Anyone else noticed a trend of 1970s nostalgia at the moment? I’ve been thinking a lot about growing up in that decade for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Myfanwy Tristram has used my school protest against being denied a place to study Geography ‘O’ level as one of the chapters in her upcoming graphic novel “The Noisy Valley”. At the book launch in a couple of weeks’ time, I’ll be sitting alongside icons of South Wales inspired protest movements like the Greenham Common women and with a fair amount of imposter syndrome, I’ll be reliving my display of adolescent obstinacy.
Secondly, The Workers Gallery in Ynyshir is hosting an exhibition of photography by Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr. ‘June Street’ documents the front rooms – and their inhabitants – of terraced houses in Salford back in 1973. I had a sneak preview of some of the images and loads of memories from those days came flooding back – particularly the very dodgy fashion decisions I used to make.
Average
In August I was having a sensible conversation with a woman who came to our NGS Open Garden when she said that she used to be a teacher. And not just any old teacher but a teacher between 1969 and 1976 in Ynysawdre Comprehensive School. Yes, you’ve guessed it – that’s when and where I had my secondary education. Stupidly, I admitted as much and so she got excited, reeling off names of her colleagues and asking me if I remembered them. The problem was that she was reciting Christian names whereas I knew them as, for example, Killer Matthews, Bulb Williams, Papa Thomas, Pongo Jones and Scabby Davies.
“Who taught you Biology?” she demanded. “Was it me?”
“No-one,” I replied. “I didn’t do science.”
“Why not?.” She raised an eyebrow and fixed me with a gimlet-like stare which wasn’t as effective on a 65 year old Maria in her own garden as it probably would have been 50 years ago in a school corridor. “Who let you get away with not doing science?”
At this point her lift arrived so our chat was cut short but to answer the question it was Noddy Norton, Chemistry. I was a shy, chubby 14 year old and he was teaching us about nutrition.
“Perhaps Maria will stand up and show the class what happens when someone consumes more calories than they expend.”
Unsurprisingly, when it came time to choose subjects for ‘O’ level, I opted for Art instead of Chemistry and the die for everything that has happened since was cast.
Other highlights of my education were that I became a prefect a year early because Nell was head girl and on the selection committee, I was accepted onto the tennis team because I had a white dress and frilly knickers which I made for ‘O’ level Needlework and I once scored a rounder because Tracy Jenkins said she’d beat me up at the bus stop if I didn’t. The most frequently used comment on my school reports was “Average.” Sandwiched between the intellectual might of Nell and Annie who was seemingly intent on being thrown out of every lesson for talking, my parents deemed “Average” a bit of a relief. But in amongst all of this ordinariness there was one teacher who inspired me to excel in a subject.
For some reason Miss West (Cookery) disliked me. A lot. I was the still shy, chubby 14 year old and making bread rolls for the first time when she suddenly called out to my classmates, “Everyone, come here – we’ve finally found something Maria can do.” Her words on the 1972 end of year assessment have stayed with me ever since: “E – Weak. Maria will never make as success of this subject.”
That was why my mum bought me a Marguerite Patten cookery book for my next birthday and encouraged me to take over the catering for tea when all our friends used to join us every Saturday to watch The Generation Game followed by Starsky and Hutch. It was the reason I ended up doing my first degree in Home Economics at the legendary ‘Cooks’ college in Llandaff, Cardiff. It was how in the two days preceding our NGS Open Garden, I made 130 portions of cake including Angel Cake, Apple and Cinnamon Tray Bake, Bakewell Tart, Blow Away Sponge filled with fresh cream and blackberry coulis, Boiled Fruit Cake, Butterfly Cakes, Cranberry and Coconut Tray Bake, Vanilla Sponge filled with home-made blackcurrant jam, Scones, Shortbread, Teisen Lap, Thunder & Lightning Cake, Truly Scrumptious Cake, Victoria Sandwich and how, at the end of the day, only 15 pieces remained.
Sometimes you have to push back against the opinion of teachers like Miss West.
But occasionally, when there are 15 slices of cake to be eaten before they go stale, you have to wonder if Noddy Norton had a point.
Quite Good
I have been Artist in Residence at Whitland Abbey since 2021 and I adore both the place and the people who are dedicating themselves to saving its heritage. Last October (with the help of Marilyn who kindly let me an extra pair of hands), I wired some linen to a tree and to a stone at the abbey ruins. In March I retrieved the fabric and took the results to this year’s Cadw Open Doors event where I spoke to visitors about using textile art as a metaphor of the shelter that the abbey offered medieval pilgrims over autumn and winter as well as allowing nature to record the passage of the seasons. Deep, eh?
On the first day of the event, in shallower waters, I found myself surrounded by a class of 10 and 11 year old children who were on a Living History school trip and who wanted to see an artist at work. In a single hour, I sketched portraits of twenty of them. At one point, a little boy who had been looking over my shoulder said,
“Do you know what? If you took your time, you’d probably be quite good at this.”
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings …