Marjorie Wootton

I was born in September 1946 in Edlington Street, Denaby Main.

I remember Mum taking me to my first day at school. I never been parted from my family so I expected my mum would stay with me at school. So I went happy. The smell of school was something I had never experienced before and it was so big with lots of other children with their mums and dads. I knew none of them.

My teacher was Mrs Stanby. She was very nice, but I clung to mums hand as was so strange to me.

Soon mum said she was going home to get the dinner on would be back later to get me. I started to cry, clinging onto her coat. All the other kids were crying as well, so that made it worse.

Mrs Stanby took out a large jar of sweets and invited all to sit on the floor around her chair. I stood at the door for a while. Eventually we were all lulled around the sweetie jar and Mrs Stanby talked to us all in turn. She knew all our names and told us a story about a little boy and girl who loved school. We all got a little bottle of milk and a straw. I remember it had lots of cream on top. When I took off the silver lady that made me upset again as mom would always mash me a banana into the top of the mill. That was my treat but I was drinking it through a straw. Later she took us for a short walk to visit the other classrooms and I was settled a little more.

She showed us a magic lantern. You had to look through the slits in something like a lampshade and inside was a little black boy being chased around a tree by a tiger until the tiger turned into butter.

By the time my mom came to get me I was settled in and made friends with another girl (Pauline) and was her hand. I was holding when I left school on that first day.

I never went in the nursery but I remember the caves that they’d. All had a little bed and a blanket. Each had a picture on the corner which was a ball or a spade. It was the same picture that was on their coat peg. Each afternoon they would take off their shoes and rest on the little beds. Sometimes the teachers would let two of those sit in the corner quietly while the teacher left the room. Maybe to visit the toilet or have a cup of tea.

If any of the little ones woke up one of those would have to run and fetch a teacher.

This classroom had a lovely big fire in the corner with a fire guard around and it also had a veranda outside a large door.

At the end of the school day, there were always bottles of milk left. So the teacher will always ask if someone would like to come up and tell a story then they could have a spare bottle. I always put my hand up; I liked the milk but not the cod-liver oil capsule, so my friend used to eat mine

My dad was a good storyteller so he would tell me new stories. One was the old lady who lived in vinegar bottle and the other kids were always asked for me to tell that one. (I wish I could remember it now).


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Sometimes we will go out the playground into the crags to find wildflowers and little insects. One such day a boy told that under the grate (fire hydrant) in which lived and if I ever lifted up the lid she would pull me under to live with her. It was years before I realised it was only a story, like my old woman in the vinegar bottle.

Every Monday we had to take school dinner money, if we were staying. Also, we used to take pennies and get saving stamps. We had a little book to stick the stamps a. My mom used to wallpaper for people so sometimes I had to stay for dinner. I remember the potatoes never tasted nice and it always was chocolate pudding and custard or “frogspawn” for afters. I never like school dinners as I miss my mom too much. At Christmas, we would have a party at school and every child would have to take one thing to put on the table e.g. jelly, buns or potted meat sandwiches. We would all get a small gift from Father Christmas, a small toy or some hankies.

We had a band at school. I had a drum and we would all go into the playground to make as much noise as relight. Also, we did a concert. In this one I was the mother with three children other children were fairies and some were elves.

I enjoyed my stay at Balby Street School and I think my stay was short as I remember having to go to Rossington Street School until I was 11. As my birthday was fifth of September I missed a lot.

One memory I’ve always hated is one day the teacher asked if anybody in the class knew where Denaby clinic was. So, as always, my hand shot up. She asked me to take three boys down to show them the way, as they had appointments with the dentist. Well, I had already said I would, but the thoughts of the dentist terrified me. So not showing my fear off we went. When I got to the top of our backs I was panicking so I took them all to my house where my mom was black leading the fire range. I was crying and screaming telling my mom that the dentist will pull out my teeth. In the end mum took is all down to the clinic and backup to school whereupon she gave the teachers a right telling of.

Looking back I must have been only six or seven and to be sent all the way from Balby Street school to church walk on our own would have been unheard of today.

From that day on my hand stayed down !

Balby Street School 1952:

Brenda Prior, Janice Floye, Caron Helliwell, Kathleen Taylor, Linda Armstrong, Marjorie Wootton, Denise Cooper, Joan Savage, Lorraine Sousey (?) Murial Lovel

Sitting; John Greaves and John Webb
Top: ?, Tony Swaby, Linda Armstrong, John Smith, Maxim Lorton, ?, ?

Middle: Pauline Armstrong, Freda Pew, John Webb, Shirley Haddock, ?, ? Marjorie Wootton

Bottom: ?, ?, Eva Backhouse, ?, ?, Joan Savage

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