A group of old school friends got together recently – to celebrate their 80th birthdays!
The ladies all attended St Theresa’s Catholic School, Crossgates (now the Newman Centre) during the WW2 years and went their separate ways upon leaving at ages 14 or 15, with a couple of them winning scholarships.
Dora Groves organised the recent reunion to celebrate all the pals turning 80 this year. This is not the first time they have met up, with several get-togethers over the years following a chance meeting. Dora started a new job at the Housing office and spotted a familiar face while being shown round. This turned out to be Margaret whom she had gone to school with. This lead to the first reunion being organised in 1991.
The meetings have proved to be a big hit despite some of the ladies living far and wide –one of them, Sylvia now lives in Australia.
The meetings have taken place at the White Swan in Aberford, Barwick in Elmet, and the Harvester at Colton where this year’s reunion took place.
They had a fantastic time reminiscing about their school days, penny drinks and how their mothers made ends meet during the war time. They also discussed their extended families and intend to keep in touch and organise further gatherings. Dora feels there was no better way to spend her birthday saying “It was a wonderful day, with lots of laughter and talking”.
Dora remembers school fondly telling me “It was war time, we didn’t all have different classrooms, they were just divided up, and everything would be pushed back for Mass once a week. What is now the car park was a playing field which became a quagmire in the winter months. There was a rickety fence down the middle of the field to separate the girls from the boys.” Dora says she was a nervous child at school, and wanted to do things right. The school was run by Nuns back then and of course at that time there was the threat of the cane for bad behaviour! They were “happy but strict days” Dora recalls.
Here’s to many more happy reunions for the group!
