Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Friday 13 October 2017

From the Desk of.......


This is my late sister-in-law Gill, looking a little unhappy at being asked to pose at her desk. She was probably in the middle of doing accounts and checking bookings and other paperwork for the holiday apartments she and her husband ran in Devon in the 1980s. It’s taken about 1983 but the desk is a lot older of course.


And this is me, looking all efficient and headteacherly in my newly refurbished office, during my last headship. The photo was probably for the newly created school website. By then I was no longer teaching and the job had become a mixture of many admin roles; dealing with the school budget, liaising with the education authority, Social Services and the Diocese (as it was a Church school), overseeing building works, staff appointments, showing parents round etc, etc. On good days I actually spent time with pupils. When the office was getting too much to bear, I went on my rounds of the classrooms and enjoyed the company of the children. I didn't sit at my desk for too long at a stretch if I could help it; I had an open-door policy most of the time, which meant someone was usually popping in. There would also be meetings and courses to attend, often off-site.


By contrast, here are some good old fashioned school desks - well 1974 vintage - made of wood! This is m first ever class at a school in Lincoln. The children were rehearsing for a play, though I don’t remember which. Strange to think, that at twenty-two, I was only about twelve or so years older than them. Many of them will now be parents and grandparents themselves!


Here are my own two playing companionably together at the desk in my daughter’s room c1983. Both computer literate and with artistic skills, these days, back then my son was computer mad and my daughter was the one writing journals and painting. My son now uses his IT skills in his work and my daughter has a sideline to her regular job, where she designs and makes bespoke earrings, dreamcatchers etc. This photo sums them up quite well.

This is the Sepia Saturday prompt image which inspired the above post. Why not see what other contributors made of it?

Betty Ayles, 20 May 1911 (Sutton Archives via The Past on Glass on Flickr)


10 comments:

  1. My mom was a school music teacher and, prior to her retirement, an assistant principal -- so your post struck a chord with me. Great selection of desks in context down through the years!

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  2. Your sister had amazing hair, it looks like she could barely see out 😀 I like the photo of the children rehearsing too, some of them are really getting involved.

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  3. It would be fun to see a display of school desks through the years.

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  4. Jo and I are on the same wavelength. At first I thought your sister-in-law was wearing a Russian hat. I like the picture of your children at the desk doing what they came to do in the future. Did you know you were looking into a crystal ball back then?

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  5. The picture of your two kiddos working amiably at the one desk reminded me of the 6' "play table" my Dad made for us kids. At first there was just my brother and I so the table was divided into 2 equal spaces with a black crayon line. When the next sibling came along, the table was divided into 3 with a green crayon mark. When a 4th kid appeared, the table was divided into 4 spaces with a red crayon. A little tight, but we made it work. Luckily I soon grew out of needing to 'play' at the play table, so the green lines prevailed for a time. Eventually my Dad took the top off the play table and attached it to a small chest of drawers in such a way as to create 2 side-by-side desks for my younger sisters who shared a bedroom.

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  6. Your post made me think of a photo of my mother at her desk at home in the 1960s. Well, if desks come up again, I'll be ready!

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  7. Very nice matches for a writing desk theme. My son is also a true child of the computer generation. I have a photo of him at age 4 totally absorbed at some educational game. The technology captured his imagination so completely that he now makes a living as a digital artist and animator.

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  8. It is interesting to see the range of desks down the years. My favourite has to be Gill’s, as I do like all the little drawers and cubby holes for bits and pieces. At one point, my father had that kind of telephone on top of his bureau in the living room - not a location I liked as a teenager when I wanted to speak to friends with some kind of privacy.

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  9. I am struck by the image of two children sitting together in peace and creatively playing with such different interests...good for them! And you look so very "modern" and capable at your desk in a job which took so much administrative talent, so I'm glad to hear you got into classrooms also.

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  10. When my dad died last year no one in the family was interested in taking his writing desk that looked like your sister-in-law's but I'm a bit sorry now that I didn't. But then, where would I have put it?

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