School days.

[Dennis McGuckin]

Den, That post is worth its weight in gold mate laughed my bloody head off, Sadly i was never out of my wellies long enough to get them into a cobbler, It was only when i got my letter to travel to Gravesend and my train ticket that i got a pair of shoes and they were hand me downs possibly of one of my 52 cousins, Big family Den, My old man had 8 brothers and 3 sisters, My lovely old Mam had 5 sisters and 5 brothers Two of her brothers and two of her sisters were adopted by my old Gran and brought up as her own. One of her brothers married a Windrush girl she had 11 kids, There all Grand parents now I can honestly say we have never had a wedding a funeral or any other occasion were we all attended. Very best regards Den Terry.

Productive family you have there Terry.
You could have a grand family reunion.
Don't know where you would hold it though.
Maybe rent a football stadium.

[happy daze john in oz]

Left junior school in short pants but went to secondary in long ones.

South East London Secondary Technical School, not far from Lewisham for any one who knows that part of the world.
Tow campuses, one at St Johns near the station, you did the first three years there, then up to the new Cross one.
There you had to choose, building or electrical which is what I went for.

Just up the road from there was Goldsmiths college where Mick Jagger and Mary Quant studied for some time as did C. Richards.

There were in those days the Black and white milk bars, would be WOKE determined now with such a name, and in there C. Richards would sing at lunch time.

What did I learn at such a school, well you could by a fag for one penny in the local lolly shop, the local pub would let you in for a beer at night, no worries there about age.
And with the help of our teacher, a German guy we learned how to make an electric chair, only about half size and much lower voltage.
Then in chemistry class we found out how to gas half the school with a mixtuer of Sulphur, iron fillings and acid.
The head told told mum I should consider university, I decided no, buy did in later life spend 14 years employed in one.
I know I made the correct choice not to go to one.

My university turned out to be time at sea.

[j.sabourn]

#23 You may have left in short pants John , but have now gone the full circle and living in the lucky country now, and back into short pants again, at least in the summer. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

'School days are the happiest days of your life' that saying should be in the fairy tales section of the library.

During the war your school wasn't there the next morning, having been bombed out three times we ended up in a Yorkshire village and the nearest school was C of E which we were not allows to attend because we were RC, the nearest RC school was over 5 miles away with no buses!, so it was shank's pony, in winter a bus service was started but alas it was two miles away, so the pony part got shorter, one of those two miles included a straight stretch which was one mile long, and the beginning of that was a most disheartening sight,it seemed never ending, especially homeward bound, sometimes we got a lift on a horse and cart, but alas a rare event. When we did get to school it was to be taught by sadistic nuns who even gave a ruler rap on the knuckles if you were late, taking no account that you had traipsed five miles or if by bus that you were not the bus driver, who were normally women, and we had one lady driver if running late used to go off route to pass the school, so we didn't have to walk from the town centre to the school, god bless her. The nuns wouldn't let us leave early to get the last bus which meant a five mile walk in winter, that changed when mother went to the school and threatened to change our religion. It's one of those 'what if' moments, I wonder what my life would have been like if I had gone to the village C of E school, one will never know, not that I want to change my life experiences, going to sea was the best thing that ever happened to me, you cannot beat the University of Life for a rounded education.

Of course being an RC school the emphasis was on religion, later attending naval school the emphasis was on marching, a skill I never used at sea, but is useful at the Cenotaph, one never knows what is going to be useful.

[happy daze john in oz]

#23 You may have left in short pants John , but have now gone the full circle and living in the lucky country now, and back into short pants again, at least in the summer. JS

Well John, something must have gone wrong with the wiring as I wear shorts all year.
Only have two pair of trousers which only get used for dinner on a cruise.
But for the cooler months I do have some three quarter shorts.

[happy daze john in oz]

Victoria, I do not own any socks have not had any for over ten years.

I tend to dress the same all year, shorts, tee shirt with a jumper in the cooler weather but always with the sleeves rolled up.
Cannot stand my wrists being covered.

Shoes in the cooler months, open sandals the rest of the year.

Goes back to my working days when I had to wear whites in the galley and kitchens ashore, suits in management positions so now I am a man of minimum clothing.
Wear sunglasses all year outside or when driving, told by the eye man that is good as down in the southern hemisphere the ultra violet light is stronger!!!!!

So there you have it, no one takes any notice which is one of the many things I like about Oz, you can be who you are and no one will quetsion it.

[Red Lead Ted]

#26 Please tell me John you don't wear Long Socks!! LOL

Victoria, I always remember paying off an Everade boat in Goole, There was only 4 of us on deck no Bosun, The 1st mate would hand out the work he was the best mate i ever sailed with all the crew got on with him the day we payed off we asked him to come up the road for a couple of drinks to a little pub we new of, Once i am finished up here with customs ships agent etc.... I promise i will join you lads. When we entered the pub and got the beers in, Knowing the 1st mate as well as we did one of the lads called the barmaid to one side, What it is pet he said we are expecting a few more lads from the ship but there is one who thinks the war is still on, So plz excuse him if he is dressed a little unusual, About an hour later the mate walks in Bloody big fried egg on his cap in Khaki shirt Khaki shorts black polished shoes and long black socks up past his knees, The look on the barmaids face was one you would never forget, He resembled a Jap Sniper, We got him sozzled and later told him, He laughed his head off. One good sort you never came across his type every trip. Terry

[John Arton]

My school years started in a small village school, 30 pupils and one teacher and enjoyed every moment of it except for the warm pasteurised milk. On passing 11 plus I then went onto an all boys grammar school where a number of the teachers would nowadays be classed as sociapaths, one an ex army sergeant major used to use his swagger stick to jab you in the stomach with if you so much as whispered in class and the maths teacher would use anything that came to hand to throw at you from across the room and hit you on the head. The head teacher was Welsh and took the view that bullying was o.k as it toughened you up.
Then at 14 it all changed when the local education authority decided to build a brand new secondary comprehensive school, amalgamating my boys grammar, the girls local grammar and another local mixed grammar school. So all of a sudden us boys grammar school lads found ourselves sharing classes with girls in short skirts who were intent on teasing us with knicker flashes, almost ruined my education but managed to escape there clutches, reluctantly, and came out with 6 O levels and a month after leaving school found myself lugging Greenberg supplyied suitcase up the gangway of the Lord Mount Stephen crude oil tanker at Tranmere oil jetty as a first trip cadet with the Canadian Pacific and that's when my education really started.
Rgds
J.A.

[Keith Tindell]

I think we were all doing ok John A, until we discovered women. My friends son was really brilliant at golf, he was 11years old, and playing off of 5 handicap , then he discovered women, and that was it, the golf clubs rusting in the garage.

[Fouro]

I think we were all doing ok John A, until we discovered women. My friends son was really brilliant at golf, he was 11years old, and playing off of 5 handicap , then he discovered women, and that was it, the golf clubs rusting in the garage.

One thing for sure Keith, you friend's son would never have been satisfied with the pleasure of getting a hole in one.

Fouro.