During the late 1950s, I was a student nurse working long and anti-social hours. One day while on a busy surgical ward, the day sister, who was one of the old school nurses – extremely efficient but frightening with it – entered the ward and in a loud voice demanded the presence of my colleague and myself in her office. Now the only time you were summoned to the sister’s office was when it was for a telling off; like the time I lost someone’s false teeth. We stood there shaking in our regulation shoes.
“Now then” she said, glaring at us. “Do you girls like rock and roll?” she enquired. In the past she’d set some funny tasks but surely she wasn’t going to ask us to sing! She then opened her desk drawer and carefully took out an envelope. “You do realise,” she said with an actual smile, “that occasionally free tickets are donated to the nursing staff for events in town?” She then opened the envelope and took out the contents. We were both fully aware that Bill Haley was appearing at one of the venues but surely the tickets couldn’t possibly be for him. Indeed they were.
Our gratitude was evident by our jumping up and down and short of kissing the day sister we left her office in a more euphoric state than we had entered it. My colleague and I could barely wait for the evening to arrive. There was no way that we could have afforded the admission fee to such an awesome spectacle on our paltry salaries. And what a night it was. The atmosphere was unbelievable and made even more exciting by being at the front row of the upper-circle. Bill Haley’s performance was everything we had truly imagined. A truly wonderful experience and one never to be forgotten; never let it be said that there is no reward for hard work.
Joan Greetham ‘Down Your Way’ Issue 129 September 2008
.jpg)
Share: