Chapter 7
I didn�t shine at games or gym, but enjoyed taking part in every sport, including cricket for which I played in the 2nd team with matches against schools such as Western Province Prep, but the main value I got from cricket was learning to score. During my second year, playing hockey at left inner with great enthusiasm, I got a finger caught between my hockey stick and another one. It was a nasty clash, as a result of which I lost the nail of the middle finger of my right hand. Luckily I was reasonably ambidextrous and taught myself to write, although slowly and laboriously, with my left hand and was even able to write an internal exam before my right hand was back in use. I then moved to goalie, and played for the First Team in that position. Sunday afternoons we lounged about in the grounds, enjoying goodies from someone�s tuckbox. We were allowed out with relations and friends, but it was very seldom that my parents came to take me out, just a very few occasions when we went on to Nevis and had tea with the Kents. The boarders were taken to Rosebank Show, but I remember nothing of the normal exhibits of a show - I just remember going round the various stalls collecting free samples. (Why does a tiny tube of Kolynos toothpaste come to mind?) After the Show we traditionally had midnight feasts, one of which was disastrous for me. Five of us in a dorm in the Cottage had a feast of sardines, Marie biscuits and condensed milk, after which I was horribly sick. Miss Ralls (her nickname was Balls, which rather shocked Mother, but I couldn�t imagine why) was the teacher on duty in the Cottage, and to our astonishment next morning said �Girls, what did you do to Shirley last night?� We had thought it was a secret known only to us! Extra-mural pursuits included piano lessons for me, but I was soon allowed to give them up. Eurythmics was the �in� thing - and I struggled to understand what it was all about, but with my lack of music and lack of creative ability I got nowhere at all in this supposedly graceful expression of self. Clad in a brief tunic and with bare feet, prancing around, I just felt foolish. Elocution I loved, and acting in the annual plays was the greatest fun. After �The School for Scandal� I did some sleep-walking; in the middle of the night I got out of bed, gathered all my bedclothes in my arms, walked over to another bed and dumped the bedding on the occupant. Luckily another girl was awake and dimly saw what had happened, and she collected me and my bedding and escorted me back to bed. I went docilely, and remembered little of the incident next day when I was ragged about it. Scholastically I coped adequately, never brilliantly, but did manage to get a First Class pass in J.C. I was, however, not a model scholar. There was a fig tree between the Lodge and the Main House, and on at least one occasion I stole a lovely ripe fig and hastily ate it before arriving in the diningroom for breakfast. In December 1926 Mother went to England hoping to see her sister Agnes who had been sent home from India very ill, but sadly Agnes died while Mother was still at sea. Dad took us to Glencairn Hotel for Christmas and New Year. During the New Year�s Eve dance, Billy suggested that we should walk down to the beach - something we�d done so often before, but, to my utter astonishment, in the subway (such a romantic spot!) he suddenly kissed me. We were both I think a little confused, and we returned to the hotel. |
