Submitted by Cherry Eddy, Elmbridge u3a
I was at boarding school in the late 1950s & early 1960s.
I have great memories of playing Elvis Presley (and others') records in the gym on Friday nights - and dancing (not that I was any good at jiving - but I loved rock & roll music). My love of Elvis began here and I still think he had a great voice and wonderful sense of rhythm today. He wasn't just an idol. I remember too when the twist came in and then the British groups, and it was a time of division in my class at school over the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. I also remember the music that the brother above me liked (Eddie Cockran, Paul Anka and Brenda Lee).
I am one of a big family whose Dad was a farmer - us middle kids would play our records and play cards, Monopoly and other board games in the evenings out in the "croust" house - where the farm workers had their lunch. It got us out of the house with a quieter time for our parents. We still had shire horses on the farm (as well as a tractor) and I remember the change over to more tractors. A sad time to let the horses (and some of the workmen) go. For those who don't know "croust" is a Cornish term meaning a snack or "elevenses".
Being one of a big family and growing up on a farm I was always outside, unless in helping with domestic chores. We didn't have television for much of the time so I wasn't aware of the outside world. I do remember the Hungarian Revolution because we collected clothes at school to be sent to the refugees. But I don't remember the events in Egypt. I do remember too our headmistress announcing the death of John Kennedy. The 1950s were a time of innocence for me - when home from school I rode my Dad's horse & we played with the cats (not the dogs as they were working sheepdogs).
My younger sister and I were given a runt of a pig to look after - the rest of the litter were sold. We fed this pig up and it sold for £29 which we split (a fortune in those days & probably not much less than a porker would fetch these days) I had to grow up in the 1960s and came to London to work in 1967, as a mother's help (answering an advertisement for a job in The Lady Magazine). To come to London on the train for an interview was a big thing!