Those who know me are aware that I am a ‘fussy eater’ with many dislikes and a delicate stomach which has caused me many problems over the years. If I was nervous or worried when I was younger I could not eat and my stomach would reject food, if I tried to eat. This was, I suspect, genuine Anorexia Nervosa’ and not the dieting behaviour of today which is often given the same name.
Unfortunately I got no sympathy and various people such as Teachers tried to force me to eat. I was made to ‘sit there until you’ve eaten it’ which wasn’t very helpful. The school dinners at Simms Cross just did not suit me. One day I was sent to the kitchen where the staff got their lunches from and was given strawberries. That just convinced me that the tapioca with jam that we were expected to eat was not what the teachers were given to eat. Life was very unfair!
Eventually a compromise was reached when a friend of my Mother’s, Hilda Meredith, who had a hairdressing business across the road from school offered to make me cheese on toast every day for lunch. What a star! Not only did I get my favourite dish but I got to read her daughter Hilary’s copy of Bunty, too. Hilda later ran a shoe shop for many years and the perms gave way to shoe-buying as we returned the favour!
I also went home for lunch for some time. This involved walking to the Town Hall and catching a crosville bus to our house in Lancaster Avenue, Hough Green, eating lunch (probably cheese on toast again!) and being outside ready to catch the bus back fifteen minutes later. No wonder I got to know all the conductors. They saw a lot of me.
When I say walk I should say ‘ride’ as my imaginary horse always took me at a fair old gallop past the advertising hoardings, the Empire Cinema, the Employment Exchange and the Post Office, across the Town Hall Square on the two zebra crossings , past the Town Hall and up to the bus stop outside Lautenbergs furniture shop ( later Chamberlain’s). I still remember the fabulous Christmas window displays the latter had with moving figures.
This is all getting a bit medical as the other condition I suffered from was a weak bladder! The teachers at Simms Cross Primary School used to terrify me when they said I would not be allowed to leave class to go to the toilet, once I arrived at secondary school. Of course once I arrived at The Wade Deacon I discovered that classed moved about every forty minutes and there was a slight break between each lesson so nipping to the loo was not a problem. Adults have no idea what trauma they cause in such situations. I was a very nervous child.
We had dinner in prefabs in the playground which were also used for music lessons. The teacher would bring out boxes full of musical instruments and hand them out – bells, tambourines, drums etc Those were happier memories than the struggles over being made to eat my lunch.
HUNTINGFORD MATTERS 