This photo was taken sometime between 1990 and 1994. I was between 8 and 12 years old and this was *my* bed at boarding school.
I think we were in St Nicholas’s dorm room – it held about 10 girls. We each had our bed (with obligatory bunk drawer), one of those horrible cheap orange chairs to put our clothes on and a bedside table.
This photo was obviously taken in the summer – the blue and white stripped dresses give that away.
My duvet cover tells of years of pestering. Everyone had a “Snatch the dog” duvet cover (an unfortunate name, now I think about it). Everyone had one, so I had to have one too. Slightly ironic that neither of my bed-mates apparently gave into this peer pressure.
I’m reminded by an old school chum that the dog on the bed was called Rupert. The dorm bought him for the princely sum of 15p and he was shared between all the girls. I have no idea what happened to him after we all moved on. I like to think that he’s still at the boarding house, being loved by the future generations of 8 year olds. I doubt it somehow.
The slightly dirty cushion at the top of my bed was my equivalent of a comfort blanket. I think it was one of those things that I just picked up. It was obviously a real cushion at one point (at which I have to question my mother’s taste in material) but, over time, it had become so soft and worn that I couldn’t go anywhere without it.
The chest of drawers to the right of the picture is mine. It looks so bare in comparison to my bedside table now (which is host to a teetering tower of books). All I have there is a travel clock my grandmother gave me (since lost in the dustbunnies of the attic I think) and a picture frame with my mother and father in it. I still remember the pictures. My mother (on the left) is squinting slightly into the sun (it was taken in Egypt) and my father is in uniform (also taken on his tour of Egypt)
It’s the end of term apparently. Trunks, bags and clothes are scattered around the room. I’m not sure why the curtains are closed – it’s obviously still bright outside. If I think about it hard enough I can still remember who slept in which bed (mainly by remembering their duvet covers, isn’t that odd?)
These photos bring up mixed memories for me. They remind me of the fun times I had at boarding school and then, later, when I think about it a bit more, I remember the not so fun times. I remember midnight feasts (held at 10 o’clock), I remember catwalk shows and dancing parties (well, what else do pre-teen girls do for fun when they’re stuck in a boarding house!) I remember telling my house mistress that the local village boys were sneaking into the school to meet with the 6th formers. I remember Saturdays out in the village and the route we used to take around all the local shops – heady days of freedom, well before we were allowed to go to the nearest town. I remember being caught by the headmaster walking across the grass to the quad. I remember laughing about it for the next year. I remember planning to escape and plotting where we would go. I remember the tyre swing in the garden. I remember our “stables” in the small wooded area at the bottom of the garden.
I remember growing up.
This blog post was submitted for the weekly gallery over at Sticky Fingers. This week’s theme was ‘A Memory’. You can see all of this weeks entries >>> here <<<
I think he wants to wait until he is back rather than rush into asking just because he is going away. Knowing him he will make it pretty special when he does!”
