age 0 to 21... Off To College
September 1969 saw me load my little van with a trunkful of clothes, my guitar, and a selection of my treasured possessions and head off to start my teacher training at Bedford College of Education, in Polhill Avenue, Bedford. I had had interviews at a few other colleges - Canterbury, Bognor and Chichester I think, but with my less than sparkling school record, I guess I didn't present as a star prospect. However, Bedford was prepared to give me a place. Bedford College of Ed had very recently moved into new buildings, and was not big - about 600 students in total. It had been an all-female college until just before I started there, so I was among only about 60 male students in my first year. All Certificate of Education students followed a 3-year course studying Theory of Education, plus a main subject (mine was Art and Design), and a subsidiary subject (I opted for Art of Movement, which is Dance).
Life at College
First and third year students were provided with accommodation on campus, and in the second year, we were pushed out into digs. The male on-site accommodation was in a tower block 13 floors in height, with four student rooms on each floor. I was on floor 8. The rooms were all identically furnished with a bed, bedside table, desk, desk chair, easy chair and wardrobe. Every room had a wash basin, the floors was plastic-tiled, and there was central heating. Each 3 floors had two bathrooms and a kitchen, which were shared by twelve students. Almost home-from-home! The girls had similar rooms in three-floor blocks around the foot of the Tower. The college had a canteen in which three meals a day were provided. It will come as a shock for any 21st century student to learn that all this accommodation, as well as our tuition, was provided FREE. Furthermore, students whose parents were not able to support them financially were also given a grant to cover the cost of books, materials and day-to-day living costs. Because my Dad was earning a good salary, I did not qualify for a grant, but Dad paid me a generous monthly allowance instead - probably slightly more than the value of a full grant.
First and third year students were provided with accommodation on campus, and in the second year, we were pushed out into digs. The male on-site accommodation was in a tower block 13 floors in height, with four student rooms on each floor. I was on floor 8. The rooms were all identically furnished with a bed, bedside table, desk, desk chair, easy chair and wardrobe. Every room had a wash basin, the floors was plastic-tiled, and there was central heating. Each 3 floors had two bathrooms and a kitchen, which were shared by twelve students. Almost home-from-home! The girls had similar rooms in three-floor blocks around the foot of the Tower. The college had a canteen in which three meals a day were provided. It will come as a shock for any 21st century student to learn that all this accommodation, as well as our tuition, was provided FREE. Furthermore, students whose parents were not able to support them financially were also given a grant to cover the cost of books, materials and day-to-day living costs. Because my Dad was earning a good salary, I did not qualify for a grant, but Dad paid me a generous monthly allowance instead - probably slightly more than the value of a full grant.
Living in Digs
My second year accommodation is worth a mention - we had to 'live out' in digs. As it happened, two of my good friends were given rooms in College during the second year - this was a big bonus, as it gave my group of friends, who like me, lived in digs, somewhere in College to use as a focus and meeting place. The digs were found for us and paid for by the college. Each landlord was expected to provide a reasonably furnished bedroom and breakfast every day. The college must have had a struggle to find enough accommodation for all the students, and as an incentive, a good price was paid to landlords. Many of them were only interested in the money, and provided rather doubtful accommodation.
I shared my digs with a friend, Brian. We were initially placed in a '30s semi-detached house in Irwin Road - just a short walk from the college. We had a bedroom each, but shared the tiny, scruffy bathroom with the landlady and her husband - who didn't seem to want students in his house, and certainly wasn't willing for us to bring any friends into the house. Breakfast was served in the greasy kitchen, and anything we didn't eat the first day was served up again the next. Two day old tomatoes on toast isn't good, and Brian and I were soon visiting the accommodation office requesting a move. The college were very good about this, and almost immediately found us an alternative place.
This time was very different. We shared a big first floor room in a large 3-story Victorian house in Goldington Avenue. For a while, we had a bathroom to ourselves - until a couple more students were accommodated elsewhere in the house. Our room had a room-divider, separating off a study area with two tables and chairs, from our large bedroom. The landlord lived alone on the ground floor of the house, and seldom ventured upstairs, so there were no restrictions on coming and going, or who we invited in - not that we abused our freedom. Our food arrangement was that he would provide us with a toaster and breakfast ingredients for us to 'do ourselves'. This seemed a good enough deal, the only drawback being that to obtain fresh milk, we had to visit the landlord's kitchen. This meant opening his inner 'front door' and then being confronted by a less than great smell, and a number of yapping poodles and their puppies, then negotiating several dollops of poodle poo on the way to the fridge. We quite often forewent the fresh milk and became quite used to drinking black coffee.
Although our accommodation in digs was comfortable enough, it was great to move back to the Tower the following year! I requested my original 8th floor room again, and my request was granted.
My second year accommodation is worth a mention - we had to 'live out' in digs. As it happened, two of my good friends were given rooms in College during the second year - this was a big bonus, as it gave my group of friends, who like me, lived in digs, somewhere in College to use as a focus and meeting place. The digs were found for us and paid for by the college. Each landlord was expected to provide a reasonably furnished bedroom and breakfast every day. The college must have had a struggle to find enough accommodation for all the students, and as an incentive, a good price was paid to landlords. Many of them were only interested in the money, and provided rather doubtful accommodation.
I shared my digs with a friend, Brian. We were initially placed in a '30s semi-detached house in Irwin Road - just a short walk from the college. We had a bedroom each, but shared the tiny, scruffy bathroom with the landlady and her husband - who didn't seem to want students in his house, and certainly wasn't willing for us to bring any friends into the house. Breakfast was served in the greasy kitchen, and anything we didn't eat the first day was served up again the next. Two day old tomatoes on toast isn't good, and Brian and I were soon visiting the accommodation office requesting a move. The college were very good about this, and almost immediately found us an alternative place.
This time was very different. We shared a big first floor room in a large 3-story Victorian house in Goldington Avenue. For a while, we had a bathroom to ourselves - until a couple more students were accommodated elsewhere in the house. Our room had a room-divider, separating off a study area with two tables and chairs, from our large bedroom. The landlord lived alone on the ground floor of the house, and seldom ventured upstairs, so there were no restrictions on coming and going, or who we invited in - not that we abused our freedom. Our food arrangement was that he would provide us with a toaster and breakfast ingredients for us to 'do ourselves'. This seemed a good enough deal, the only drawback being that to obtain fresh milk, we had to visit the landlord's kitchen. This meant opening his inner 'front door' and then being confronted by a less than great smell, and a number of yapping poodles and their puppies, then negotiating several dollops of poodle poo on the way to the fridge. We quite often forewent the fresh milk and became quite used to drinking black coffee.
Although our accommodation in digs was comfortable enough, it was great to move back to the Tower the following year! I requested my original 8th floor room again, and my request was granted.
Friends
I loved college. The work was not arduous, and the social life was fantastic. I was surrounded by friendly people, most of them female. Although I had several male friends, the group I spent most of my time with were nearly all girls. We had a 'brother/sister' type of bond, sharing experiences and emotions, but never a physical relationship. It became the 'norm' to spend much time during evenings and weekends drinking coffee in the room of one or other of the 'gang'. No-one ever seemed to have any sugar in their rooms, so it was at this time that I took to drinking tea and coffee without sugar - which became a life-long custom.
For entertainment, we would chat endlessly. On occasions, Celia and I would play our guitars and sing, or Ian would put a Rod Stewart record on his little record player. The girls preferred Carole King. I did not have a kettle or a record player, so my room was not a popular meeting venue. The college had a television room for students, but almost no-one used it.
The college social committee put on regular discos, which we almost always attended, and also regular folk nights, mostly relying on floor singers from the student body to provide the entertainment. We went to all of those too, and Celia would occasionally perform, though while a student, I never went on stage. I finally made my successful début performance at a college Folk Night on a return visit to Bedford the year after I left the college!
At first, I missed Jennie, my pre-college girlfriend, a great deal. But she had gone to University in Brighton, and was adamant that there was no way we could continue our relationship living so far apart. So, with so many female students about the college, it was almost inevitable that one of them would become a girlfriend. During my first year, and for about a year, I dated Rosemary, who was also a first year student. Later, I spent some happy times with a girl named Jackie, whose home was in Cornwall. I made two or three trips to the west country while I was going out with her.
Throughout my time at Bedford, I would go out with friends to a pub occasionally, and enjoy a pint of beer, but no-one drank much alcohol. There was no 'binge drinking' in those days. Smoking of cigarettes was quite popular, though. None of my close friends smoked, but I took up the habit in a small way for a while. I think a packet of 10 'Number 6' (the cheapest brand) could be bought from the common room vending machine for about two shillings (10p). As for drugs - although my college days were towards the end of the 'swinging sixties', no-one I knew used illegal drugs of any kind. There may have been a little smoking of cannabis going on, but I am pretty certain that hard drugs such as cocaine were not in use at all among the student community at Bedford.
I loved college. The work was not arduous, and the social life was fantastic. I was surrounded by friendly people, most of them female. Although I had several male friends, the group I spent most of my time with were nearly all girls. We had a 'brother/sister' type of bond, sharing experiences and emotions, but never a physical relationship. It became the 'norm' to spend much time during evenings and weekends drinking coffee in the room of one or other of the 'gang'. No-one ever seemed to have any sugar in their rooms, so it was at this time that I took to drinking tea and coffee without sugar - which became a life-long custom.
For entertainment, we would chat endlessly. On occasions, Celia and I would play our guitars and sing, or Ian would put a Rod Stewart record on his little record player. The girls preferred Carole King. I did not have a kettle or a record player, so my room was not a popular meeting venue. The college had a television room for students, but almost no-one used it.
The college social committee put on regular discos, which we almost always attended, and also regular folk nights, mostly relying on floor singers from the student body to provide the entertainment. We went to all of those too, and Celia would occasionally perform, though while a student, I never went on stage. I finally made my successful début performance at a college Folk Night on a return visit to Bedford the year after I left the college!
At first, I missed Jennie, my pre-college girlfriend, a great deal. But she had gone to University in Brighton, and was adamant that there was no way we could continue our relationship living so far apart. So, with so many female students about the college, it was almost inevitable that one of them would become a girlfriend. During my first year, and for about a year, I dated Rosemary, who was also a first year student. Later, I spent some happy times with a girl named Jackie, whose home was in Cornwall. I made two or three trips to the west country while I was going out with her.
Throughout my time at Bedford, I would go out with friends to a pub occasionally, and enjoy a pint of beer, but no-one drank much alcohol. There was no 'binge drinking' in those days. Smoking of cigarettes was quite popular, though. None of my close friends smoked, but I took up the habit in a small way for a while. I think a packet of 10 'Number 6' (the cheapest brand) could be bought from the common room vending machine for about two shillings (10p). As for drugs - although my college days were towards the end of the 'swinging sixties', no-one I knew used illegal drugs of any kind. There may have been a little smoking of cannabis going on, but I am pretty certain that hard drugs such as cocaine were not in use at all among the student community at Bedford.
Art and Dance
In my Main Subject of Art, at the outset, I was offered the choice of Painting, Printmaking or Pottery. I chose to paint, because I knew nothing of the other areas of the subject. However, I was soon encouraged to work in acrylics and oils, neither of which was I familiar with, so I had to learn. As ever, I was not an enthusiastic pupil, but I did manage to produce a few abstract works which were deemed to be worthy of hanging on the wall of the college dining hall - or maybe, because they were pretty big canvasses, mine were chosen because they covered the largest area of formerly blank wall....
But when it came to my subsid. subject of Dance - I loved it! This just may have been because I was one of only two male students amid a group of mostly slender, graceful and very lovely females who attended classes clad in figure-hugging leotards and dance tights..... My heart beats faster at the thought, even now...!!!
But actually, I did genuinely enjoy the subject. I quickly became very interested in the choreography of dance, and choreographed a number of dance-dramas, some of which were performed at college events. I also learned dance notation - the squiggles, dots and crosses which make it possible to write down how a dance should be performed, in the way that a music score informs an orchestra how to play.
During my second year at Bedford, I was so enthusiastic about Dance that I made attempts to change my main subject to Dance and repeat a year of my course. This suggestion was rejected by the college. However, I was later encouraged by my college tutors to make an application to study Dance for a further year after college, by attending the highly respected Laban Art of Movement Studio in Addlestone, Surrey, which at the time was overseen by Lisa Ullman. I was interviewed at the Studio, including taking part in a practical dance session, and to my delight, was offered a place. However, to achieve my aim, I had to secure additional funding for a further year of study, and so had to attend a funding interview with my home education authority in Reading. The money people said 'no', and so what might have been, never was...
Just how different my subsequent life might have been if they had said 'yes'.....!!!
Teaching Practice
All of this having fun, painting big pictures and leaping about the dance studio amid a group of pretty girls was all very well, but it wasn't doing a lot to prepare me for my eventual chosen career. College had an evil plan to do something about that. They called it 'teaching practice'. For this particular torture, an entire year group of students were packed into coaches and bussed off to schools all over the county. Three sessions of 'teaching practice' were undertaken in all. They lasted for periods of four to six weeks. Because I was following a Junior/Secondary course, two of my sessions took place in secondary schools, where I taught Art.
Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe I was a naturally talented teacher (almost certainly the former), but I don't recall having any serious discipline problems during my teaching practices. The pupils did more or less what I asked of them, and the days passed by without major drama. The worst aspects of teaching practice were the paperwork - every lesson had to be planned in writing, and the plans kept available for the regular teacher, or a college tutor, to browse at any time - and the tiredness, brought about by early starts (the coaches set off at about 7.30am), days in class, and evenings frantically preparing for the next day.
Qualified!
The three years at Bedford passed all too quickly, but one cannot stop the passing of time, so in July 1972, it was a sad farewell to many friends who I never saw again, and farewell to a life of being a student. My three years of mostly having fun, and just three-and-a bit months of actual 'teaching', were deemed to have equipped me for my role as a teacher. I was awarded my Certificate of Education, and was sent out to find myself a job.
22 - 36 years >
In my Main Subject of Art, at the outset, I was offered the choice of Painting, Printmaking or Pottery. I chose to paint, because I knew nothing of the other areas of the subject. However, I was soon encouraged to work in acrylics and oils, neither of which was I familiar with, so I had to learn. As ever, I was not an enthusiastic pupil, but I did manage to produce a few abstract works which were deemed to be worthy of hanging on the wall of the college dining hall - or maybe, because they were pretty big canvasses, mine were chosen because they covered the largest area of formerly blank wall....
But when it came to my subsid. subject of Dance - I loved it! This just may have been because I was one of only two male students amid a group of mostly slender, graceful and very lovely females who attended classes clad in figure-hugging leotards and dance tights..... My heart beats faster at the thought, even now...!!!
But actually, I did genuinely enjoy the subject. I quickly became very interested in the choreography of dance, and choreographed a number of dance-dramas, some of which were performed at college events. I also learned dance notation - the squiggles, dots and crosses which make it possible to write down how a dance should be performed, in the way that a music score informs an orchestra how to play.
During my second year at Bedford, I was so enthusiastic about Dance that I made attempts to change my main subject to Dance and repeat a year of my course. This suggestion was rejected by the college. However, I was later encouraged by my college tutors to make an application to study Dance for a further year after college, by attending the highly respected Laban Art of Movement Studio in Addlestone, Surrey, which at the time was overseen by Lisa Ullman. I was interviewed at the Studio, including taking part in a practical dance session, and to my delight, was offered a place. However, to achieve my aim, I had to secure additional funding for a further year of study, and so had to attend a funding interview with my home education authority in Reading. The money people said 'no', and so what might have been, never was...
Just how different my subsequent life might have been if they had said 'yes'.....!!!
Teaching Practice
All of this having fun, painting big pictures and leaping about the dance studio amid a group of pretty girls was all very well, but it wasn't doing a lot to prepare me for my eventual chosen career. College had an evil plan to do something about that. They called it 'teaching practice'. For this particular torture, an entire year group of students were packed into coaches and bussed off to schools all over the county. Three sessions of 'teaching practice' were undertaken in all. They lasted for periods of four to six weeks. Because I was following a Junior/Secondary course, two of my sessions took place in secondary schools, where I taught Art.
Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe I was a naturally talented teacher (almost certainly the former), but I don't recall having any serious discipline problems during my teaching practices. The pupils did more or less what I asked of them, and the days passed by without major drama. The worst aspects of teaching practice were the paperwork - every lesson had to be planned in writing, and the plans kept available for the regular teacher, or a college tutor, to browse at any time - and the tiredness, brought about by early starts (the coaches set off at about 7.30am), days in class, and evenings frantically preparing for the next day.
Qualified!
The three years at Bedford passed all too quickly, but one cannot stop the passing of time, so in July 1972, it was a sad farewell to many friends who I never saw again, and farewell to a life of being a student. My three years of mostly having fun, and just three-and-a bit months of actual 'teaching', were deemed to have equipped me for my role as a teacher. I was awarded my Certificate of Education, and was sent out to find myself a job.
22 - 36 years >