Sue's Memoirs

Memories of College Days - from France Chapter 2 So the first term had come to an end. It’s all a bit of a blur after all these years but as I type, things do pop into my mind. I had attempted to make my room homely and had put up pictures from magazines. One day Alan Sopp visited me and explained that they were all put up wrongly! After he had put me right on how to place pictures, the room looked much better, and to this day, I remember his advice. I remember one day in the bar being called over by John Jones. I was wearing a brown and cream stripy dress that hugged my figure. He told me I should shorten the dress by a few inches and hold my head up, and stop hiding behind my long brown hair! I took that advice too and did notice the attention afterwards! The truth is I was quite shy and afraid. Life in Elsa Nunn was happy enough but I found myself drifting over to the boy’s block to watch TV or them playing cards or scrabble. They wouldn’t let a ‘girl ‘ join in but one evening, quite late, I was allowed to play the last round of a game of cards. There was quiet a bit of money in the pot and I won it! It was even harder to be allowed to play after that. I would sit and hum to myself or knit. Tim Whiteford still has the scrabble bag I knitted! Alan Sopp did some little drawings and poems for me. A few years ago another one came through email, about me sitting quietly and humming to myself. I was surprised that my stillness had been noticed. Then there was watching football, losing the feeling in your feet because it was so cold and you weren’t wearing the right shoes. One morning, Ade George came knocking on my door early, to say that they were off to London to see a match and would I like to come! I was thrilled to be one of the lads! In fact I was the first honorary lad.I always got on better with the boys but have kept in touch with two girls from college days, Jenny Brooking and Dawn Acres. It was about this time that Adrian George, Jim Stephenson and I formed a folk group. Adrian had already written some songs but I liked to alter the tunes a little bit. Jim Stephenson played the flute. We were an unlikely mix! Two men in the fashion of ‘St Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and me in my little black mini skirt, matching top and yellow shoes and beads! Someone was having a party at college and I was asked to sing some jazz standards with Head of Music (name forgotten). I think this was part of the start of my professional career! Dawn and Tim performed as well but there was never any competition just mutual admiration. It is quite obvious from what I am writing that few memories remain of actual college learning! I do remember someone worrying in the common room one day about not having written a poem for class. I didn’t like to see people worrying so I dashed one off there and then and they got a’B’! I did enjoy art and music. I made a Chordal Dulcimer in Music and large flowers in art. Oh how times have changed! Adrian and Alan both supplied me with artwork for my walls. Ade had dribbled green paint from a tin with a hole in and Alan gave me a landscape. I kept those paintings on my walls for many years. One of my jobs at college was being the social services secretary. I took a group of dancers to entertain the prisoners at Leyhill Open Prison. How naive I was! Six leotard clad young women prancing about in front of incarcerated felons! The most eye-opening visit was to a mental hospital. We were building a playground but also helped to feed the patients. Their levels of disability were so profound that I had nightmares for weeks. We did get the playground done though. During my first teaching practice I volunteered to go to a junior school that was having a field week in Exmouth. We stayed in big tents overlooking the sea. It was my job each night to go to the tents and make sure the boys were in bed and ready to sleep. You can imagine how difficult that was. They were so cheeky and I found it difficult to keep a straight face. I did enjoy being out of the classroom though. One winter teaching practice, I found myself again volunteering for an ‘outward bound’ week. It was in a hostel on the Mendips. It was so cold I wore all my clothes to bed and we got snowed in. Part for the course was caving and I didn’t sleep for the first three nights worrying about it. When I got to the cave entrance the girl behind me started to cry, so I told her to wait at the coach. When I turned around everyone had disappeared and I heard a muffled voice urging me to squeeze myself through a small hole in the ground. Being well endowed in the chest area I was rather concerned that at some point I would be stuck and never see sky again!!! Strangely enough I felt exhilarated by the whole experience and it was not good to show your fear to the pupils. I even volunteered for a session in a wet cave later that night! I am sure I will never do it again though. I was in a state of terrified focus, imagining all sorts of creepy crawlies in the blackness around me. The torch attached to my head kept going out, and as I type this, I can’t believe I did it. Chapter 1 I came to St Matt’s in Sept 1968. I was just 19. I had travelled down on my own by train from Birmingham to Bristol and then caught a bus to Fishponds. I remember waiting on the wrong side of the road for the bus, as I had no idea in which direction I should be going. Luckily I have always had an uncanny sense of direction and crossed over, arriving at college safe and sound. I found my way to Elsa Nunn and my room on the corner of the top floor, facing out towards the canteen and chapel. It was a strange feeling to think that this small rectangular room would be my home for the next ten months. It was sparse! A single bed, a desk, a built-in wardrobe and a sink. Later on that day I wondered about inspecting the college. I was surprised when a few new students came up to me and asked directions. When I told them I was new too they said I looked as if I had been there for years!! I think I have always had an air of looking as if I fit in but underneath I was as nervous or excited as they were. I remember our first big meeting in the hall where I looked around at the new faces with whom I was to share the next three years. I noticed that all the boys seemed young and unsophisticated…except for one or two! One of them turned up later than most and was dressed in a suit, shirt and tie. I took an instant dislike to him!! I married him three years later! Once we had been there a few weeks the novelty had worn off. Trips by coach to Clifton for lectures seemed extremely tedious! I remember having to sit in a circle and listen, without participating, to talk after talk. One day I was so bored that I decided to play a game. I would look round the circle at my peers to see who would respond to my gaze. Only one did! That was Alan Sopp, who caught my eye and smiled. We were both playing the same game! One week at coffee break we made a run for it! He had driven in his MG Midget so we skipped the rest of the day and went for a spin! No one seemed bothered. I think I was supposed to be learning about education! Whoops!! One subject I would never miss was dance and drama. My specialist subjects. I loved dance especially. Our hall for dance was next to the maths room and Phil McLennan used to see us working and told me one day that it looked much more fun than maths. To me it was. Sophie Williams was an incredible woman and never failed to capture my interest. In fact I used to go to the hall when everyone was in the bar and just dance on my own. At weekends I was a bit lonely, so I used to watch the boys play football. I even went to their away matches and was soon inveigled into washing their shirts! How kind! Somehow I seemed to prefer male company. I did have two female pals. Pauline Elliot and Jenny Brooking. Pauline had a room beside me in Elsa Nunn and Jenny lived in Downend. Both did Dance and Drama. The first term seemed to fly by and by Christmas I had attended a Victorian fancy dress party with the student I didn’t like in the suit! We hired costumes and won first prize!!! I still have the photo but it is in a box in my garage in UK!!!!!!

I was delighted when Sue Doyle, (Kibbey), offered to begin writing her college memories for this site. I hope they will stir some memories for you. It will be good to have a woman's perspective for a change!