The Korgis - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime
My first school teacher was Mrs. Kaye. She was a grand old dame, that's the only way to describe her. Posh, but lovely. Very theatrical. She wrote her own school plays, adapting Tom Sawyer, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe into scripts that could be performed by 8-10 year olds. I guess she saw some hidden talent in me as she cast me in major roles in the first two - Huckleberry Finn and Willy Wonka... though it was quite a come-down to only appear as Mr. Beaver in the latter. I've no idea what I'd done to deserve that.
The Rare Earth - Is Your Teacher Cool?
I've probably mentioned this before, but years later, when I decided I wanted to be a DJ and a couple of people at the radio station suggested that my Yorkshire accent was a little strong, I went back to Mrs. Kaye for elocution lessons. She'd retired by then, but was happy to get me to read Keats over and over, softening my vowels and slowing my inflection. I can't think about Mrs. Kaye without remembering those summer evenings in her conservatory, picturing ripe fruit, plump hazel shells and vines that round the thatch-eves run... the words from the poem somehow transforming her home into an idyllic country cottage, when it was probably anything but.
Wide Boy Awake - Slang Teacher
Nat King Cole - The Rain In Spain
Along the wall of the my first two years in primary school was the components of the ITA, the Initial Teaching Alphabet. Some of your readers of a similar age might have learned with it as well. In Mrs Rogers class, since you ask.
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of her
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post, Rol. So evocative.
ReplyDeleteI second that. - Brian
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