the summer of 61
"There's a write-up of the 'Summer School' in Strasbourg University in my old school magazine dated 1961-62. It's written by a sixth-former whose name I don't recognise. I had just come to the end of my year as an upper fifth-former and was 16 years old...
"Once we were in the accommodation provided by the university, we tried one lecture the following morning, didn't understand it, decided not to attend any more and for the rest of the time enjoyed our complete freedom exploring the city in the way we wished. This began with our looking for local boys..."
"...we stuck together in the two weeks that followed, or in pairs at any rate, enjoying those cakes, walking in the park, visiting museums (I still have the entrance tickets to the History Museum and its Torture Chamber section) and the cathedral, or lying by the river in the sun and then often meeting up with Jean and Willy in the evenings who took us to clubs etc. where there were some chances for Judith and Helen to do some occasional flirting, but it was me who learnt about 'French kissing' from Jean!
".I've often thought since, how much trouble teachers would be in if this was allowed to happen these days, but I also think how Mrs Gray, our teacher had perhaps perfectly well known how it was likely to turn out for us and had decided that the best 'education' she could give her private all girls' school fifth form pupils was the one we actually received!"
".I've often thought since, how much trouble teachers would be in if this was allowed to happen these days, but I also think how Mrs Gray, our teacher had perhaps perfectly well known how it was likely to turn out for us and had decided that the best 'education' she could give her private all girls' school fifth form pupils was the one we actually received!"
* * *
"This was the year that changed everything; or rather, the year where things began to change for me. As always, of course, we were five years apart so in 1961 I was 11 to your 16. What would I have made of you if we’d met the summer you went to Strasbourg..?
" I was still a kid, just out of primary, the days of pulling faces at old ladies on the way to school behind me now. But the playground photos show an awkward girl, uncomfortable in her specs and her unattractive blouse and skirt...
"And I was getting ready for leaving behind the Roy Butchers and Christopher Bakers of Sudbury Junior Mixed and meeting the Krysias and Rowenas and Marilyns of Lower IVA, for travelling to school on the tube, for Latin and chemistry and the terrors of geography and lacrosse...
"What would you have made of me, if we’d collided one day that summer? An intense little girl lost, taking herself very seriously, desperate to please? Or would you have seen the self I’d already chosen to show to the world: studious, confident, intelligent, piano player, stamp collector, reader of historical novels? Either way, if our paths did happen to cross on a London pavement in July or August of ’61, I imagine we would simply have kept walking."
"This was the year that changed everything; or rather, the year where things began to change for me. As always, of course, we were five years apart so in 1961 I was 11 to your 16. What would I have made of you if we’d met the summer you went to Strasbourg..?
" I was still a kid, just out of primary, the days of pulling faces at old ladies on the way to school behind me now. But the playground photos show an awkward girl, uncomfortable in her specs and her unattractive blouse and skirt...
"And I was getting ready for leaving behind the Roy Butchers and Christopher Bakers of Sudbury Junior Mixed and meeting the Krysias and Rowenas and Marilyns of Lower IVA, for travelling to school on the tube, for Latin and chemistry and the terrors of geography and lacrosse...
"What would you have made of me, if we’d collided one day that summer? An intense little girl lost, taking herself very seriously, desperate to please? Or would you have seen the self I’d already chosen to show to the world: studious, confident, intelligent, piano player, stamp collector, reader of historical novels? Either way, if our paths did happen to cross on a London pavement in July or August of ’61, I imagine we would simply have kept walking."
