From a letter I wrote to my parents from boarding school when I was in Grade Four, just after my ninth birthday. "Half-term" was a two-day break from school work. Most of the day was spent "at the river" swimming and playing. We were served extra treats and usually shown a film in the evenings. It was the highlight of the school term. (When the school terms were longer, four and half months, we had two half-term breaks.)
(Note: I have edited this slightly to remove spelling errors and to make it slightly easier to read!)
On half-term I got so many sweets. I got 83 ngwee worth of sweets. 66 ngwee was my birthday sweets and 17 ngwee was my half-term sweets. After we got our sweets, we played around or got ready to go down to the river. About 10 o'clock we went down to the river. I had a super time in swimming in the morning! Miss Halls gave us a long, long time to swim! All the time I did dives off the spring board. I did at least fifty dives.
When it was "all out," I quickly got dressed, ate a sweet and asked to climb trees. Soon it was lunch. I was the last one in line because the tree that I was up had so many people and it took such a long time to get down. After lunch I climbed trees again. I climbed them until rest hour. During rest hour I read and did criss-cross puzzles. When rest hour had finished, and I had had my milk and cookies, I climbed trees again. I climbed them until swimming. Again I had lots of fun. All the time I did dives off the spring board. I had so much fun on half-term.
, March 19, 1958 (p. 125):
book in high school, perhaps (?), and it became my stock wedding gift and for other gift-giving occasions.