The times they are a-cagin'.

garinda · 12-07-2007, 20:40

I've just spent the evening in a hall that I last sat in twenty five years ago, when I took my exams.

The occasion being my nephew was in the end of term play at QEGS.

It was totally weird. I did go back to the school three years ago, to give a talk about my career to the art students, but this was the first time I'd been in the new hall since the early eighties.

It was like being fourteen again. It didn't look smaller than I remembered, as people often say, as I'm the same size now as I was then, but it was like being transported back a quarter of a century, to that person who was me then. An eager beaver, full of dreams, and always the first to volunteer to read the lesson in school assemblies.

The sort of play that was performed tonight, had changed to. It was sort of a pastiche on the Rocky Horror Show, but set in Lancashire. All cross dressing, and rock 'n' roll. All very different from the Children's Crusade we did when I was there, as well as my acclaimed Nancy in Oliver Twist!

As anyone else been back to a place they haven't been to for years?

How did it make you feel?

It's left me feeling like I should be cleaning my shoes, and checking my homework's in my satchel.

garinda · 12-07-2007, 20:43

Thread title should read 'The times they are a-changin'.'

Sorry, shaking hand sent it off before I could check for mistakes.

Gayle · 12-07-2007, 20:46

A few years ago, I went back to St Mary's - I hadn't been in there since I left when i was 11 - to see if I wanted to send Maddie there. I was clearly biased but it's working out ok. Lots of things felt exactly the same as when I left but obviously lots of things had changed. Now, I go in there on a regular basis - in there today supporting some drumming workshops - and it doesn't feel like 'my old school' anymore, it's their school.

They knocked Paddock House down a few years ago but they held an open day on the last day before it all went. We were allowed to look in the nun's old quarters to see how they lived - that was interesting.

garinda · 12-07-2007, 20:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gayle

A few years ago, I went back to St Mary's - I hadn't been in there since I left when i was 11 - to see if I wanted to send Maddie there. I was clearly biased but it's working out ok. Lots of things felt exactly the same as when I left but obviously lots of things had changed. Now, I go in there on a regular basis - in there today supporting some drumming workshops - and it doesn't feel like 'my old school' anymore, it's their school.

They knocked Paddock House down a few years ago but they held an open day on the last day before it all went. We were allowed to look in the nun's old quarters to see how they lived - that was interesting.

It does make you feel strange. I was quite emotional, it's like I was that person all those years ago, but in an old bloke's body.

Margaret Pilkington · 12-07-2007, 20:50

No, I have never gone back to any of the places where the threads of my life were woven into the pattern they became.
I don't believe that we can gain anything by going back......and sometimes the memories are better left undisturbed.
Onwards and upwards!

Lilly · 12-07-2007, 20:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by garinda

I've just spent the evening in as hall that I last sat in twenty five years ago, when I took my exams.

The occasion being my nephew was in the end of term play at QEGS.

It was totally weird. I did go back to the school three years ago to give a talk about my career to the art students, but this was the first time I'd been in the new hall since the early eighties.

It was like being fourteen again. It didn't look smaller than I remembered, as people often say, as I'm the same size now as I was then, but it was like being transported back a quarter of a century, to that person who was me then. An eager beaver, full of dreams, and always the first to volunteer to read the lesson in school assemblies.

The sort of play that was performed, had changed to. It was sort of a pastiche on the Rocky Horror Show, but set in Lancashire. All cross dressing and rock 'n' roll. All very different from the Children's Crusade we did when I was there, as well as my acclaimed Nancy in Oliver Twist!

As anyone else been back to a place they haven't been to for years?

How did it make you feel?

It's left me feeling like I should be cleaning my shoes, and checking my homework's in my satchel.

I know exactly what you're talking about Garinda.My children go to the same primary school that I went to back in the 1980s.The first time I went back in there after 16 years it felt weird.To go back as a parent to the school you attended as a child is a very discombobulating experience,for example,sitting in the hall for parent's assemblies when I remember sitting in that very hall as a pupil,watching my kids running into the playground to meet their friends,I so clearly remember myself doing the same.Some of the teachers that taught me are also still there so when my kids go through their classes and I have to discuss their work at parents evenings that will feel strange too.Isn't it funny how memories you thought you had forgotten about suddenly come rushing back when you re-visit a place after years have passed?I have had so many senses of deja-vu in that school since I've been going back.

mallard · 12-07-2007, 20:51

yes you make your nephew do the right things because like you have said we had to make our thing right for the day after we always had clean shoues and the rest of the things that way he wont go to wrong

Gayle · 12-07-2007, 20:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

No, I have never gone back to any of the places where the threads of my life were woven into the pattern they became.
I don't believe that we can gain anything by going back......and sometimes the memories are better left undisturbed.
Onwards and upwards!

I do agree with you, but sometimes there are just some things that happen and you find yourself somewhere you hadn't thought you'd ever be.

garinda · 12-07-2007, 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lilly

I know exactly what you're talking about Garinda.My children go to the same primary school that I went to back in the 1980s.The first time I went back in there after 16 years it felt weird.To go back as a parent to the school you attended as a child is a very discombobulating experience,for example,sitting in the hall for parent's assemblies when I remember sitting in that very hall as a pupil,watching my kids running into the playground to meet their friends,I so clearly remember myself doing the same.Some of the teachers that taught me are also still there so when my kids go through their classes and I have to discuss their work at parents evenings that will feel strange too.Isn't it funny how memories you thought you had forgotten about suddenly come rushing back when you re-visit a place after years have passed?I have had so many senses of deja-vu in that school since I've been going back.

I think I know which school you went to, from another post. I didn't go there, but went to concerts there as a child, and now go back there to see my godaughter in things, and it seems tiny..as do the chairs!

Margaret Pilkington · 12-07-2007, 20:56

Yes, well if life pitches me back to somewhere that I have been before as a child......then that is where life wants me to be, and I guess I would be there for a reason...but I would not knowingly revisit my past to see how things have changed though.

garinda · 12-07-2007, 20:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

No, I have never gone back to any of the places where the threads of my life were woven into the pattern they became.
I don't believe that we can gain anything by going back......and sometimes the memories are better left undisturbed.
Onwards and upwards!

Don't worry, you won't see me in shorts at the next meet.

My deja vu experience was a fleeting one.

Margaret Pilkington · 12-07-2007, 20:59

Glad about that, I wouldn't be there to see you because I am on wheelchair duty again (folkestone.....and France, ooh la la missus). One day though i will shock you and turn up.