I will lift up mine eyes to the hills.....
It's funny how distance lends charm to memories... I didn't like being at DWS when I was there for 4 terms in 1966/67 - I eventually persuaded my parents to take me away. But I did make lifelong friends there and now the years have lent a nostalgic charm to:
• freezing cold dormitories ( I was at Pen);
• the freezing cold swimming pool;
• freezing on the hockey field in a little skirt with sleet coming at you horizontally;
• freezing toes in thin regulation leather shoes and thin socks;
• sitting in chapel trying to ignore the pain in your feet while simultaneously being bored to tears;
• a lukewarm bath once a week;
• the Dickensian rules and regulations designed to keep us under control and busy morning noon and night;
• shoe cleaning on Saturdays, letter writing and regimented walks.
• there were intense and great friendships;
• pets in the little shed by the woods;
• cocoa and fruit buns at 11:00;
• The Monkees on the TV on Sunday afternoons (frustatingly the tea bell always went before the end);
• a trip to Shell Island;
• the beautiful mountains;
• tuck;
• strange fads like trying to make each other faint by putting blotting paper in our shoes and holding our breath;
trying to levitate a person with just your finger tips;
• singing 'Hills of the North Rejoice' in assembly;
• Seeing 'Beckett' with Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole somewhere in Dolgellau, although I can't remember where (considered a suitably educational film);
• half-terms at friends' farms;
• scaring each other stupid walking through the dark woods to Pen with tales of escaped convict murderers;
• book club - my introduction to Jean Plaidy, Daphne du Maurier, Victoria Holt - reading them clandestinely and compulsively during prep;
• playing rounders;
• being baffled by the rules of cricket.
Goodness, I could go on and on… amazing what comes up when you cast your mind back!
- Uploaded by:Sue Ogden
- Approximate date of item:
From: -- - 1966
To: -- - 1967 - Location:Dolgellau
- County:Merioneth
- Creator:Jane Worrall
- Themes:Pupil experience
Posted by: Alwen Parry
Posted on: 14.01.2016 at 13:58
I remember it well!
We saw Becket at the Dolgellau Cinema which was on the road into Dolgellau from the main school. It closed down and was converted into a Police Station.