St George's News

LOOKING BACK ON EIGHTY YEARS

RUBY'S MEMOIRS, PART 3 - THE TWENTIES

PART 1 - THE EARLY YEARS
PART 2 - THE GREAT WAR
PART 4 - FROM GENERAL STRIKE TO WORLD WAR 2
PART 5 -MARRIED LIFE AND THE CLOUDS OF WAR
PART 6 - OUTBREAK OF WAR
PART 7 - THE HEIGHT OF WAR
PART 8 - 1942-44: AMERICA DECLARES WAR
PART 9 - POST-WAR 1945-1950: RUNNING THE PUB
PART 10 - THE AFTERMATH OF WAR
PART 11: THE HOME COMING
PART 12: THE SIXTIES
PART 13: FROM HILDENBOROUGH TO DENMEAD
PART 14: TRAVELLING THROUGH LIFE AND DEATH
PART 15: THE LAST 25 YEARS

Part 3. The Twenties

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUMMER 1996 ISSUE OF ST GEORGE'S NEWS

The twenties were here and so was the aftermath of war. The bad old days were gone and here was a life to be enjoyed and the young of that era were over willing to take part. So many of their predecessors had gone for ever and those who returned were only too glad to forget the horrors they had witnessed so it was on with the dance.

School still remained but even that had changed over the last two years. We had a new head, a delightful person, a Miss Zachary, I can see her now, standing by her fireplace, and in her soft voice giving me a quiet dressing down for some silly prank I had a part in just to be noticed. "What a pity," she said, "it spoils all your other hard work." I had climbed out of a school window to the roof of the cloisters for a dare to retrieve a ball. The drop down was all right but the climb back was impossible even with willing hands to help. A few lines and a detention was all I got for a punishment but the quiet "What a pity" stayed with me all my life. It was far more effectual than a few strokes of the cane. She was a wonderful head and our school went from strength to strength under her guidance.

Our uniform didn't alter very much, except that our Hard Straw Hats were exchanged for a panama in the summer and a felt hat in the winter, both of which got far more shabby than our hard boaters did with rough usage, also our navy bloomers, which had always been very voluminous in the past, with a pocket for a handkerchief were now of much more reasonable proportions. Gym slips were the same but as you grew they became very much shorter. They were not very often replaced as they were quite expensive, even in those days, and shorter skirts had come into fashion for all after the war, so you hung on to your tunic for as long as you could. Hair was either tied back with a navy ribbon or in one or two plaits, but the American Bob had arrived and was taking England by storm, especially in schools, so that was allowed. Many of us had this done and I got my mother to cut mine but of course done properly it was perfectly all right but I looked so awful I had to be rushed to the nearest hairdresser to do something about it.

That was the last of long hair for me for the rest of my life. The next big change was the coming of the school blazer which we could wear in school during the winter and as a coat during the summer. It had the school badge on the pocket which boasted the Godolphin Eagles and the famous Latymer Cross, under which was our motto Franca Leale Toga.

The higher you went in the school forms the work load rose with it, two hours homework was usual and as this had to be handed into the Captain of the Form on the following morning any excuses had to be reported so there was no escape. There was a great incentive to work as if you didn't you got a low mark in the end of terms exams which meant you went into a lower class for the ensuing year. So you would be bereft of your school buddies who became very important to you over the years. Most of us stayed together for the whole of our school life.

During these years there were many things of interest you could join. If you made any of the school teams for sport all practices and matches were held on Wednesday afternoons, on which day there were no lessons, or after school other days. The school choir was after school, as was any dramatic or musical productions of which there were plenty, also one advanced gymnastic class for those who had earned the coveted badge, which was worn on your tunic, two dolphins with twisted tails encircled by the school motto, all embroidered in red silk. It was the pride of my school life and again a great incentive to stick to the rules otherwise it would be taken away.

The sports day was the highlight of the Summer Term which was held in the field at the back of the school with a Band for a massed drill, marching, Country Dancing. The usual races, a high jump, a slow bicycle race. The school buildings were open for the crowds of parents and friends who had tea in the grounds. Boys were not allowed as this was a girls school. It was really a great day and worth all the preparation that went into it.

By now the twenties were in full swing and the whole country was dance mad. Jazz had arrived from America and a Jazz Band was the thing of the day. Any instrument could be used, even blowing through a comb and tissue paper made a noise for people to dance to. The school took this in its stride and found it a new way to raise money when needed and having school dances became quite the thing, in spite of no boys allowed. These were great fun especially for those who had already learned to dance. Now was the time to show your expertise as we had learned ballroom dancing in our local Dancing School so now spent quite a bit of our spare time trying to instil the 1-2-3 of the waltz, the different beat of the quick steps of ragtime and the slower one of the fox trot into our friends. The graceful movement of the waltz had gone, and a new dance called the Maxina arrived. All this was smiled on by our gentle Head who said she liked to see her girls "enjoying themselves". She certainly knew how to run a school and keep her pupils happy, I don't think the word "boring" was in our vocabulary.

All this made time pass quickly and before you knew you were 16 and the dreaded School Cert. Matriculation was on you and the end of your school days. I stayed on for another year to learn Shorthand, Typewriting and Business Studies. I didn't care for this very much, a few friends stayed on as well to take a similar course or try for Matriculation but we had lots of free time and were able to spend most of it on subjects of your own choice and help generally round the school. The school shop was very popular as stocktaking had to be done, and this meant counting everything that was used during the term from Text Books to Geometry Sets, pens, pencils, rubbers, note books, foolscap to say nothing of paper clips, ink and nibs and all that goes into school life. We usually did it in pairs and as it was the only place where you were allowed to talk it was always very popular only, being next to the Staff Room you had to be careful of what you said.

Eventually the year came to an end and for the last time we sang the hymn "Lord dismiss us with thy blessing". It was very emotional as a few of us knew this would be the last time we should take part, so said goodbye to our friends who we hoped to see again, and to many of the mistresses who had steered our course through school for the years we were there.

We were now well into the roaring twenties for real. It was a great change. No homework, no uniform, no timetable to live by, but a wide open world in which you had got to earn a living. For use if needed there was a Head Mistresses Association to help you in this. My father was all for me to stop at home but after a few months of this I decided it was not for me. A Dancing Career which I would have liked was out from the start, the stage being no place for me according to my father; as was a gymnastic teacher, but that meant going back to college, and if I went anywhere it should be into an office as it was safer. What would they have thought of life today. However, in those days you did as you were told and into an office I went. It was an accountants office which had just started to take school leavers of good education as shorthand typists. This was highly respectable so that was why I found myself as a very junior dogsbody in a room full of typewriters and some very elderly ladies, they were really quite young but to me they appeared to be very daunting with their long skirts and hair in buns. I found out later that there were only three of them and they typed the statements of companies accounts on enormous typewriters. After the first shock of being in the real world, I settled down and found the great outside full of surprises. In due course I left the typing bureau and worked on what was known as "the desk" dealing with figures and even learned to add shillings and pence together without making a mistake. After my stay there for five years, Comptometers as they were called, were being used for the first time as adding machines so all my expertise in this would have been wasted. But I suppose as you are learning one thing you learn another at the same time. Mixing with many different staff in a very large concern you learn about people who otherwise you would never have known. The ordinary clerks, pen pushers they were called, who earned a very poor wage as they had never been articled to a firm, and so would never get very far, the cleaners who tried to clean the old offices which were impossible to keep clean with the tools they had - a bucket and scrubbing brush and flannel, windows that were so dirty on the outside that you couldn't see through them anyway. It was all a very new outlook for me and I found a lot of reason in Socialism and so did many of my age group who had had a sheltered upbringing, hence the coming of strife in the twenties, and the turbulent times that followed.

this series of Ruby's "Memoirs" to be continued.

written by Ruby Bullock

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