Memories from my mother: a schooldays snapshot

Just because I feel like it, I'm jumping to some aspects of Mam's schooldays. These took place between WWI and WWII and in true St Trinians style she wore a gymslip and knickers which came so far down the leg that they made up for the lack of pockets.

In those days in Swansea, the boys who continued their education went to the Grammar School and the girls went to the High School. This was really close to where Mam lived, and although (she always admitted "because") she lived so close, she was always late. Until she reached the 6th Form, that is. It wasn't that her punctuality improved; it was that at that stage the girls themselves ticked the register when they arrived, so as long as she got to school before the registers were collected, she was all right.

At a certain point, I'm not sure what age but I think around 15, she also tended to be rather late getting home. This annoyed her mother, who also got annoyed with the cause of it: her friend Dilys, who would keep her gossiping on the pavement. The reason for this was that the High School girls got out before the Grammar School boys, and Dilys had a crush on one of them. If she had a plausible excuse, like talking to a friend, she could be standing around when he came past and say variants on "Oh, hullo! Fancy seeing you!" and walk towards her home with him.

This actually annoyed my mother, who didn't like being used, didn't like being caused to get into trouble with her mother, and didn't see what Dilys saw in Dylan, who my mother thought looked really sissy with that headful of golden curls. In later years she also could never understand the fuss about his poetry which she found crystal clear and not obscure at all. I find them easy to understand, though not as easy as she did because my knowledge of Wenglish isn't as deep, I didn't grow up in Swansea in the 1920s and I didn't have as thoroughgoing a Sunday School background as my mother and Dylan Thomas. On the other hand, I do know more Welsh (and his father was well known for his enthusiasm for the language) than she did, but language is something I'll come back to another time.