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Shaky Fan
Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:32 pm Post subject: Back To School |
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What a strange evening I've just had!
Due to falling numbers the 4 primary schools in our town are closing and being replaced by 2 brand new ones. Tonight the one I attended opened its doors to pupils and parents, past & present and so I headed up there earlier for the first time since I left in June 1981. It was so strange - the place seems to have shrunk in the last 26 years, it couldn't possibly be that I have grown could it? There was a huge display of photos in the assembly hall including several of those ones that we had taken every year were a photographer would come in and take individual photos of each pupil and they could then be bought. Frighteningly I spotted my younger brother almost immediately and horror of horrors my own was just across from it. What was most scary was that we were amongst the group of photos that were in black and white
It was also weird walking through the classrooms that I spent so much time in during the 70's and wondering how we all fitted into such small rooms!
Despite the large turnout I didn't se any of my old classmates - though they may have been there and I just didn't recognise them. There was one person who insisted he knew me but as I told him "if there was a large fat bald guy with a beard in my class I think I would remember him!"
Anyone else been back to their old school? |
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SantaFefan
Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 11258 Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:42 pm Post subject: |
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Yes I had a similar experience back in the early 80's when my band hired our old school assembly hall for evening rehearsals.
Like you, I was amazed at how small everything seemed , especially how low the rows of coat hooks and wash basins were!
I hadn't been there since 1968.
Good memories though, lots of sixties songs remind me of specific areas of my old school, particularly Beatle songs.
I enjoyed my school days.
Last edited by SantaFefan on Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:30 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Shaky Fan
Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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I still can't get over the size of the classrooms! I took little video clips on my digital camera so I'll have to take another look. It was also difficult trying to work out which classes were in each room. The P1 & P2 classrooms were easy to work out but the next couple of years weren't so easy. Though now I think about it we were probably in mobile classrooms at the time! One terrible shock was realising that my P1 classroom had been demolished Mind you another couple of weeks and the rest will be going the same way! |
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Ian Robinson Site Admin
Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 3609 Location: Chorley, Lancashire
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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I regularly show films in a Primary School and I'm always taken aback by how low everything is. You have to bend down to read the top bookshelf, and as for a trip to the loo - it could do my back in!
When I lasted visited my old High School, they'd really extended it: build a balcony in the Hall, added a few classrooms... Still smelt the same though! |
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Behind Geddon's Wall
Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 1553 Location: Kingston Upon Hull/ The Cloud Factory
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:00 am Post subject: |
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My old High school has been razed to the ground. No it wasn't me. _________________ Geddon
You simply mustn't blame yourself -- the days were perfect
And so were exactly what I was born to spoil
For I am the Rider to the World's End
Bound across the cinder causeway
From the furnace to the quarry
Through the fields of oil |
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SantaFefan
Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 11258 Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:36 am Post subject: |
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We had separate playgrounds for boys and girls, free milk and assembly first thing singing hymns with the head reading from the Bible.
( There is a green far away.. was always a favourite of mine... )
The teachers were Sir or Maam and they all wore suit & tie.
Those were the days. |
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SantaFefan
Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 11258 Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:38 am Post subject: |
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...and we had a massive playing field. It's covered in crappy houses now. |
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iwarburton
Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:51 am Post subject: |
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I went back for an evening in 1999, 32 years after leaving.
Much better facilities but a much less rural setting.
Ian. |
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Behind Geddon's Wall
Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 1553 Location: Kingston Upon Hull/ The Cloud Factory
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 12:14 pm Post subject: |
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Part of my old school playing field now houses a supr league Rugby league side. _________________ Geddon
You simply mustn't blame yourself -- the days were perfect
And so were exactly what I was born to spoil
For I am the Rider to the World's End
Bound across the cinder causeway
From the furnace to the quarry
Through the fields of oil |
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SantaFefan
Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 11258 Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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We had a well equipped metalwork room including a couple of lathes, drill presses etc plus, we could also be blacksmiths and forge metal on the anvil, and a woodwork room! I can still remember the smell of the hot glue pot on it's gas burner ring...
don't suppose it's allowed now? |
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iwarburton
Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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One of our teachers was renovating an old house and boys of 12/13 or so used to go over at the weekends and assist him with labouring.
In those days (early 60s), nobody thought anything of it.
Today there would be objections on grounds of health and safety, child protection and goodness knows what else.
Ian. |
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SantaFefan
Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 11258 Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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Plus they'd want a taxi back and forth and £50 an hour pocket money.. |
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