Stumble it!A bad lot!
12 Comments“Bye mum!” we all called out, as we clambered out the door. “Cheerio” called mum. We made our way to the train station and boarded the train that would take us to school. We reached our destination, piled off the train and out of the station. It was a normal school day and we hurried along, not wanting to be late. It was the familiar walk through the Pentonville Prison grounds, past the brewery and into the school. We made our way to the cloakroom and hung our coats up before entering the assembly hall.
The morning assembly was absolutely packed. The whole school attended, daily, including all the teachers and staff. The headmaster got up to address the school, as he always did. He came up to the microphone. “I want the Leach’s to stay behind after assembly” he said, and continued with his announcements. My heart jumped as I heard our name. What ever could it be about.
By this time there was probably three or four of us girls in that school. We dutifully stayed behind, not knowing what awaited us, and feeling quite nervous. The headmaster came across with an even more tight lipped expression than was usual. “I have received a complaint from the stationmaster” he said. “Somebody has been writing vulgar things, and swearwords all over the toilet walls, at the train station, and as you use that station, I have decided it must be you.” Without even allowing us to speak, he promptly walked to his office and came back brandishing a long bamboo cane. We prepared ourselves for what was about to come. “Hold out your hands” He lifted the cane high and brought it down swiftly and forcibly on our outstretched hands. ‘Thwack’, ‘thwack’, ‘thwack’…….. Two swipes each! With our hands throbbing and stinging, we walked to our respective classes to start the days lessons. Holding a pen was not easy.
My mum and dad were good honest people who taught us all good manners and made sure we knew right from wrong. They were not drinkers and they never used bad language, which obviously meant we didn’t either. Dad was hard working and mum was a stay at home mum, who spent time with her children. All in all, we were a decent family, with decent values.
Horror of horrors! Mum and dad had seven children! I hear you saying “The Waltons” Well it was a bit like the Waltons without sugar.
In those days, if you had lots of children it was assumed that they were trouble makers, thieves, would have behaved like thugs and generally be a bad lot. So that was our label with the teachers at school. Unlike schools today, in the 1950’s teachers didn’t get to know their pupils, therefore we, of course, were a bad lot and guilty of all the wrong doing by others. We got used to it.
What treasure hunt?
14 Comments
I’m getting carried away with this doodling now!Names have been changed to protect the not so innocent.
Every year we go on a local Treasure hunt, and every year we lose abysmally. The first because we had only recently moved from Kent and got hopelessly lost on the moors. Another year, because we didn’t know the rules and took all the landmarks, for which we were disqualified for cheating. Yet another year we were following another car around thinking we must have been on the right track, only to find out that they were hopelessly lost!
Last year we followed our usual pattern. It went something like this…..
Mo and I had Pat and Roger with us.
Roger: in charge of the map – Roger who is notorious for saying “Take a left” when he actually means take a right!
Pat: in charge of the sheet of clues – Pat who is notorious for having the ability to cover ten subjects in one sentence, without actually ever finishing the sentence!
Mo: in charge of driving – Mo who can, and often needed to, spin the car on a sixpence.
Me: In charge of trying to decipher what Pam was saying. Not an easy task, trying to weed out bits of the clue amongst the several different subjects, and shouts of “Roger, what are you doing!” and “No Roger, that’s wrong!”
The story starts.
We started off, map and clues in hand and drove off to the first point, answered the clue and promptly drove to point 2. This was going to be a doddle. Two clues down and going well. We set off to number 3 on the map. We soon realized it was the same place as point No.1. We had to drive all the way back again. Now, at this point the map and list of clues were firmly grasped by Pat and Roger and we were never to see them again.
We got to point No 3 to find other cars on the hunt there also, so we had made good time…. until then. The other cars all left, one by one, and we were still there. I said “Lets go, we can always look at that clue later, but we may not need to anyway.” This was a ‘crossword’ type treasure hunt that led to three car parts, so one missed answer wouldn’t be a problem. Pat would not give up and continued to dither around (like only Pat can) for another five minutes. Now we were playing catch up – or were we?
Point No 4 on the map was – you’ve guessed it – where point No 2 was. Back we drove again. “Take a left turn here” said Roger, Mo turned …. “NO!” said Pat “You should have turned right. Oh Roger, get it right!” “Oh yes, sorry” said Roger. “What’s the next clue” says I. “Erm …… Rog-e-errrrr, mind where you put your feet”. “Why? I’m nowhere near you”. Next CLUE Pat”. “Erm ……. Roger!!! You’re reading the map wrong!” “I’m NOT!” “You are, you always get it wrong”. “NEXT CLUE PAT!” “Where’s my bag? ROGER where’s my bag? …… oh, it’s under the seat.” “Next clue please.” By this time we had reached point No 4 and Pat and Roger promptly got out of the car clutching the clues – me sitting there, in a state of bewilderment and still none the wiser as to the clue!
Back in the car now for map point 5 and off we went “Take a right here” (Mo) “Where are we going?” “Rog-e-errrrr this isn’t right!” “Errr, well I thought it would lead somewhere else” says Roger (Mo) I’ll have to turn round and go back then.” Suddenly sounding very stressed now, Pat says….”I’ve had enough of this, you’re not doing it right” and the sheet of clues go flying across the car. Mo and I stifle our giggles, Roger says, “It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part” – Silence for a while, then….. “Where’s the clues? Rog-e-errrr, where are they? You’ve got your feet all over them! Give them here!” …. “Take a right just up there Mo”…..
Some time later and many more “Rog-e-errrr’s” we drove past the starting point, for the umpteenth time, and noted that all the cars were back! “Do we have anything filled in the crossword yet?” says I. “It doesn’t fit” says Pat. “Roger! You told me the wrong number and I’ve put it in all wrong now!” “At least we showed our faces” says Roger. It’s not the winning” …….. “Shall we go for a pint” says Mo. “Good idea” says Roger. “Where’s the next map point?” says Pat. This continued, and would have done all night, if we hadn’t suggested we call it a night and go back.
We walked in to loud applause and lots of laughter. Everybody had finished, handed in their answers and were drinking their hot chocolate. It seemed that it was no surprise that we came in last. I wonder why ;O)
It was a great night. Mo and I just gave up any thoughts of even finishing the hunt, let alone winning it! We were left with lots of very funny memories of the evening, and we do love Pat and Roger dearly.
It would be nice to stand a chance of winning the next one but then again, as Roger said “It’s not the winning”…..
New look
13 CommentsI have been hard at work re-designing two of my blogs. Everything imaginable has gone wrong regarding Blogger compatibility, but here is my new look ‘beetle’ blog. I decided to use my ‘doodle’ as it was suggested that it would make a good avatar by both drowsey monkey and Liudmila. Hope you like it. I’m not sure what I think after all the changes I had to do to it, in order for it to work.
Feedback would be appreciated – even if you hate it.
Major Entrecard Updates
10 CommentsEntrecard have some major updates.
A feature I, along with many others, requested was to allow more than one blog per account. I am thrilled to see their new ‘Linked Sites’ feature that allows you to link all your blogs in one account – existing or new blogs. With a simple click you can switch from one to another, send credits or advertise with ease.
If you add another blog to your account, you stand a chance of winning 15,000 credits. Entrecard will randomly select a winner from the following groups: 2-5 blogs in account , 5-10 blogs in account, 10-15 blogs in account, 15-20 blogs in account 20-25 blogs in account.
ENTRECARD OFFICIAL EBOOK
Entrecard’s has produced a free ebook that you can download here If you’re new to Entrecard, or a more advanced user, it’s a great guide and well worth the download.
There are other very useful updates. In ‘Campaign’, when you mouse over an image you get two choices – ‘visit profile’ or ‘visit site’. This saves an awful lot of time. Also on the ‘Inbox Drops’ page, all the cards dropped on you are separated by date, making it so much easier to know who dropped and when.
I have found that this update makes life much easier for me.
One last thing, anyone who writes a post linking to the ebook and mentioning the ‘Add New Blog’ feature get 2000 credits! Can’t be bad :O)
Photo Hunt – Candy
9 CommentsThis weeks Photo Hunt is ‘Candy’. As it was a very last minute decision to do one, I decided to go for Candy Stripes (of a sort).
Ironing board cover.
My iPhone case
Vase
Doodle You – Beetle
13 CommentsIt’s doodle week, check it out here, and I’m just joining in the fun. It bares no resemblance to me – except maybe the personality :O)
Nauseating aromas
14 CommentsI left the station and walked towards Pentonville Prison. I turned into the prison forecourt, with it’s large studded, metal doors, that had guards posted either side. This was the prison where some of our notorious criminals were hung. In fact, I remember the last person to be hung there. The prison grounds were shut to the public that day. I walked through the grounds, out the other side and crossed over the road.
Pentonville Prison, where some of our most notorious prisoners were held.
The strong aroma of beer, and what I know now to be yeast, hung in the air, and was getting stronger as I walked towards my destination. I entered Brewery Road. On the one side of the road was the offending brewery. I entered the building facing it, on the other side of the road.
Lunchtime arrived, and I decided to go to the park with a group of friends. We crossed the road, passed by the brewery and rounded the corner. Now a really bad aroma filled the air. Not beer any longer, this was the smell of blood!
As we made our way up the road towards the park, the smell was getting nauseatingly stronger. We passed a group of men sitting on a wall. They were wearing white overalls that were covered in blood, and eating sandwiches. They made all the usual noises, of young men trying to act macho. We, on the other hand, were holding our hands over our faces in the hopes of not breathing in the horrible smell of blood. This made them chant all the more.
Finally we had passed by this awful building, this ’slaughter house’, as it was called. This is where they slaughtered cows. Often I had seen cows being herded down this road. The cows, with the smell of blood in the air, knew they were on their way to death. I hated it.
Finally we were at the park and able to breath in, the hopefully, cleaner air. Not that any air was particularly clean in London.
Our lunch break over, we retraced our footsteps past the slaughter house, past the brewery and back to school for afternoon lessons.
I had taken all this in my stride as a child, and only now see the strangeness of having a school on top of a prison, a brewery and worst of all, a slaughter house! This was a building that housed two schools from ages 5 to 15 years.
I checked Brewery Road on Google maps and the school, although known by a different name, is still there. The prison is still there, but I wonder about the brewery. The slaughter house, obviously no longer exists. In fact I’m amazed that they ever slaughtered cows in the city of London.
Another little glimpse into 1950’s London.
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