THS Reunion - Part Two

Reunion – arriving, greeting, touring

I drove down from Alnwick where i had stayed overnight.  I was on the A19 and driving past signs that were so familiar and yet had been utterly forgotten.  I greeted them like old friends!

I turned off the A19 to come past Kirklevington where i had lived from the age of 4 until i was 12.  I turned down Forest Lane, then up Strathmore Drive and finally up St Martins Way to number 4.  The slope was tiny but in my mind it had been a long, fairly steep hill!  The house looked the same, nothing special, still standing as it had been for 37 years when the estate was first built.  I drove away.  I pulled over opposite the village hall where i remembered bonfire nights with oxtail soup; i crept forward to the Crown.  I have never been inside this pub.  It was somewhere my parents went when my maternal grandparents visited so it has a poignancy about it. 

So on to Yarm...past Yarm School with memories of rehearsals for Trial by Jury in my first year and discos later on then past the turning to where the GP, Dr Lawrence, used to be.  I was early so i found a parking space, set the disc (deciding that the one i still had from a trip to the Lake District would be valid!) and went into Strickland & Holt for coffee.  Then it was time to get to the hotel.  I was the first to arrive but only a little ahead of Taniya and Melissa. 

And then the joy really began to flow!  Hugs and kisses aplenty as one after another arrived.  After Taniya and Melissa came Lorna, Harriet, Juliet, Jo, and Joanne.  We had time for a sandwich lunch before our magnificent organiser whisked us out of our reveries to start walking to school while she went to get flowers to give to Sue Brown, the headmaster’s PA.  En route down the Avenue we were rejoined by Melissa and Taniya plus bouquet of flowers.  We were anxious not to be late (after all, none of us had a letter from a parent though Taniya did offer to forge my mum’s signature if need be!).  We entered the reception area to be greeted by the PA, receptionist, a little welcoming committee of pupils and then the headmaster as well.  Just in the nick of time Sarah Hayton (who lives in Yarm – i’ve observed that the closer to a venue a person lives the more likely they are to be late!  I do it myself.  Somehow we believe subconsciously that minus-time is required to get from A to B!) arrived.  So we were a small but rather lively group of nine women.  The school photographer took some photos, first with the head boy (yes, there are now 99 boys at THS, once a girls’ school where the presence of boys was viewed with sniggers, blushes and gossip!) and head girl, and then just the girls!  Later we were given a print-out to annotate with our names (past and present!).  Where will it go next?!

[When i started writing about this reunion i think i imagined it would be a brief piece of reportage but the more i relive the experience the more detail i want to include so hold on to your hats, ladies the journey ain’t over yet!]

We all signed the Visitors Book and were given Visitor badges to wear.  Then the tour commenced.  Past the library to the staff room.  So began our liturgy of “Oh my goodness!  Did you used to be this small!”, the response being “No way!”  The staff room door was opened and we were invited to step inside...no cigarette smokescreen to drive us back these days.  As we continued along the corridor we marvelled at the fact that it is now carpeted and that none of the pupils were shouted at when they broke into a skip and a run. 

Memories of the telephone remained just memories.  The payphone had been removed.  Of course all the pupils have mobile phones these days!  Encountering the classroom that was the needlework room and also the first year form room for those of us in Mrs Hathaway’s Upper Three Alpha caused new gasps and squeals and brought the teacher to the door and all the pupils’ heads to turn.  Back in the Eighties i don’t think our behaviour would have been acceptable but in this brave new world of the 21^st century we were indulged, welcomed, invited in, and listened to as we burbled away with our various remembered stories.  Each turn, each door, every single stairwell and corridor provided fresh calls and responses.

Teesside High School these days is a place where individuality is encouraged, difference is embraced, and the desire to share diversity more important than enforcing uniform conduct or appearance.  I felt happiness and warmth as we wandered round the buildings and grounds.  I saw evidence of community, of both academic and emotional intelligence, and several of us wished we could go to school again just to be there!  I think it really hit us when we walked down to the riverbank.  We took it all for granted at the time.  We were so blessed to have access to such wonderful green space.  We were safe and free (though perhaps the parents of those girls who did apparently once end up in the river might regret that freedom being given to us!).  Towards the end of the tour we were treated to tea, coffee and cupcakes in the refectory.  At the end of the school-day this is now a space where parents can sit with the children, where pupils can get a snack and, as happened while we were there, impromptu guitar-playing can be heard!