Curiosity Killed the Cat – Information Brought it Back!
When Nanny answered my ‘whys’ with ‘because the sky is so high’, I’d ask,
‘How high is the sky?’When she cautioned me that ‘Curiosity killed the cat’,
I would say, ‘Information brought it back’, and sometimes, when I was
feeling very uppity, ‘Well, I must have nine lives then.’ It was not that I asked
different questions from the questions that every child asks, it was that I
asked them all the timewhenever I could.When Nannywould say that Imust
not ask any more questions for ten minutes, I would explain that they filled
me up inside and I’d burst if I couldn’t let them out. And that indeed, was
how I felt.
As I was a child of the early 1930s (I was born in 1929), I was brought up
to be seen and not heard. All the questions that built up inside mewould burst
out as soon as I was with Nanny. Nanny, somewhat understandably, often
took refuge in the kitchen with Cook and Edith and Maisy (why was I not
allowed in the kitchen?) bringing me up my meals and going back down
again, while I made mountains and rivers and forests out of my food. It never
seemed strange to me that, although I had a Nanny, I often played alone.
When the weather was good enough I was let out to play in the garden,
watching the shadow of the house travel slowly back over the lawn (why do
shadows movewhen nobody is moving them?).When theweatherwas bad, I
would play in the nursery. There was a gate at the nursery door and I spent
much time leaning over the gate listening to the house. I became very good at
knowing what was going on by the noises and voices that drifted up the
stairwell.