state college where I finished my degree in English, certified to teach high school English, Speech, Drama, and journalism. And yes as a kid I wore the petticoats. I love the previous post; I'd love to be in Cornwall in the spring.
Hello Barbara,
Loved this! I do remember the college shawls very well, they were a hype in the 80s too. Last week we had to say goodbye to our mentor of 'our year' in theology, the group that started in 1984. He was a professor in Medieval History. He studied in Oxford and I had to smile to see a recent picture of him, wearing his college shawl.
Have a good week, love for you both ánd the nurses ;)
Carolien
Super story from your college days - and oh to be "young and foolish" again!
I still can't believe that I actually upped sticks and came to the USA a week before my 19th birthday - and I'd only been to a big city (London) a couple of times on school trips. . . . . and then the big trip to the American Embassy to get my Visa to enter and work as a LEGAL alien!!!
Yes, I had those same tulle petticoats, we even starched them, and I sewed my own 'sack' dresses - which were so comfortable to wear.
Oh to be back in the early sixties again!
The best of times.
Mary X
What great stories from your time at college. You were very brave! I think we have all done foolish things when we were younger - I know I did! Love these memories.
It sounds like you had a lot of fun!
I like the sack dress and I have one of those petticoats. It's a square dancer petticoat and I've never worn it but I do like swish!
Great souvenirs ! I was going to London on my own, I was 12 and remember doing my shopping in Oxford Street, finding fashionable clothes and I loved it. In the late 60’s. I took the ferry, a taxi and the underground to visit some friends and do some shopping on my own. Was a great time!
What great memories! And a wonderful place to study, as mine was as well!
And I remember my first trip on the train to London ( as it only took 30 minutes)
and being quite in awe of the place...little me from Devon! I walked into Biba and remember thinking
‘Wow!’
We hitch hiked too...in fact, I shudder to think of the things we did!
BTW My son works at the Uni and he was working on that story of the ‘bomb’...thankfully he was working from home and wasn’t at the Uni ! It was not pleasant for the private residents living nearby as I believe there was some damage, even though tons of sand was used!
Hope you are keeping well. 😁
Wonderful memories to share - I think of the times that I went hitch hiking too... But also of similar trips to London, of the coming of age of it all, of the parties and girlfriends and carefree days - we had the world before us, or so we thought... I hope we've done that joy justice.
LOL!!! You wild girl, you. hahaha I love hearing about memories like this. The times were quite different then, even when I was a teenager in the 70s. I absolutely never allowed my children to do some of the things I was allowed to do. :-)
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