School Visits 1940s
| Esperanto Group Visit to France (Barbezieux) in 1947 | |
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Doris Richardson sends us this group photo. Thank you, Doris.
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| Practical Esperanto? | |
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When I started at H.G.S. we took Esperanto for the first two years. (Deviation here - we took French too but for the first year we learned it phonetically.) I still have my Esperanto dictionary and three simple text books which were sent to me by a male Dutch teacher who was a pen-pal. I didn't know that he was either male or adult when I was given his name and address. There was no problem at all in those days, but it couldn't happen today, could it? |
| I remember well the words to Lilli Marlene and will write them out at the end of this letter. Apart from that the only thing that comes readily to mind is 'Mi dankas vin' but no doubt more will surface. I went to Barbezieux in 1947 with a group from school. We stayed at what we were told was a boy's boarding school. Of course, in August they were not in residence. Joining us in this Esperanto Colonio was a small group of 4 boys from London, a group of French boys and a separate group of French girls, all with their attendant teachers. We were all instructed to speak in Esperanto when in their company. Our English group were by far the best 'Esperantists'. We ate together and drank coffee from bowls. We went for a communal walk every afternoon to the woods, and I think we even attempted to collect snails on one occasion. We had a rest in the dormitory each afternoon. We needed it as Mr. Leonard woke us all at an unearthly hour every morning by bouncing a big ball into the dorm. at which point we had to go down to have gymnastics ' en la Korto'. We kept a diary, each of us writing the events of the day in turn. I still have it. There were lots of photos too. One in particular I remember of Anouk Aimee. I'm not sure, but I think she is still around. She was a young French 'film star' who, having heard that a group of English children and teachers were in residence at the 'college', came to look for us because she wanted to practise her English. She has been in many films since that time. She also joined us in Paris as we made our way home. We were accompanied by Mr. Hamilton, Miss. Smith, Miss. Davies and Mr. Leonard. As we got to know all the other boys and girls we had great fun. I remember that we played a sort of ring game 'en la korto' that resembled our 'Lucy Locket'. It was called 'Chantelle'. It sounds very tame now but we did enjoy it all so much. It was the first School journey following the war. The concert that we rehearsed for daily was one of the highlights of the trip. We also had lessons of a sort each morning though I remember very little of them so they can't have amounted to much. We went to the seaside one day by coach and one of our girls hurt herself on the rocks. I believe it was at St. Palais. We also went to the cinema in Barbezieux and to a visiting fair and to the Cognac distilleries. Of course we did a lot of shopping in the town too. I don't remember any of us causing any trouble at all though I believe some of the French boys shocked us by smoking from time to time and obviously when away from any adult. After we arrived home those of us who had taken cameras (Remember, this was just after the war and cameras were not so commonplace then. I was lucky that my mother had a little Kodak Brownie which I borrowed.) were asked to show our photographs to Mr. Leonard who acquired copies and produced a Diary and Photos for each person who had been in the group. That is how I got mine and I'm sure there must be others around somewhere. Mr. Hamilton's son Graham and his daughter Barbara also came along on the trip. Graham went to H.G.S. His mate when we were in France was Bob Lumb. Barbara went to a school in Wakefield. She was about a year younger than me. I kept in touch with her for a short time after the trip. She asked me to a Christmas party at her home in the school grounds. Mr. Hamilton was there, of course, and Mrs. Hamilton. I knew her as she had at one time taken us for P.E. I think, as we awaited a permanent member of staff. Mr. Leonard was also there with his wife. Unfortunately I lost touch with Barbara after that but a couple of years later when I was doing a bit of uncertificated supply work I was sent to a school at Grimethorpe and found Mrs. Hamilton teaching there. I think I had better finish this now so for the time being and to the strains of Lilli Marlene I'll sign myself off. Sub la lampo lumas, ce la kazerna pord, Lumas gi fidele, en ciutage ord, Sub, trotuara ston eben, rakontas min, mi dum promen, Kun vi, Lili Marlena, Kun vi, Lili Marlen. Remember:'ce' has the 'ch' sound; 'ston' has the 'sh' sound. Very sincerely, Doris Richardson | |