Old Photograph
One good thing about the internet is that I've been able to make contact with people from my past. It is something I much appreciate.
A couple of days ago, one of my teachers from junior school, Martin Kirk, sent me a set of photos he'd taken from when he took us on a field trip when I was aged about ten or eleven.
It was really interesting to see all those faces from childhood, and interesting too that names suddenly came to mind - names hadn't thought about for almost thirty years: Mr M., Andrew, Ross, Sally, Nicola, Janet, Anne, Sue... and Sue again.
Martin said he couldn't see me there - too shy, he said, or not paying attention, or both. And when I looked at first I couldn't see me either, but then I did, in this one...
...the girl looking forward at the front.
I keep wondering what was going through my head just then, because I guess something was. In those days things that happened seemed to me to happen mysteriously, without reason; for instance in the class before this one there used to be regular tests. Week after week we would be asked 'How many yards in a mile?' and I would never know the answer. I think I expected it to come to me one day like rain on my face. I don't remember being aware of anything much else at all except, even then, I knew I loved to write.
A couple of days ago, one of my teachers from junior school, Martin Kirk, sent me a set of photos he'd taken from when he took us on a field trip when I was aged about ten or eleven.
It was really interesting to see all those faces from childhood, and interesting too that names suddenly came to mind - names hadn't thought about for almost thirty years: Mr M., Andrew, Ross, Sally, Nicola, Janet, Anne, Sue... and Sue again.
Martin said he couldn't see me there - too shy, he said, or not paying attention, or both. And when I looked at first I couldn't see me either, but then I did, in this one...
...the girl looking forward at the front.
I keep wondering what was going through my head just then, because I guess something was. In those days things that happened seemed to me to happen mysteriously, without reason; for instance in the class before this one there used to be regular tests. Week after week we would be asked 'How many yards in a mile?' and I would never know the answer. I think I expected it to come to me one day like rain on my face. I don't remember being aware of anything much else at all except, even then, I knew I loved to write.
posted by Clare Dudman at 11:29 am
5 Comments:
That's interesting. I know that it came as a revelation to me--maybe as late as college--that if I didn't understand something from the books assigned in a course I could supplement my knowledge from elsewhere. Likewise, it probably didn't occur to you to find out independently how many yards are in a mile.
Yes, I remember a revelation like that (of a more basic kind) in High School - that it was actually possible to learn stuff deliberately. It just hadn't occurred to me before that. I was very clueless in my youth (and still am, to some extent).
I suspect our children are a lot more savvy. I feel as if I spent my childhood in a sort of fog.
wow, that is so neat. I think you look like you are two steps ahead of everybody else in brains and going your own way!
Yes, Debra, it sometimes like that to me too - though other times I think my two have the same sort of fogginess as their mother.
Thanks S, a very kind interpretation! Maybe I'll stick to that one!
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