Chris Goodair, student at Johns from 1970–73, remembers his time at the College after celebrating fifty years since graduation in January.
1. All the spoons in Haughton Dining Room had flat bottoms from constant banging on the tables whenever there was something to celebrate.
2. We had six formal dinners a week, Monday to Friday dinner & Sunday lunch. Gowns were required, though it didn’t matter what was underneath. High Table was in the middle, aligned parallel to the main Haughton corridor. The other tables & benches were in lines at right-angles. Students assembled before the meal time and remained standing. The High Table party, generally staff & their guests, occasionally students, assembled outside the Dining Room and were led in by the Senior Man (or the JCR Secretary if he was absent; or the JCR Treasurer in both were absent). The High Table party went to their chairs and the Senior Man to his place at the head of the central one of the student tables, where he said Grace and then everyone sat down. As I was JCR Treasurer, it occasionally fell to me to lead in the procession and say Grace, which I remember as “For these and all Thy mercies, may Thy Holy Name be praised”, fortunately said in English. My time coincided with the Government-imposed Three Day Week: there were many power cuts and was used candles instead. Leading in the High Table procession bearing a candle was quite atmospheric.
3. Students were waited on by college staff. Initially, they carried in plates three or four at a time, a lengthy process. A new Bursar introduced trolleys to be more effective. One of the waiting staff was Norman, who had been there years and was short sighted. It fell to him to be the first to wheel in a trolley of plates of food (to a great round of spoon bashing, of course). He was so pleased with the new innovation and had a broad grin on his face. Unfortunately, when he reached High Table, he stopped dead – and all the plates went straight on, crashing to the floor (more spoon bashing!)
4. The were no meal choices. The main courses came on rotation, I think every two weeks, so one knew in advance what they would be. One day was “Major Fanshawe’s Steak”, basically a casserole: we never discovered who Major Fanshawe was. Another day would be Spam fritters. After Sunday’s formal lunch, tea was just plates of cold meat & pickles, etc, self service.
5. There was no College Bar, so everyone used the Union Society Bar in North Bailey.
6. St John’s Hall was male only. In my final term the JCR voted to admit women. There were hardly any post-grad’s, so there was no MCR.
7. All the doors from the Bailey were locked by about 10:30 or 11:00. Late returners could gain access through the main Cranmer door (the one that now has the Bowes blue plaque by it) as there was a key on a long string which one pulled through the letterbox.
8. The tension of upcoming exams was relieved by water fights. In Cruddas, the plastic dustbins in each floor’s kitchen came in very useful.
9. The college had its own punt, which could be hired by the hour. The punt builder got the measurements wrong, so instead of it being capable of carry 10 passengers, in theory it could carry 100. In summer a group of us would hire it for several consecutive hours. We’d then punt up to Shincliffe for a drink, then drift back with the current in the moonlight.
10. There were many stories – quite likely apocryphal – about college rules in years past, particularly about having women visitors and the “perils” of too close a relationship. One was the both the man and woman always had to have one foot on the floor: another was that the mattress had to be placed in the corridor.
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