Submitted by Hazel Gillian Hammond, North Norfolk u3a
I was 6 in 1950. We lived way out in the country in Lincolnshire. Dad was a farm worker every day he brought home fresh milk in the milk can. The farm still used shire horses Peggy a bay and Chestnut the naughty one who was always getting out I went to school in Fulbeck and caught the school bus at the end of our road my Mum walking me up to the bus. In winter we could be snowed in for days. One year 1947 was really bleak and the snowdrifts came up to the tops of the hedges. I developed abdominal pain and mum rang the surgery and spoke to our Dr who said he thought it could be appendicitis .
He walked from the village about 3 miles over the hedges luckily I did not need to go to hospital this time but fairly shortly after had to have my appendix out. We had 3 classrooms with Miss Inkley in reception whom I thought at the time was very old!! We had a coke stove to heat the classroom and all had our milk at break time which in Winter was frozen and had to be placed near the stove to thaw out In 1955 my friend and I together with 2 of the boys passed the 11 plus meaning we were going to Grantham and Kesteven Girls High School the boys to the Kings school. This necessitated a journey of a half hours cycle ride from our house down a hill to the village, I left my bike at the local painter and decorators and they had a standard poodle called Bimbo who greeted me every morning. Another 30 mins ride on the bus to Grantham then we had to walk up the hill to school another 15 minutes.
My parents bought me a Pink Witch bike as a prize for passing the 11plus which sweetened the journey. In the afternoon my Dad would meet me when it was dark in the winter the hill was very steep and quite a walk up. I did this for five years leaving at the end of fifth form I wanted to be a nurse but did not want to be a cadet so I spent the next year as a teaching assistant at a boarding school I made friends with Stephanie and we used to go to Boston Gliderdrome on Saturday nights to see all the stars of the day. Coming home on the bus which deposited us at Conningsby we then had to cycle about 4 miles to school in the freezing cold. Luckily school had a Aga in the kitchen to warm us up. I had already been accepted as a student at Louth County Hospital and it was there in September 1962 I started my Nursing Career a very different experience to todays training