From a Distance

Starting School Early School Days and Grateful Thanks to Chicken Licken  An energetic and capable pair of women, Miss Millicent Glencross and her life partner, Miss Spence, ran the Gateway School. I started there at in 1948 aged 4½ and travelled with my brother on the 50a bus, which ran along the Sussex coast to Pagham, west of Bognor Regis. For years I was fascinated by the bus’s ultimate destination ‘á Becket’s Ave though had no idea who Becket was with that funny á and what was Ave ? Did it rhyme with Save or with Have ? The Gateway was a traditional, tightly organised prep school where mastery of the basic skills was paramount. The teachers , were kind and caring, the school routine was unvarying. The classes were named after characteristics for us to emulate; the Reception class was called Happiness then we went on to Kindness, Goodness, Unselfishness, Courage, Truth, Loyalty and Perseverance. I can recall the formica-topped table and the tiny chairs and can see the first s...

Christmas in the early 1950s - when less was more Typical display of Christmas goods at Woolworth in the 1950s Once on a clear, sharp night in early December, our mum Betty Richards made a telephone call in the draughty hall while we eavesdropped, “What did you say?” she asked   “He’s flying past tonight?   Thank you for telling me. I’ll be sure to let the children know. Goodbye” She called us and announced,             “I’ve just heard that Father Christmas is flying past tonight on his way back to the North Pole and he needs to know what presents you’d like.”   Innocent, and flushed with joy we raced upstairs to a back bedroom and clambered on top of a built-in unit to fling open the casement windows which still had nursery bars across them. Bitingly cold air rushed in. Above Southdean Drive, the band of the Milky Way arched across the sky and the piercingly bright stars shimmered. Secure i...