Snow and icy conditions certainly make cocooning the most inviting option and tomorrow I am planning a satisfying session of marmalade making and bread baking, having spent most of today tramping cross country to the lovely foodie pub in the next village for a bowl of hot, spicy soup whilst thawing out by the fire and reading the newspapers.
With schools closed across the country, I was thinking of the
heavy snowfall in South Yorkshire where I grew up, during the severe winter
of 1963. At least a foot of snow fell overnight but, nevertheless, we got
up before first light as usual, dressed in our freezing cold bedrooms,
breakfasted and went out into the thick snow well wrapped up against the biting
cold and waited patiently at the bus stop for the first of the two buses I took
every day across the city to reach my Catholic
convent school; a journey of over 6 miles. Amazingly the bus arrived eventually. Those were tougher times
and people just carried on regardless and, anyway, this was Yorkshire! We didn't get far however as the
bus got completely stuck on the first of the many hills we had to negotiate on the journey
and, delighted, we returned home for a day of snowballing and snowman-making followed by mugs of hot chocolate by the coal fire.
The reckoning came
the next day by which time, amazingly, the roads had been cleared and transport
was back to normal, despite the heavy snow still lying in drifts all
around. The nuns kept us under a strict regime of humiliation and
tongue lashings and we lived in daily dread of being singled out, annihilated
by an icy look, seared by a harsh word, made to stand isolated in front of the
class for a sharp character assassination. The survival strategy was
simply to keep our heads down, not to be noticed. So, each girl who did
not make it into school the day before, and there were many as we came from
miles around, had to stand up and explain to the class exactly the
circumstances that prevented her from making the epic journey. The feeling
was that we should have walked to school, even if it took us all day. I
still remember how, a very shy child, I was quaking in my shoes, waiting for my
turn to justify my awful transgression!
Goodness. We had a headmistress like that... argh. She wasn't a nun, though.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember 1963 being particularly cold, though. Maybe it wasn't, here. Or maybe all winters were colder so that it doesn't stand out in my mind.
I do sympathise about the first Christmas without your mum. Me too.
The nuns took it to a different level, Isabelle. I can still spot a survivor of Catholic single-sex education across a crowded room!
ReplyDeleteDear Marianne, I love the new look here.:) I always thought your blog was so interesting and like the fact that you update it more frequently now.;)
ReplyDeleteI guess we all recall some very hard winters in our past.
We have snow too and some days it makes for truly hairy drive to work.;)
Lovely image - keep warm.;)
xoxo
We'd recognise each other at 50 paces, Marianne. The cruelty and coldness of a Catholic convent (in my case, boarding school) regime still leaves me speechless with rage after several decades.
ReplyDeleteZuzana, thank you! I spent some time over Christmas trying to work out blogger and update my blog as I mean to post more regularly now. I enjoy trying to hone a piece - a real challenge. The snow is beautiful here at the moment and it's good to be able to relax and just enjoy it x
ReplyDeleteRachel, we would! I think boarding must have been horrific - at least we got to go home. I met my partner (a survivor of the christian brothers - beatings an everyday occurance) at a party for 150 people and we recognised each other instantly. That was 6 years ago. I have never, ever met such cold people as some of the Catholic nuns I came across.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't realised you had taken to blogging more frequently again and am delighted to find you here! I had a job in a Christian Brothers run school as a librarian for a couple of months. I resigned. The whole atmosphere of the place felt deeply unhealthy and inimical to women to me. Still both you and he (and Rachel!) survived!
ReplyDeleteLovely to see you here again Elizabeth and interesting that you resigned - I wish I could have! Instead, I got 7 years.
ReplyDeleteMarianne - thank you so much for visiting my blog. I remember 1963 too. I lived on a farm with my Dad and can remember having to thaw out all the drinking water bowls for the cows. We used an electric kettle and by the time we had got to the end of the row, the first bowl was frozen again - a bit like the Forth Bridge - it was never ending. Those nuns were very harsh in their treatment.
ReplyDeleteIt was an extremely hard winter Molly - the poor cows! Believe me, I never missed a day again.
ReplyDeleteIt would just never have occurred to us not to go to school, no matter how much snow there was. Fortunately, or otherwise depending on your point of view, where I lived there was very little snow. A lot of today's closures are down to the blessed health and safety, and whilst you can see the reasoning behind some of it, other legislation they have brought in beggars belief, but in turn, is down to the litiginous (spelling?) society we now live in I suspect.
ReplyDelete1963 was very extreme - the BBC even ran a programme about it the other night, but yes, things have gotten pretty ridiculous now - as you say, Maggie, the society we live in.
ReplyDeleteOur daughters went to a convent school in Berkshire. By the time they went to this school there were only a few older nuns left and they were really very good to the girls so our girls had a good experience there. There was only one young teaching nun. I remember
ReplyDeleteour second daughter telling us how she used to sing and dance down the corridor!
How lovely! I wish our nuns had been like that, Linda. Things have changed so much in education - a good thing on the whole!
ReplyDeleteI remember the harshness of the nuns in my primary school too Marianne. They were brutal, especially to vulnerable children. But the nuns in my secondary boarding school were a completely different experience! I couldn't believe that no matter how bold we were, or what we did, they still wouldn't hit us!
ReplyDeleteTimes were harsh back then for sure, and Maggie's comment hits the nail on the head. I think insurance and pharmaceutical companies rule the world!
Hope you enjoyed your cosy, culinary day!
The nuns at my primary school used to rap us across the knuckles for spelling mistakes Mimi! We got to be really good spellers. I think it was the partly the times, what was considered acceptable then and too much repression. I do agree about the big corporations! Marmalade is on hold at the moment as the village pub intervened that day. It'll get done.
ReplyDeleteI never had the "experience" of Catholic schools. That's part of the reality of coming from Methodist stock (and also accounts for the Methodism in my madness). Anyhow, I had nun of your education.
ReplyDeleteI find the harshness towards children a bit hard to understand, and even more difficult to tolerate. As Christians, we have a gospel of love and acceptance; your experience seems so odd and unhelpful.
Making bread and marmalade seems a good winter activity. Soup and news in the pub sounds even better.
And thanks for visiting my poetry blog. (It will get more active eventually, rather like Bears in spring.)
Blessings and Bear hugs.
I shall look forward to that, Rob.
ReplyDelete