TheHallowian-2021Vol2 - Flipbook - Page 17
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The Lady Doth Protest...
Zita Denholm (White), Class of 1950
My sister Carmel, one year behind me when she started at All Hallows’ was a protester –
actually, she was a Mistress of the Effective Protest.
When we progressed from Sub-Junior to Junior, we moved from the dormitories in the Main
Building to those on the top floor of the University Wing. The two large dormitories were
dedicated respectively to Our Lady (the larger one) and the Sacred Heart.
The beds in the Sacred Heart dormitory were a bit shorter than the beds in Our Lady’s and
were usually allocated to the girls who were shorter, and always to Juniors. Our Lady’s was the
preserve of taller Juniors and Sub-Seniors.
When Carmel moved to the University Wing she was given a bed in Sacred Heart. Being a SubSenior I was in Our Lady’s. This may have been to keep the pair of us separated, possibly even to
give Carmel some peace from my domineering presence, but she was, manifestly, too tall for the
bed.
Night 1: Being Carmel, she inspected the bed, and then she requested a move.
‘Not possible!’
Night 2: Nothing if not persistent, Carmel again requested a move, insisting that she had not
been able to get any sleep the previous night.
‘I don’t know what the fuss is about. It’s the same as every other bed.’
Very reasonable and polite, ‘I am not the same as every other girl. I’m taller.’
‘Get into bed and stop making a show.’
Virtuous (but also devious) Carmel obeyed.
Night 3: ‘Carmel White! Again!’
My sister made her preparations for
maximum effect.
Before her classmates were themselves
ready, she placed a chair at the foot of her
bed, untucked the sheets and blankets, got
into bed, pushed her feet out through the
iron frame bed-end, arranged a towel over
her toes ‘to keep them warm’, and with
some gentle snoring pretended to be asleep.
It was impossible to keep a whole dormitory
of teen-aged girls from giggling, especially
as they all understood the protest. Making
or causing noise in the dormitory at bedtime
was as wicked as not giving up lollies for Lent
(and Advent) or holding conversations in the
toilet block. All Hallows’ boarders did not
commit those crimes.
Sister on duty arrived to investigate the unseemly behaviour, Carmel was ‘wakened’, told to put
on her dressing-gown, and moved to a bed which had been vacant all the time in Our Lady’s.
And silence reigned in Sacred Heart.
2021 | The Hallowian
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