A Lighter Aspect
A Student in training at the C.A.M.W. offices, who spent a fortnight at Franklin House, Bognor, with the 29 girls under the care of the Associa- tion’s Guardianship Department sent there for their summer holiday, sends us the following account of the adventure, showing what release of hap- piness it brought with it.?Ed.
The only possible way to sum up this particular fortnight is to quote Ae trite ditty: ” You can do a lot of things by the seaside that you can’t do in Town.”
It was an amazingly diverse time?partly due no doubt to the weather; for there were wild stormy days when we braved the winds and driving rain ?r trudged along the shore in a sandstorm, and there were days of brilliant sunshine when we lolled on the beach, carefully getting sunburnt ” all over ” and not in patches. (There was a competition afterwards to see whose legs were prettiest!)
About ten of us bathed whenever we had the chance and the rest paddled, and many and various are the photographs of these acquatic adventures.
Evenings were gay too. One select party went to a musical comedy, and we nearly all went twice to the cinema?-to ” Sanders of the River ” and David Copperfield ” (over which we sobbed long and loudly). On several nights we went for walks after supper and when it was wet we sometimes danced. Most of us were not particularly good at dancing, but we found that if we put on a gramophone record of a fairly nondescript tune, one couple could waltz, another fox-trot, while a third experimented with the rumba ” or the good old-fashioned polka?and so everyone was pleased! One red-letter night we had a concert?a gay, light-hearted affair. It says much for the friendliness and ease of the party that nearly everyone sang at least one solo or recited some heroic ballad (” Hands clasped across the Sea ” was a firm favourite). The event of the evening was the rendering of a winsome lyric ” Pretty little Butterfly, Come and Stroll with Me,” by Miss Sally Panshine ” as she was appropriately named. Miss Panshine could only remember extracts, but pieced them together so skilfully that an entirely non-sensical, but altogether delightful song, resulted. Probably many blase West End audiences would have paid much to hear and see her.
Nearly everyone came home with a nickname, and at least one new friend. It was, indeed, a very excellent holiday. G.F.M.
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