CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

[Tripps]

Not sure where to put this - or even whether to post it at all, but it fascinated me.

Imagine an orchestra composed only of fifteen double bass players - count them - and dressed in a most inappropriate manner, involving extreme 'cultural appropriation'. On a day when Mrs May has been criticised just for wearing a top with an African design on it - it emphasises how far we have come in the direction of political correctness. What would the 'snowflake generation make of this - might it even be categorised as a 'hate crime' ?

Enjoy - as they say - and bravo to Albert W. Ketèlbey

In a Persian Iranian Market Place

PS just noticed that the two women musicians are wearing the niqab which was once known as a yashmak, but shamelessly showing their uncovered arms.

[Stanley]

Quite weird..... The opening phrases of that piece was the music used by Wilson, Keppel and Betty for their sand dance. Pity some miracle couldn't have put them doing their act at the front of the orchestra.....

[Tripps]

The opening phrases of that piece was the music used by Wilson, Keppel and Betty for their sand dance.

You're right - Here's what must surely be their full repertoire. Wilson Keppel & Betty

[Stanley]

That brought back memories of seeing them live at the Stockport Palladium during the war...... God I must be old! Also saw Lucan McShane and Betty doing the 'Old Mother Riley' sketch there. Oh and add Norman Evans doing the original 'Over the Garden wall' sketch.
On an oddly related note, there was a statue of Sir Robert Peel outside the theatre......

[Stanley]

When I was about 16 I was a typical gauche teenager. We used to go out as a gang trying to be big men and part of that was daring to go into town centre pubs for a beer. I can never remember us being refused and some of the pubs were dives. I remember being in one one night wearing my dad's trilby and a bloke said "If you can't fight wear a big hat". It cut me to the quick and I have never forgotten it. Ah..... youth. Painful stuff and we all had to negotiate a path through it!

[Stanley]

I can remember when things were tight I used to borrow a pair of my dad's shoes to go out in. They were a bit big but comfortable. How many of us occasionally 'borrowed' bits of our parent's clothes?

[Stanley]

I was lucky enough to get a place in the Grammar School. This would have been great except for the fact that for three words I was bullied by one lad in particular. God knows why, I never gave him any occasion but he seemed to fall into the habit. I often wonder what became of him. At one time when I was in my pomp I always said that if ever I met him I would just drop him. Today my attitude is different, I would simply ignore him......

[Cathy]

Not clothes but I remember putting on a wedding ring (I think our Mothers) when I was 7 years old, and then found that it wouldn't come off. Our Great Uncle Harold had to get it off using a file. I still have a tiny feint scar.

[Stanley]

That must have been a panicky moment Cathy! I can just see you using the butter and the soap to try to get it off.

[Stanley]

I remember taking my working alarm clock to bits to see how it worked, problem was when I put it back together it was dead!

[Cathy]

Spring has sprung here and so have the sour-sobs
. Speaking to a lady the other day, she was saying that a new friend of hers (from England) picks them and puts them in vases. The new friend says that there aren't many sour-sobs in England and she thinks they are pretty. I think they are too but over here we class them as a weed and pull them as quickly as possible.
I remember as a small child of 7 and fresh from England, we would sometimes eat them.

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[Marilyn]

Used to eat the stalk, not the leaves or flowers...until someone told me that dogs piddled on them. I still ate them after that, but was a little more discerning of where I sourced them.

[Stanley]

Sour sobs? Never heard of them..... I looked them up on Wikipedia..... LINK, interesting, I knew nothing about them.

[Stanley]

Remember 'bread and cheese' off the thorn trees? I could never taste it myself.....

[Stanley]

My first day at school...... Like everyone else at 4 years of age I was frightened but soon got into the swing of it! I can still remember my mother on the other side of the railings on that first day as I kept as close to her as I could for as long as possible......

[Cathy]

I don't remember my actual first day at School but I remember a few things from spending my first year of schooling at Rainhall Rd.
What I do remember is meeting my daughters first Headmaster and some of the other Mums. We all had children starting year 1. It was really just an informal chat and a bit of a tour of the school. My daughter had already attended Kindy on the premises for a year. But at the meeting it hit me, this is big school, a huge change. Everyone else was happy, chatty, calm and I just had tears falling - no sobbing or catching my breath etc , just quiet tears - and I'm sure no-one else noticed. It was a weird experience.
My daughter was very ready for school and all went well. Over her first few years there I
helped out with listening to the kid's reading, crafts, the tuck shop, baking and a few excursions. (I wouldn't recommend the last two, quite stressful). It was a good little school of only 300 students, up to year 7 and I only had 1 complaint against them in all that time.

Then came High School, 2000 students... omg, a whole other phase.

[Stanley]

"Then came High School, 2000 students... omg, a whole other phase." That rings a bell Cathy..... The Grammar school was a shock! It was still working on the 19th century model, masters in mortar boards and gowns and because of the war, old teachers from the 20s and 30s. It took a bit of getting used to!

[Tizer]

I remember when I started at the infants school we had to hang our coats in the cloakroom and we each had a hook with a picture so we could remember which was ours. I had an umbrella. Shortly after that I was out of school - struck down with whooping cough. I think it was the following year before I got back after all the quarantine.

[Marilyn]

You had an umbrella? In infants school?
I don't think I owned an umbrella until I was in my thirties!!!!

[Wendyf]

The picture on his coat hook was an umbrella!

[Marilyn]

Plaques...you must have been privileged to own an umbrella in infant school... ( I mean...that's like owning a minature pony or something)

[plaques]

Not me Marilyn, Never owned an umbrella until Pound Land started selling them. Why we that poor that.........

[Marilyn]

Sorry!. Got the wrong lad! Whoops...
Tizzy..it was you!

[Tizer]

Wot, me? No, I didn't have an umbrella at school. Cathy's right, the picture against my coat hook was a brolly so I'd more easily remember which was my hook. You misread me...or more likely I misled you.

[Wendyf]

It wasn't Cathy, it was me wot said that!! Concentrate children!