Saturday 24 May 2014

College days





I really don't have much in the way of bed photos, and nor does my mother, but the girls in the prompt photo are apparently college girls, which set me thinking about photos and friendships that can be made in those days.
I didn't get to have the experience of living in a college myself because the Australian National University where I studied was in my home town of Canberra, so I just stayed at home while studying and saved my parents the expense of boarding fees.  My mother Jean on the other hand lived in Christchurch on the South Island of NZ and in 1946 aged 19 she needed to leave home and move to the North Island in order to attend the Auckland Teachers Training College, as it was called.  There she specialised in speech therapy, which was her chosen career path. When we moved to Australia Jean found that her NZ teaching qualifications were recognised but not those in speech therapy. For many years she worked at a school for developmentally challenged children, doing speech therapy with them. Initially she worked voluntarily, but was paid as a teacher when a staff vacancy arose.

 Jean's photo album from her days in college from around 1946 / 1947 contains quite a few photos that show Jean and her college friends having fun, and in  a number of cases those close friendships endured for many decades.



The caption for this first photo from 1946 is "The girls of the 'Cottage' Cannon Hall" and their names are provided: Mary, Raynor, Margaret, Fin, Colleen and Nona. Jean must have been the photographer. Sadly she is in poor health  these days, so I can't ask her for any more details about the other girls or the 'Cottage' or Cannon Hall. She has certainly kept in touch with Colleen, the girl seated in the centre front, but she is also not well. 






The description of the next two photos above is "3rd Years' Shack, Teachers College 1946". There's a lone male student amongst the group, and they look like they are having fun. I can't quite decipher what is on the board they are holding up apart from the word MILK and a glass, but it must have been something funny, because all except one seem to be pretending to suck their thumbs, but unfortunately Jean can't tell me  any more. She is on the left standing in the doorway, and then directly above the sign.



This shot is described as "Snow, 1946". It's on the same page as the previous three photos, although it's hard to believe it could be in Auckland, as they have only had snow there very rarely. According to Mr G, it last fell there in the 1930s. Yet another question that may remain unanswered.

The next group of photographs taken by Jean are from 1947, and captioned "The cottage and its inhabitants". This cottage is clearly a different cottage to the one referred to above, and the address is given, 147 Khyber Pass Road Auckland, where Jean and her friends flatted together.









The final blurry picture is described as "A party in the Cottage, with Colleen, Betty, Brenda, Jean and Loma."  They look happy, sitting around the table with their future lives ahead of them. It was sixty seven years ago now. Cheers to them all!



To finish on a lighter note, here are a couple of bed photo from my own albums.


This is our second daughter and last child Laura, who was born 9 weeks premature. She's reclining on a luxurious big hotel bed while her father is on the phone of course. She must have been around four months old here in 1987 and still quite tiny, when we left the other three with their grandparents in Canberra and 'escaped' to a weekend conference. It was held at an art deco style resort at Sherbrooke in the Dandenongs called Burnham Beeches Country House, which was built in the late 1920s for the Aspro brand sales magnate Alfred Nicholas and his wife.  Burnham Beeches was named after the forest of beech trees near the Aspro factory in Buckinghamshire. Nicholas died in 1933, but his wife continued to use to as one of her residences until about 1954. Here's a photo from Wikipedia Commons, circa 1947. A far cry from the Cottage above, photographed around the same time! That large bed was very comfortable, and I made the most of the luxury break for a couple of days - well, as much as I could manage to do with a small baby to care for!  I'm sure Laura and I must have gone for walks in the beautiful surrounding gardens built for Nicholas.


Burnham Beeches Country House ceased operating in 1991, and has been empty since then, although apparently it has been purchased by a businessman and a well-known chef who propose to re-invent it as a resort, spa, wellness centre, restaurant, bakery etc, but so far it remains closed.  You can read more about it and the lovely surrounding gardens open to the public in a blog I found called Weekend Notes.



For completeness, here are the three we were escaping from. In this photograph taken the following year (1988) they are leaning against their cabin bunk beds. We had taken them on a week long island cruise and they were about to attend  a shipboard fancy dress party.  


Introducing our new granddaughter Isabelle, surveying the scene from her parents' bed in London last week. At 2 months of age she is much bigger than her aunty Laura was at the same age, or probably even at 4 months, but is still very cute. In a previous blog I posted a photo of Isabelle's mother and aunty on a bed here.

For more beds, colleges and other vaguely related matters from other Sepian contributors, click here 


12 comments:

Kristin said...

It's so sad when our parents, aunts and uncles can no longer help us identify the old photos. I'm in the same situation. Makes me appreciate the help they gave me for so many years.

La Nightingail said...

My mom, at 96, can still identify the people & places in most pictures. But once in a while she'll get it wrong & though I know for a fact she has to be wrong, I've learned not to say anything else the defense hackles rise and no amount of coaxing will get her to think about it any further. On the other hand, given a little time on her own, she could decide her first thought might not be right & think about it a bit more. It can be tricky. :)) Love the last photo especially of the kids all ready for the fancy dress party onboard ship.

Boobook said...

The 'milk' photo is fun. I wonder if you'll ever find out what the story is behind that one.

Jofeath said...

Not unless someone else in the photo can tell me.

Jofeath said...

It's great that your mum at 96 can still tell you those sorts of things!

Mike Brubaker said...

I think you've captured the theme very well. And congratulations on Isabelle - a new history to record and already on the internet.

Jackie van Bergen said...

I'm so glad I've started 'early', collecting the memories of my parents while they are still healthy. Sadly my husband's mother's memory is not so good so we are trying to capture all we can asap.
Lovely collection.

Jofeath said...

That's good, but I do have a great scrap book compiled by my mother packed full of life memories and loads of stories, plus her numerous photo albums from her childhood onwards are quite well labelled, so really it's only the minor details that she now can't tell me anything about. It's somewhat ironic that Mum was a speech therapist but now can't speak herself, due to the cumulative effect of suffering many small strokes.

Postcardy said...

Great pictures. My family apparently didn't have or save photographs. I don't have any from my college days either.

Anonymous said...

I did enjoy this post and you have travelled very well through the generations and stayed on theme..

Little Nell said...

Great bed pictures - I thought your third daughter was a doll at first!

Little Nell said...

Of course, I actually meant your second daughter Jo, as she is so tiny, but your granddaughter is an absolute 'doll' as well :)