We went to the school for a look around and to meet the pupils. I remember having a walk outside the school, near the field, and seeing a girl with long ginger hair and a lot of freckles - we both smiled. My parents wanted to have a look round the other side of the school. When we visited the school for the second time this girl was in the classroom. I asked her for her name, and she said it was Joan. My parents spoke to the teachers again and the nuns told my parents that they had decided that I should be in the hard of hearing side of the school and believed it would be the best for my education. My parents were very impressed after having conversations with the teacher, and they decided I should attend.
In 1970, my parents got in touch with the education authorities and the head teacher of Beverley School to discuss me moving out of there to go to Boston Spa. After lengthy discussions, the head teacher visited my parents and said he would not try to stop me going to Boston Spa, as he knew my parents were all for my education. By then I was already wearing a new hearing aid which I could wear directly behind my ears (sometimes I suffered from it making a whistling noise).
CHAPTER TWO
A new school
I was 11 years old when I started at Boston Spa St John’s School. It was a private boarding school and it took me quite a while to feel at home there. I didn’t really enjoy staying there at first because I was away from my family. I had to lip read because we were not allowed to using British Sign Language, which was difficult sometimes. We would sign to each other when no teachers or nuns were around. Sometimes we got caught and we did get into trouble. The nuns even made a chart using star stickers, which was put on the wall along the corridor for everyone to see. It showed exactly who had been using sign language. The nuns would show everyone who had been caught doing the most stars. Despite these things, I do believe that my parents made the right decision, because I had not liked going to Beverley School.
When I first arrived at the school I couldn’t wait to see Joan, as I felt I had a friend there. I did not cope well and was very homesick to start with. Being away from home and missing my brothers and baby sister was very difficult for me. I did receive letters from my brothers and parcels were sent to me with soap, sweets and letters. I have since found that the nuns would keep some parcels and not give them to me, because I would receive the most and the nuns were worried that other children would get upset.
Every other Friday I would be excited to pack my small case, for I was able to go home once every fortnight, but I was never happy to be returning to school on the Monday. At first I dreamed of going to another school where I could go home straight after school had finished for the day.
After I had been home for the weekend a few times, I got upset and threatened to run away. My mother told me not to be silly. My Auntie Joan drove us to school in her car (this was only the one time she took us - my father had to go to work that Sunday) and dropped me off at the school. When they had gone and Sister Catherine and I were walking down the corridor, she saw that I was still crying and slapped my face because I was upset that my parents had gone. I was in shock! It was Sunday teatime and she told me to go to the bedroom and get changed before meeting the girls in the living room.
When I went to get changed and put my clothes away, Sister Catherine was waiting. I said I would be all right and meet everyone in the living room, but then I quietly climbed out of the bedroom window and jumped down to the ground. I hurt my ankle and started limping. I kept on limping, because I really believed I would get home.
I kept on limping along until it was dark and I came to a house. I was lost, scared, injured and cold. I knocked on the door and asked the lady to call my parents and ask them to come and take me home. The lady kindly gave me some milk and sweets and said that she had called my parents. I hadn’t given the lady my parents’ name, so I was a little confused, but I was grateful that they were on their way. I was so happy! I remember looking at this huge real fireplace and felt nice and warm. It was a lovely bungalow and the man sat in an armchair smoking from his pipe. I couldn’t believe I was going home!
I waited for about 15 minutes and then the lady went to answer the door. I was horrified to see Sister Catherine at the door with two police officers. She assured me that I had done the right thing by coming to this lady’s house and asking her to ring the school. Again, I was confused by what she had said, but after what had happened throughout the day, I just went along with it.
I was put into the back of the police car, on the middle seat, with Sister Catherine at one side and a police officer on the other. When I got back to school, I was taken to the first aid room to have my ankle seen to. I found it painful to walk properly, so Sister Joan put cream around my ankle and massaged it. She was not so gentle, and she was disgusted with me for running away.
Then I was taken upstairs with Sister Catherine and another Sister. Sister Barbara was very angry. She came to me and said ‘What will your parents say about all this?’ while jabbing her finger firmly into my chest. I got more upset and said that I wanted to go home. I was taken to the bedroom, where all the girls were in bed. They had all been instructed not to talk to me, but Joan quietly climbed out of bed and came over to mine. She said that we should be ‘pals’. I was confused and asked what it meant. She said ‘friends forever’ and we crossed our little fingers together.
A couple of days later my schoolmates were still not allowed to talk to me. On the Tuesday afternoon I was told to smarten myself up and was taken to the parlour room. I walked in and saw my parents! It was a shock to see them. They looked at me disappointedly, but not angrily. They told me that this school was the best for me and my education. They then asked the school for permission to take me for a walk down to the nearby village river, but they refused. My parents had made a 100-mile round trip and they had only been allowed to see me for five minutes! I remember that conversation as if it was yesterday.
My father continued to drive me to school once a fortnight. He would pick me up on the Friday and take me back Sunday teatime. Sometimes my brothers would come along to keep my father company.
It took me a while to get settled, but I did make some friends, particularly Joan. The school was very strict but it was a very good Catholic school. Boys and girls were kept apart most of the time and we could only see them during the lessons. What a very different world this was, and a very different way of schooling and educating, especially compared to Beverley School.
I started to enjoy going home for the weekend and returning to school. Sometimes I would have a friend come to my parents for the weekend. Joan came a few times and when she returned to school, she told everyone that my family was rich! We were far from rich, but my parents kept a very clean and tidy home. Another friend, Fiona, would come home with me sometimes too.
Every day we would have chores. Some of us would get up earlier to attend mass and then they would wake everyone up to have their beds made. When we were all ready, we would stand in a line until were told we could go for breakfast. Once we were finished, I would the clean the classrooms and sweep and tidy up. Some of us were given other chores to do. On Sundays we all attended mass, and we would follow it by using the projector in the church. A nun would use a big stick to underline each word so we could all follow the mass.
In the classrooms, the teachers did not use British Sign Language. They would speak to us by using a machine, the same machine my mother borrowed to help me with my speech. This was a waste of time, as I could not hear anything. The only reason I was in the Hard of Hearing section of the school was that my speech was quite good for someone who was profoundly deaf, and these machines weren’t helping me at all.
Sometimes we would have nuns come into the classroom to teach us about religion. I must admit it was very interesting. I remember once Sister Barbara was telling us a story about Jesus and apostles. When she had finished, she asked if we wanted to ask any questions. I put my hand up and said, ‘what does God look like?’ Sister Barbara was not at all
pleased and her response was ‘Don’t you ask me questions like that again!’
At lunchtime we would see the pupils from all sides of the school, and that was the only time we saw each other. When the school finished for the day, we would change out of our school uniforms and into our home clothes and return to our classrooms to do the homework which had been left by the teachers. After tea, we would go to the living room and relax by listening to music. At least, those who wore hearing aids and were hard of hearing could listen to music - I couldn’t, but I could feel the vibrations through the floor, which meant I could dance to the beat. Otherwise we would watch television (without subtitles, as they didn’t exist at the time). Sometimes, if we were all watching television, Sister Catherine (sometimes we would call her ‘the house mother’) would tell us what was being said and what the story was about and what everyone was saying. It was very difficult to follow at times, but it was the only way we could find out what was happening on the screen. The biggest problem was that if we were all enjoying watching a film and a man and woman were kissing, the television would be turned off! We would then have to wait a few minutes before it would be turned back on, as we were not allowed to see such things.
At weekends all the girls would go for a walk to the village and do a bit of shopping and spend time relaxing in each other’s company. Times were changing in the way we wore our hearing aids. These devices fit in the outer ear bowl (called the concha). They were smaller and only fitted onto the bottom half of the external ear. I still hated wearing it, but I had to wear it whether I liked it or not during school.
Other times, during the day, if the head teacher or one of the nuns walked into the classroom, we all would stand up and say ‘good morning’, then sit down. We had the greatest respect for the teachers and the nuns. In school, I studied Geography, English, History, Maths, Biology, Art, Sewing, Cookery and Typing. My school report was always very good and my parents were always very pleased with it.
One time, in a biology lesson, Sister Maria decided to teach us about the differences between boys and girls. I really was excited, as I always wondered what ‘it’ looked like! She drew a picture, which was so simple I could not really see what it was. That was it! I was disappointed. We were never really taught anything that would go too far.
In my teenage years, I was mad about the pop singer David Cassidy. I was not a troublemaker at school. I behaved really well until one day, after school, I was doing my homework and a boy called Michael came into the classroom and asked me if he could kiss me, because he was leaving school! I quickly kissed him, but I did not really like it very much. I told Joan about it. That weekend, at teatime on Sunday, we were all in the living room when suddenly Sister Catherine came in and said to me straight away ‘I want to have a word with you now’. I could not understand why or what I was supposed to have done wrong. We went into the hearing aid room and sat down.
‘Do you have any idea why I wanted to speak to you?’ said Sister Catherine. I thought it must be about me kissing this boy, so I said ‘I have no idea’. She then said, ‘Do you realise that you must think of your parents, and that they are the best parents in the school? Are you sure you don’t know why I need to see you to discuss what you may have done?
‘Yes’ I said. I did not know what to say to that. She told me to go back to the living room and told Joan to come too. When Joan returned we were unable to discuss what had happened until we were ready to go to bed, which was always at ten o’clock when the light was turned off.
Joan and I quickly talked about what had happen in the hearing room. Luckily for me, Joan had told Sister Catherine that I had done nothing, but another girl, Agnes, came to me and said, ‘It’s was me that told Sister Catherine about you.’ I quickly ran to Joan and told her about it.
Another time, one Sunday afternoon, an ex-pupil came to the school and wanted us all to go to the gym to show us slides of mountains, trees, rivers… yawn! I said to Joan that we would miss Black Beauty, our favourite television programme, so Joan told me to ask Sister Catherine for permission to allow us to go and watch it. ‘Why me’, I asked? ‘Well,’ said Joan, ‘you are sitting next to her!’
I didn’t really want to ask, but I did really want to see Black Beauty rather than the boring old slides, so I said ‘Excuse me please, can we leave to watch Black Beauty in five minutes?’ She said yes, or at least I thought she did. Brilliant I thought, and told Joan to come with me. We sneaked out quietly with another girl and ran laughing down the corridor, but just as we were about to go into the living room Sister Catherine came up to us in a rage and tried to slap my face. I put my arm across my face to protect myself. I remembered that she had slapped my face when I was upset over missing my family when I returned to school. Sister Catherine then raised her hand to Joan, but she too lifted her arm and the blow missed her face.
She told us all to go upstairs to our bedrooms and stay there - we never got to see Black Beauty. Joan and I were sure Agnes had told Sister Catherine about us. After everyone had finished watching the most boring pictures, Sister Catherine came to the bedroom and waited for us to apologize, but I really thought she had said it was fine for us to watch the television.
I made sure I would not get into trouble again. I never liked getting in trouble and never kissed another boy again either while I was at school. Joan smoked in the toilet at one time, which I never knew about. She too got into trouble for that when again, Agnes caught Joan and told Sister Barbara. Joan and I called Agnes the ‘troublemaker’. Joan’s ex-boyfriend had sent her the cigarettes, which I was surprised about. Sister Barbara sent a letter to Joan’s parents to let them know about Joan smoking.
To help us prepare for our CSE exams, we would go and do work experience during school time by travelling on the bus. This was preparing us to face the world when leaving school. I worked at a few different jobs when trying to gain experience. One was at a small shop filling shelves with tins for about two hours for one day a week (it was the most boring job in the world!) and I did waitress service at a motorway café called Wetherby Turnpike Grill, which I attended six times. I received two reports for both jobs I did from both managers with the questions given, and the answers were the following:
‘How well has she done in them?’ Answer, ‘Well’.
‘Does she show any special aptitude for these jobs or any part of them?’ ‘Yes’.
‘Communication: Do you find it hard to understand Susan’s speech?’ Answer ‘Yes’.
‘Does she find it hard to understand you?’ ‘No’.
‘Have you come across any particular communication problems?’ ‘Yes’.
‘In general, how you would describe Susan’s personality?’
‘Cheerful, pleasant.’
‘How would you describe her application to work?’
‘Industrious’.
‘Would you be prepared to employ her on a full-time basis, for example does she compare favourably with the other employees or trainees you have?’ Answer ‘yes, in this particular capacity.’
‘Have you noticed any special hazards arising from deafness?’
‘No’.
This report was given to Sister Josephine, the Career Teacher. I also got another report from John Smiths Tadcaster Brewery Limited, where I did general office duties. The work was copy-typing and photocopying. How well had I done them? Reply was ‘very well. A little more experience reading other people’s handwriting would have enabled her to carry out copy typing more efficiently.’
‘Does she show any special aptitude for these jobs or any part of them?’ Answer: ‘no outstanding aptitude but she seemed keenly interested in everything she was asked to do and would develop into a good copy typist’.
Communication: ‘Do you find it hard to understand Susan’s speech?’ Answer ‘no’.
‘Does Susan find it hard to understand you?’ ‘No’.
‘Have you come across any particular communication problems?’ Answer ‘No’.
‘How would you describe her application to work?’ ‘Good’.
‘Would you be prepared to employ her on a full-time basis, for example does she compare favourably with other employees or trainees you have?’ Answer ‘yes’.
‘Have you noticed any special hazards arising from deafness?’ Answer ‘The tendency to exclude from normal day to day conversation when in a group situation’.
So working in the café was mainly cleaning the tables and putting plate pots into the kitchen. I didn’t enjoy that either! The only perk was that I got a free lunch. I did very much enjoy working in an office half a morning doing some copying and typing. I did that six times. The money I earned was given to the school; I didn’t keep it for myself.
During my time at school I was always looking forward to summer holidays, as we always went away for two weeks every year. We would go to different parts of the country, places like Bournemouth, Plymouth and Great Yarmouth; we did go to see a show once in which Lulu was performing. I couldn’t wait to return to school to tell everyone about that! We also went to Stratford-upon-Avon, to a place called Eastbound, and we stayed in a caravan and I loved it. We would have our breakfast in the caravan and then go out for the day. We would return for tea, and then we would go to the fair or zoo, or of course the seaside and go swimming in the ocean. We would do various activities every day for two whole weeks. Every year we would have a different caravan. One time, we had one overlooking the river and a small bridge. It was beautiful and I always played with my brothers and sister. I remember all of us in the car when we were travelling. We would play ‘I spy with my little eye’. Even sometimes at the weekend, if my father was off work, we would go to Stewart Park for a picnic.
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