Warm Days Away

I lived with my father, an officer in the Air Force, and my mother and brother in a good solid house on the Air Force base in Andover. I went to Portway Primary School by the airforce school bus and would be allowed threepence worth of sweets from the Linga Longa sweet shop around the corner from the school.
I remember my years here as very happy. We had a wonderful Headmaster who, after he had been to see the stage production of My Fair Lady, took the trouble to describe the whole experience to us during an assembly. My passion for musicals I am sure was ignited from this.
Once a week we would go on the most wonderful Nature Walks where every flower or insect we encountered were explained to us. On a recent visit to the school, after 52 years, I found the signpost to the Woodland Trail still there at the foot of the school field!
At this school I was taught Italic writing by a Mr Davies and encouraged to sit up right by linking my arms behind the back of my seat. Something that has stood me in good stead ever since.
Due to my father's position in the Air Force we were moved every three years and after my 11 plus I was sent to boarding school, albeit a theatrical ballet school. I hated it and of all the schools I attended both before and after Portway, Portway Primary was always my favourite. Thats where, even at only 9 years old, I fell in love with Michael Skidmore who made the best playground slides when it was icy.
I had a lovely trip down memory lane and even found Amport House where the Air Force gave wonderful Christmas parties for the children of the services and Father Christmas would arrive in a helecopter on the extensive lawns.
Thank you Andover for giving one little girl such a lovely memory,x