大象传媒

Story by Mrs D Cooke

I was born in July, 1937 and in August, 1940 my mother (in her wisdom) decided to send me away to boarding school. The convent of Notre Dame in Sheffield had been evacuated to Ashopton (I think that is the spelling of the village), and was housed in the Duke of Norfolk's country house, later the village was submerged under the Ladybower dams.
As I was only just 3 years old I was the baby of the convent, I can remember the uniform of green serge dress in the winter and cream linen in the summer. I wore long woollen stockings held up by suspenders on a liberty bodice. These stockings were darned until there was hardly any stocking left as abviously I was always falling down. As I had plaits, the other problem was lost hair ribbons as everything was on coupons.
We slept in dormitories and I used to hang my teddy bear, which incidently I still have, by his arms on the springs of the bed above me. Unfortunately when the 'big girl', as the older members of the school were called, climbed into her bunk my poor Ted was stuck, and I would have histerics. I cannot remember crying to go home during my 2 years at the school so it must have been an enjoyable time for me.
Later in 1942, when the school came back to Sheffield, the only thing that really sticks in my mind are school dinners. Every day was either turnip or swede which I hated and we were not allowed to leave anything. We all had to wear pinafores for lunch and I used to line my pocket with Izal toilet paper and when the nuns were not looking I would fill my pocket with the dreaded vegetable and flush the contents down the toilet.
At home I can also remember making peep holes in the blackout blinds, which seemed to be made of thick black paper so I could look out during the lighter nights as I always had to go to bed early.
My mother also had a fine during the war for going out in the daylight, leaving a light on, and not returning until dark.

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