>>>>gt;>>t;>>>>>>>>Four years seems like a long time when you're eleven years old, but in the blink of an eye it was gone. This is all that's left.

Sunday, 5 August 2012

The VIP


A VIP visited the school. Jennie Lee, Harold Wilson’s newly appointed Minister for Arts, just happened to arrive as 1A1 were having a Drama lesson in the hall. Though she was unknown to me and probably most of the class, her arrival brought great excitement. Not for the lady herself, but for the TV cameras that followed her around. Drama usually meant half an hour of poncing about but for the next few minutes I put everything I had into my best ‘branching tree’ routine. Olivier couldn’t have done it better but sadly, my efforts went unnoticed. After a quick chat with Miss Fyshe, our famous guest scuttled off. So much for opportunity knocks.

1A1’s brush with stardom lost even more bristles when the event appeared on the regional news that evening. In reporting the visit they showed barely ten seconds of Ms Lee entering the hall from the canteen. I think I caught a glimpse of Lindsay Hawkes doing her thing but in the days before video, freeze frames and endless replays, the clip ended before I could focus on anybody else. Oh the frustration.

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