Synopsis of From Greyscale to Technicolor
Chapter 1 - The Alex
At the age of six, I became very ill due to a complication after contracting measles. This is an account of my three week stay in the old Alexander Children's Hospital.
Chapter 2 - St Peter's
I attended St Peter's Infant School from 1961 to 1964. I recall the teachers (Miss Conn, Mrs Lewis and Miss Clothier) and my friends. I revisit the every day life of a little girl. Also the not-so-average times as during the big freeze of the 1962-63 winter.
Chapter 3 - The Congregationalists
I went to Sunday School at the Congregationalist Church in Station Road, Portslade. I also attended the Girl's Guildry (later the Girl's Brigade) there. In an age when Britain was not such a secular society, Christianity was the basis of almost every child's education.
Chapter 4 - Headmasters and Fairy Stories
In 1964 I began my time at Benfield Junior School. I remember with fondness my early teachers, Miss Royston and Mrs Dawson, and the time I appeared on the Southern Television programme Day By Day with a story about a fish that I had written. It was then that I decided I was going to be a writer.
Chapter 5 - Daddy
When I was eight years old, my father died. My world was never to be quite the same again.
Chapter 6 - Sunny Sundays, Rolling Hills & Skipping Games
This is a chapter about play, remembering happy times when the sun always shone. I often stayed with my big sister Doreen who was like a second mum to me and lived at the foot of my beloved Downs in Mile Oak. I also recall days out with my mum to the Lagoon and Southwick Park.
Chapter 7 - Rainy Days
Of course although the sun didn't really always shine, there was still fun to be had on rainy days. There were my dolls and comics, and from the age of seven TV! Watch With Mother, Sarah and Hoppity and Torchy the Battery Boy entertained us endlessly. Then of course there was Junior Choice on the radio and my dad's old 78" records.
Chapter 8 - Father Christmas, Guy Fawkes and the Daleks
No 1960s childhood would be complete without Christmas, Bonfire Night and Dr Who. Not to mention Pancake Day, coal fires and chilblains!
Chapter 9 - Miss Belinfante
Here I return to recollections of my final two years at Benfield School under the watchful eye of my most beloved teacher, Miss Belinfante. She truly was an inspiration in my young life and I owe a lot of who have become to her stern but nurturing character.
Chapter 10 - Wessex
I spent my summer holidays with my two aunts, Auntie Cis in Hampshire and Auntie Phyll in Somerset. These were happy times with my more 'middle class' relatives, having days out to places such as the newly opened Longleat (the first Safari Park in England). I also had my first glimpse of colour television.
Chapter 11 - From Greyscale to Technicolor
Here I take a potted journey from the grey austerity of the early sixties that was still emerging form the effects of a World War, towards the later part of the decade when flower power and a better economy was to bring colour and fun into people's lives. No white goods in the kitchen, dripping, jars of sweets, school milk, cigarette machines and the Rag 'n Bone Man are all recalled with varying degrees of fondness.
Chapter 12 - Boy Bands, Budgie Bells & Bunsen Burners
In 1968 I passed my 11+ and went to Hove County Girls Grammar School. Most of my friends now attended Mile Oak Girls School and a whole new chapter in my life was beginning. I was in love with the original boy band - The Monkees, my friends and I were putting flowers in our hair, and school life was becoming far more difficult.
Chapter 13 - The End of an Era
The sixties were drawing to a close, as was my childhood. Dolls were cast aside, the Jackie magazine replaced my comics and suddenly boys weren't those annoying creatures who played marbles and pulled your plaits anymore. Top of the Pops replaced Deputy Dawg as a choice of viewing and not having the latest fashion was a real disaster. It was truly the end of an era!
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