Dilys Paes
We hadn’t realised that Bangor Normal college was on top of the hill overlooking the city, opposite the university. It was a University College and there were four hostels arranged in a square, one on each corner and in the centre was the dining room area for all our meals. There were covered corridors from each of the four hostels leading into the centre part. My room was number 21 on the first floor. The ground floor consisted of a large general sitting room. A little bit off this was a room if anybody wanted to smoke, which was the smoking room. I didn't really smoke cigarettes so I didn't use that room much. My room was on the first floor and it was the first time I'd ever had a room and it was very exciting. It was a high ceiling with a tall window which overlooked the storage of the coke, so I didn't really have a view, but I didn't care and there were also bars on the window. I am not sure if that was to keep me in or to keep other people out.
I know when Mum did come to see me one time, and she nearly wept when she saw this. I had a single bed, a bedside cabinet which was a useful cupboard as well. A large fitted wardrobe, a desk type table and two chairs, but it was my room and I had my own key. I was right near the toilets and the washing places and the bathroom. Mum had given me a tin of lavender scented furniture polish, because we were told that we would be responsible for keeping our rooms clean and they really didn't have the staff to do that with. I enjoyed polishing and moving the bit of carpet it was on.
I had work to do, lectures every day, and during certain hours we weren’t allowed to walk around the corridors and had to keep quiet. It was all quite strange but it was something that I was sharing with people I knew. You were welcomed by your own individual College mother and my college mother was Elizabeth, who came from Blaenau Ffestiniog, and she was so helpful without being interfering. In fact, we remained friends. She was married to somebody from South Wales. I didn't really feel homesick. Thelma Williams and I went to the same congregational chapel in Holywell and we did find a chapel which we went to occasionally on Sunday.
We had roll call every morning before going over to the main dining area. Our names were called out and we called ‘adsum’, Latin I suppose. We had roll call at 8:30 in the morning and we had another roll call at 9 in the evening. Wherever you went you had to be back by 9, as the doors were closed and locked and you got fined. We all made sure that we were there, although there were a couple of occasions when we were late, although not really our fault.
We were treated as adults and not as children but as young adults we were expected to behave. We did have social occasions because Bangor Normal had a men's admittance, but the men were in a separate hostel much further into Anglesey. It was St George's hostel and that's where all the men were. The men had left school and then done their two years compulsory military training, so there were quite a number of boys we knew from school, although they were older than us.
There was a geography society, a history society, a Welsh society, a culture society and a society that arranged dances. We had a dance every half term and social outings and that sort of thing, so we did meet up with the men. There were some lectures that were both men and women but very few of them. I think perhaps the language ones.
All our lectures were held in the college and the others were in St George. We used to meet in Jimmy's which was a corrugated hut belonging to St James' church. For three pence you could get into Jimmy’s to go dancing and we all met up twice a week, but we had to make sure we left in time to get back and we used to race the last few yards from the gate to the door of our hostel.
In the second year Phyl, who was my senior at school, had come into college the same time as me and we became good friends. Phyl married a Liverpool boy Joe Roberts eventually, and we kept in touch. They came to Liverpool or we'd spend a weekend with them in Rhyl. They had a son and a daughter; I had two of each and we were great. Phyl was in charge of getting everything prepared for dances and social events aided by all her friends. We used to throw chalk on the floor to make it more slippery and easier for dancing.
I had a boyfriend in my second year, Gareth Williams. He had a sister in the same year as us. Gareth was a year below as he had done his national service and we were good friends and remained so until I started teaching. He was still at college and it became a bit difficult meeting up and I think he met her another girl. I was quite happy with my friends anyway.
Bangor college had a striped blazer, but again they didn't have enough for one for everybody so they had to draw lots and again you had to have the coupons. When my name was drawn, I was so excited, I really felt I had got somewhere. I was doing something worthwhile and showing off I suppose. You had to buy stockings as we didn't have nylon tights. They were bought on coupons but we found that the three-
The second year we were allowed to provide our own Sunday tea. Mothers would send food parcels to the girls and usually every Sunday my room was the one chosen by the gang of six for our Sunday tea. Mum always put in my parcel a little tin of Silds, little tiny black sardines in tomato sauce, so every week we had these and my friend would tease me call them the perishing Silds. It was fun.
We had to be in our rooms every evening to study and there was a lot of work to do. There were practical subjects which those teaching infants had to do. I learnt to weave on a machine which was interesting and I made quite a few bits and pieces. I made a model of a fairground with little people and the different things you find in a fairground and I had to connect that to certain subjects I would be teaching like Maths and English.
Two years came and went and I was so thrilled to be told by one of the school inspectors that I reached grade A in my teaching. In the final year, we had school practise on which were marked. We were allocated to a school and those living in Flintshire could stay at home and go to local schools. I went to one in Shotten and one in Queensferry but teaching infants we still had to wear these gymslips and three-
I had to get a bus to Shotten and then the bus to Queensferry and we had to make all our bits and pieces for demonstrations. For class work, every child had to have whatever it was that we were going to make or write on or whatever. I had to get loaded with my bag and rolls of paper to get on the bus.