Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Teenage Years















I attended an all-girls private school, North London Collegiate School, and had to work very hard. Looking back, I realise how lucky I was to attend such a good school in such beautiful surroundings. I recently found my acceptance letter and as a parent struggling to finance 3 students through school and university, I was amazed to see the school fees in 1968 were 41 pounds!!




When I was not at school, I spent time with friends and drama groups. I definitely visited pubs when I was underage), but thankfully I just treated it as a place to socialise, and in the late 1970's, binge drinking was not considered a fun option. As a result, my parents were very trusting and gave me quite a long leash as long as they knew who I was with, where I was going, and when I would be back.




As a child, up to the age of about 12, my brother, Robin, and I enjoyed amazing freedom. As our house backed onto farmland and a golf course, I remember long summer evenings making tunnels out of hay bales, riding our bikes in the woods and even camping out in tents. Bringing my own children up in the 1990's, life was rather different, and if we had lived in the UK, the freedoms I had enjoyed as a child would have been unthinkable. However, at this time we lived in Japan, and my children were 4, 6 and 8. The environment there was extremely safe. I remember sending my 7 year old to the local convenience shop to buy milk, totally unaccompanied and not worrying at all about his safety. I also remember my daughter (just after we had left England) commenting with surprise about children as young as 6, walking unaccompanied to school, with their personal details on a label, for all to see.








My children grew up as teenagers in the USA, and two main factors have influenced their upbringing and have made it very different from mine. First, teenagers learn to drive at 15 and so by 16, many are driving independently. This has given my children great freedom, especially as we live in an area poorly served by public transport. As a teenager in the UK, none of my friends had cars, and we took buses, trains or walked to parties, discos, etc. Giving my 16 year old that amount of individual responsibility and freedom has taken some adjustment. Second, the legal drinking age in the USA is 21, and although students in college (17-21) undoubtedly drink alcohol, the excessive and dangerous binge sessions seem to be far less of a concern for me as a parent.







I had several jobs as a teenager: working in a teashop, a haberdashery shop, plus the usual round of babysitting. My first "proper" job at 16 was working in the knitwear department at Selfridges in Oxford Street, London. One thing I remember distinctly is directing confused tourists who were looking through piles of Pringle sweaters for the "St. Michael" label-they were after M&S next door! My first month's wages allowed me to purchase my very own record player at a cost of 68 pounds-was I proud of that!


As a teenager I read the magazine, "Jackie" and my shopping haunts included Biba, Laura Ashley and Dorothy Perkins. My parents gave me about five pounds a week pocket money with which I bought records, books and clothes.









After leaving school in 1975, I spent 4 weeks travelling round Europe with 2 girlfriends. Armed with a Euro rail pass and a huge rail directory, we set off. After 2 weeks on hot, dirty trains we decided to spend the rest of the trip in a small hotel just outside Florence. Our parents did not seem to worry too much about us going on the trip. Without cell phones or Internet we had no communication with them for a month but this was accepted as normal. My 17 year old son has just done a similar trip and my 16 year old just spent 6 weeks in Spain-regular bulletins and updates from Internet cafes went a long way to giving us peace of mind.



After "A" levels I spent a year at Troy State University, Alabama, USA, on an English Speaking Union Scolarship. I was treated like royalty and was most impressed by the hospitality I received. As I already had a place at Bristol University to read French, I did not need to worry about taking specific courses and so was able to pick and choose what I studied. I enjoyed American literature classes and remember being most impressed with a debating class.(Now I live in the USA and have noticed that debating is still a very popular class in schools and universities). I was also very involved with the university acting troupe. We used to tour the South and perform at schools-for some reason I was never given a speaking part!!!!But I was asked to be the vocal coach for the universtiy's production of "A Man For All Seasons"! I still remain in touch with a friend from my days in Troy, LizAnn: being so far away from home at a relatively young age made this friendship very special. My most vivid memories of this time are driving with a crowd out to a remote bridge and dancing in the headlights to Bruce Springsteen and the Doobie Brothers-there wasn't a whole lot to do in Troy!