INFANT TEACHER BACK FROM TRIP TO EUROPE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29424, 28 January 1961, Page 2

INFANT TEACHER BACK FROM TRIP TO EUROPE

Glory reflected from the New Zealand champion runners, P. Snell and M. Halberg, was felt at the Olympic Games by Miss Lorna Hampton, of Christchurch, she said yesterday. Miss Hampton has recently returned from a 14 months' visit with a friend to England and the Continent.

‘‘We had to apply for tickets before we even left New Zealand, so we picked at random. It was just luck that we chose athletics on the very day that Snell and Halberg made their medal-winning runs.” she said. People from many different nationalities surrounded them in the stand. “They threw their arms around us, and slapped us on the back when the New Zealanders won their races. And back at the camp that night,

the Swiss family next door were delighted to have the New Zealanders near them. “Everywhere we went we found that New Zealanders were held in very high esteem. This as particularly so in Greece. If we said we were ■from New Zealand, people would say ‘Ah, New Zealand soldiers—very fine men.’ ” Winkle-pickers Miss Hampton, who is an infant school teacher, taught in many London schools. In most of them she found the children similar to New Zealanders One junior iprimaryi school, however, had children with a very modern outlook. Boys of about nine years old would come to school in “winkle-pickers.” a flat shoe with toes so long that they " had to walk sideways up the stairs. They wore ordinary shirts and shorts. Her New Zealand teaching methods fitted in very well at Stonebridge Infant School, where she spent six months “But in some other schools 1 had to adapt myself a little,” she said. At 5 a.m. on the day of Princess Margaret's wedding Miss Hampton and her friend were at their chosen place on Horse Guards’ Parade. “We had a wonderful view.” she said. Music was relayed to the crowds by the 8.8. C, and after the processions had passed, the service inside the Abbey was also relayed. “The thousands of people all sat quietly and even reverently listening to it. But of course the cheering and shouting started again when the procession came back,” Che said.

Another occasion full of pageantry was the Trooping of the Colour. Miss Hampton felt she was lucky to have one of the 80 seats allotted to New Zealand, as hundreds of people had applied. Visits to the Shakespeare festival at Stratford-on-Avon and to the Passion Play at Oberammergau were other highlights of her trip. “We chose an excellent year to go abroad—again just luck,” she said.

Miss Hampton will return to her infant teaching position at Beckenham School next week. “But I am going to find it a bit hard to settle down.” she said.