June-Elizabeth MacWilliam - Newlands 1954 Infants Class

This Grannie was known in her schooldays as "June MacWilliam," to anyone who can remember me.

A switch to my middle name of Elizabeth (Liz) plus the acquisition of a married name along the way, have resulted in a totally different name than I used back in August 1954 when I marched into the Girl's Entrance at Newlands for the first time with my classmates.

I can remember as a child of 3 or 4, sometimes walking past Newlands at Playtime with my mother. She would stop for a minute or two and say Hello to one or two older girls from our close at 18 Edmiston Street.

I stared through those railings at Playtime where a really big party appeared to be going on. As the only child of my parents for their first ten years, I had no siblings to share games with at home, so I longed to start school - simply for the social aspects of course!

Another treat for me was having my wee leather satchel strapped to my back like the bigger kids. At age five, I had finally arrived.

I soon was glad to discover that I had a willing accomplice in my milk scam. Miss Bone insisted on every child collecting and consuming his or her own milk, but I couldn't drink warm milk, so the noble young GARY NOLAN came to my rescue by gurgling down his own bottle, then quietly & calmly disposing of mine, using a fair degree of skill in deception for a five year-old, for he had to avoid detection by the sharp-eyed old witch, our Headmistress. I loathed that warm white sickening stuff that everyone else was drinking like nectar.

When shortly after lunchtime, the ferocious Miss Bone dismissed our class, I felt very let down. I longed to stay the whole day in this new and exciting world of Newlands School and attend the big parties in the Playground.

A few months later I got my wish as the Infants Class day was extended to 3:00pm, an hour before the regular dismissal. This simple strategy avoided bullying by smart-alec older kids during our journey home. I think we may have been dismissed an hour earlier for the whole of our first Term, but I'm not really sure.

How about you? Can you remember anything else from our beginnings at Newlands?

...........Thanx to Stew for his magic with all of the photos in this blogsite......