Westridge - End of term class photos

[bluebarby]

Degenerate the discussion? There is nothing wrong whatsoever with being a pit yakka, there were quite a few  in my family and I was bred from them! I even played for a football team in the early 60's called the Yakkas. Nowt rang wi that. 

Anyway I agree with you,  No1 is Ted Smout, I just couldn't remember his name. Rocky Thornton died a couple of years ago. 

BB 

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Heh heh!

Cheers BB!,that's a big chinkaplonka!

A was a bit hackley there,cos when a came oot thi pits,a worked wi yungings in factories who had nivvor done a hard days work in tha lives,and when they started wi thi yakka stuff....a had ti .....quiet them doon a bit.cos it wasn't banter...it was slaaver!![even a shop-floor forman tried it on,he was a toonie,and a quietened him doon an aal,he tuk thi huff for a a day or two,then we were aal reet after that.]

As a said,me skins like bell metal,nowt,and a mean nowt,offends me personally,but a respect aal the aad ones..[and a lot of young ones] who died doon the pits,

including close friends.....

Friendly banter is wat kept us gaanin doon the stinking black holes we worked in,comradeship second to none!

Just ti clear a point up,a was thinking t'otha neet,oot wi Little Black Jess,[me partner in crime!],aboot Choppington High Pit,the Power Loading Agreement wasn't in place,when aa worked there,they were still on piecework-bargain systems,where the men put in tenders for cutting,drilling ,hand-filling,stonework,etc.

Ye wud gaan inti the pit-baths on a Friday afternoon,and see the coalfiller's spokesman,laying oot piles of pound-notes in little heaps,in a line!!

They wud be laying oot each of thier marra's pay,from the bulk payment they collected from the pay-office.

Can ye imagine that happening noo?!

Aa was on a contract system at eighteen years aad,nearly nineteen,humping heavy-section steel girders in to the the whole pit,every roadway,along with the lad who nicknamed me Wilma,[Kieth Cooney...deceased..R.I.P. Kieth..which will be difficult as lang as HPW is knocking aboot.....nivvor a day gaans by withoot ye being taaked aboot,in the aad days!]

Back ti Westridge,a saw Derek Wales at the weekend,in Rothbury,with he's Wife,also an old neighbour/friend,who a haven't seen virtually since we both left school,in 1959.

 It was a pleasure on both sides to see each other again,as we were brought up together from the infant school days,and played together.

I mentioned the discussion we are having here,and he said straight out he started in 1956!...and his Wife spoke up also in agreement,cos she started a year or two later,but they grew up together also in my neighbourhood,and remembered clearly,when he left the Whitley!!

Until I can access my school reports and other documents,which have been boxed up since moving here in 2000,in the dark loft,alang wi the xmas tree stuff and countless other items of stuff stored there!!!......aam thinking we'll hae ti put it on hold!

A think aav even got the programme booklet for Julius Caesar in there as well,that wud be interesting ti lay hands on,wi the full cast on,and names aav forgotten!

A said before, that Lynne Hayes played Portia,but after brain-searching,it came to that it was Calpurnia that she played,cos a can see her noo,plain as day,telling Caesar how ,in her bad dream,that.."Ghosts did shriek and squeal about the night..".etc etc.

Bobby Cross had the hairs on us other cast members' heads,prickling on the back of our necks,and he had a very rousing standing ovation,rightly deserved,he was better than the Marlon Brando clip which I have seen on u-tube,and which,to me,was pretty bland and his eyes display the fact he is reading off a script-prompter!!

I'm referring to his assassination,and burial speeches in particular,he made the audience sit up and take notice,when he screamed out...."Cry HAVOC!..and let slip the dogs of war....."....etc.

It was funny,later on,when he was shotfirer in "The Stars Look Down",on the telly,the men had told the Pit-owner that there was water in old workings that they were driving towards,and he ignored their warnings.

Bobby fired the shots and a disaster happened...they were all killed,in a roof fall,and inrush of water!

His Dad was an Overman at Choppington High Pit,at the time,in the early 1960's,and I always used to be asking how Bobby was getting on.

The day after that episode,I saw old Bobby,down the pit,and remarked how good Bobby had acted his part.

Old Bobby,replied..."Aa divvent knaa aboot that,cos he fired one bliddy shot and closed the bliddy place!!!"

Old Bob's kindly facial expression,as he said it,had me creasing up!!

I heard later that young Bobby had went into Journalism,which had been his ambition from aboot 11,or 12 years old,when Mr Davidson quizzed all the class individually,what ambitions they had.

I wanted to be a radio engineer,[before we all had telly's],but when it came to our final exams in 1959,HPW was near the top for all the important subjects,English,Technical drawing,Metalwork,....and rock bottom with Maths!!

The results were pinned up in the Vestibule,[.....vestibule.....wat's wrang wi bliddy "corridor"?........fancy bliddy nyems..!],anywheh,Hpw had 4% ,no kid!![which gave the bullying gang a reet hoot,with mair bullying in the following days till thi day I left!]

I had jumped from long division at the Whitley,to Algebra,Logarithms,simple and compound interest,at Westridge,with such a wide gap,it was impossible for me to catch up.

No maths,No radio engineer's job![even though radio engineers generally never use maths!,that's what test gear is for!]

So i went doon thi pit!

Incidentally,I wasn't "chosen" to go into Upper Remove,me and other friends went in voluntarily,after requesting with Mr Hemming.

He took me around all my class teachers,and they all gave me a glowing reference ,so into the Remove I went...halfway through a term syllabus,I didn't half make life difficult for myself!!

The only reason I did that,was because the Remove classes had unlimited access to the school library,with two free periods a week from lessons,called "Private study periods".

Books on Electronics were hard to get at the Station library,but they had a whack of modern[then!]books which I used to borrow constantl;y,and use my private study periods to bury my head in amongst ECC3,EL84'S,and 12ax7 valve specifications,as well as Short-wave radio circuit diagrams,formulae etc....

What a reason to subject yasell ti torture,bullying,homework,.....etc....etc!!

Aye,a was a bit clivvor,on thi one hand,and mighty stupid,on thi other....live and learn eh?!!

Maggie,aam  sorry a didn't reply to your supporting comments straight away,thanks a lot as always!!

BB,any of your escapades or memories wud be well appreciated!!

Can ye remember the Dairy farm owa thi road from the school?

We watched the whole herd of coos slowly making their way up to be milked,every day,at the same time,in a lang slow line!!

Watched one coo give birth beside the road,owa from thi school main gate,one day,caught short,cos they normally kept well away from society,when giving birth,usually at the bottom of the field,in the corner.,but aal the otha coos stood thickly aroond the mother in labour,protecting her and keeping her and the caaf warm.[caaf=calf!]......Mighty powerful is Mother Nature!

[on a closing note...I have always had a problem with "Their's"...or is it....."Thier's"?]

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Julius Caeser photo update, Nos 3,5 and 1 (but still ?) from HPWs post. Sixtownships ex Westridge pupil reckons No 13 is Winifred Brewis.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Middle Remove class photo 1959 - with names added:-

[Orloff]

HPW, with reference to your "always problem". "Their" is a belonging word, there is never an apostrophe "s" after it. However "there is" can be shortened to "there's". Easy way to remember it is that the apostrophe always replaces a letter.   

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Hi Orloff!

 Thanks for that,but that isn't the problem,I was just about top for English and grammar,and know my Apostrophe's.....it's always got me when I write "Their's"

.....or "Thier's"......it's the placing of the "i"...and "e"...it's the same when I write "Teusday",one minute it's "eu",and the next minute I am writing "ue"!

Take notice of any of my long ramblings!

I can spell words like "Antidisestablishmentarianism"...fast ,verbally,and straight off the cuff,but.."Tuesday"......!!!!!nivvor mind! ,as lang as aal these canny folk on here understand,it's not the end of the EU....[OH NO!!...Definately NOT intended!]

Eggy,B.B. agrees that no1 is Ted Smout..known him all my life,but just thought it could have been a lookalike!

Error on no5....SHOULD read "Micky Lucas"..[not Lewis]....he was the Son of the desk Sargeant at Bedlington Top-end Police Station,in the 1950's,[a real nice smashing-natured lad who was 6ft when he was 14 yrs old!].

He was  the  Soothsayer in the first production.[and a bloody good actor as well!]

I was the worst actor that ever disgraced the stage..[a better guitarist in later life but I digress!],my role in this production was one that neither the cast nor the audience ever knew of.

I was still in the Hall at ten o' clock at night most nights,along with Mr Johnson,Mr Marley,and ,Mr Freeman,as one of the technical team,wiring high voltage multi-connector plugs,wiring up lighting rig patch-leads,giving opinions,and being accepted as part of the team,as well as being called "Bill"...and not by my surname,as you were in class!!

Mr Johnson sent everything over to me during Science class lessons,that the girls used to bring down from the cookery and domestic science classes,that needed electrical repairs doing,like irons,etc

That was my enjoyment at school!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Orloff,it's clear that it didn't sink in to my brain what you have said  about "Their"...!!!

I still wrote "Their's" !....cos we say "Oh.it's their's"....don't we?...or should we not?!

Thinking about my Teachers treating me as an adult,and part of the production,and technical team,at 14yrs old,makes me think....would that happen nowadays?

Ye see,in them days,I had Mr Johnson,[War-time radio officer R.A.F.],Mr Hemming,[Headmaster,and ex-R.A.F. Met. Officer,stationed on the Shetland Islands during the war],Mr Dodds at the Whitley,[ex-Army War-time soldier],Mr Davidson[Ditto],Danny Douglas,[ex -Army P.T.instructor war-time ],among some I cannot bring to mind....

....oh!....shame on me!....Matty Hall,famous old Matty,[ex-Army soldier and boxing champion..and good singer to boot!]

NOO!,when ye have experiences from teachers like that passed on ti ye during lessons,and after school-time,in my case,it helps ti bring ye ti maturity quicker!

They were all past equivalents of H.P.W.,with all thier stories,of which I was keen to learn from!

B.B., sad to hear aboot Rocky passing away,I knew him all my life,he was a Millfielder,and a funny character!

R.I.P. Rocky  Thornton.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

23 hours ago, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

[on a closing note...I have always had a problem with "Their's"...or is it....."Thier's"?]

I have to stop every time I write, sorry type any word with an 'i' and an 'e' together, is it ie or ei. At Bedlington Grammar School everyone sat Mock GCEs (previous year's exam papers) to get an idea what they would be like. I remember the teacher saying - Edgar you passed most then we deducted 1/2 point for every spelling mistake and you failed the lot, apart from the 3 maths - Arithmetic; Algebra & Geometry.

I had gone all through the senior school indoctrinated with the phrase, that all the Barrington County Primary school teachers had repeated over and over so it became embedded into my brain - 'I before E except after C'.

So I recEIved thIEr words and carried that phrase in my little brain for years and I misspelled simple words time after time after time, and I probably still do.

. 
[on a closing note...I have never spotted a spelling mistake in any of your stories]

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

No 1 Ted Smout and No 5 now reads Lucas, not Liwes (he he).

 

[threegee]

8 hours ago, Orloff said:

HPW, with reference to your "always problem". "Their" is a belonging word, there is never an apostrophe "s" after it. However "there is" can be shortened to "there's". Easy way to remember it is that the apostrophe always replaces a letter.   

Yes, technically their and theirs are both pronouns, and you choose according to sentence make up and emphasis.

Their chair.  The chair is theirs.

Quote

pronoun

A word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g. I, you ) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g. she, it, this ).

In the chair's leg you've formed a possessive noun from chair. i.e. chair is already a noun, and not a word that refers to a noun.

If you try to apply apostrophe S to the example pronouns above ( I's; you's) it will be become clear that this makes for nonsense English (here she's and it's have entirely different meanings).

[webtrekker]

15 hours ago, Eggy1948 said:

I have to stop every time I write, sorry type any word with an 'i' and an 'e' together, is it ie or ei. At Bedlington Grammar School everyone sat Mock GCEs (previous year's exam papers) to get an idea what they would be like. I remember the teacher saying - Edgar you passed most then we deducted 1/2 point for every spelling mistake and you failed the lot, apart from the 3 maths - Arithmetic; Algebra & Geometry.

I had gone all through the senior school indoctrinated with the phrase, that all the Barrington County Primary school teachers had repeated over and over so it became embedded into my brain - 'I before E except after C'.

So I recEIved thIEr words and carried that phrase in my little brain for years and I misspelled simple words time after time after time, and I probably still do.

. 
[on a closing note...I have never spotted a spelling mistake in any of your stories]

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

 

Yes, it's always 'I before E except after C' .............. as every SCIENTIST knows! 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Middle Remove - No 14 = Pauline Pearcey.

[Canny lass]

7 hours ago, webtrekker said:

Yes, it's always 'I before E except after C' .............. as every SCIENTIST knows!

You've missed the second line of the mnemonic:

I before E except after C

but only when it sounds like EE.

OR a better way to get it right, according to me,is: 

I before E, except after C or when sounded as A as in neighbour and weigh.

The spelling is related to the sound system

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

39 minutes ago, Canny lass said:

You've missed the second line of the mnemonic:

I before E except after C

but only when it sounds like EE.

OR a better way to get it right, according to me,is: 

I before E, except after C or when sounded as A as in neighbour and weigh.

The spelling is related to the sound system

Doh!

[John Fox (foxy)]

 Canny lass,  have you not noticed the deliberate mistake with numbers 23 and 24 ?  I've just noticed it

[Canny lass]

5 minutes ago, John Fox (foxy) said:

 Canny lass,  have you not noticed the deliberate mistake with numbers 23 and 24

I looked at 23 and thought: that's the double of Eric Burns - must be a relation! I didn't spot Brian though!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Spot on,Webtrekker!

We learned the "I" before "E" bit also,Canny Lass,but not the last bit ...."Neighbour and Weigh"....mind,wor English lessons didn't gaan inti

sum of these levels that you and others are quoting!....never heard of a "Paradigm" ....for example......or a pnuemanic...or whatever it was..A wuz gud at the level of English we were taught.[ mind....ye wadn't think se'...!]

[Canny lass]

The first rule, I was taught by Miss Gair at Nedderton Village Junior School when aged about 10 years so it's not rocket science but it's amazing how many people I've talked too who were never taught the all important second line!

The second rule is one they use here when teaching English as a second language to roughly the same age group. I think it's better.

We are none of us ever too old to learn!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Now will you lot start your own topic in Chat Central - 'Eeee I never knew that'

You will have Brian to answer to if you keep drifting off the original topic!

“Et tu, Brute?”

-------------------------------- 

As for Nos 23 & 24

"Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible."

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13 hours ago, John Fox (foxy) said:

 Canny lass,  have you not noticed the deliberate mistake with numbers 23 and 24

13 hours ago Canny Lass replied

I looked at 23 and thought: that's the double of Eric Burns - must be a relation! I didn't spot Brian though!

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Updates I have to do :-

Middle Remove - No 14 = Pauline Pearcey.

                           No 25 = Yvonne Brown

Julius Caeser (aka I Brutus, or is it, Eee Brutus )

So is 23 Eric Burns (not Brian Burns) & 24 Brian Goodall (not Eric Goodall) ?

“I could be well moved, if I were as you;
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.” 

And I says :-

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; 
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him; 
The evil that men do lives after them, 
The good is oft interred with their bones”  

 

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

It's me as usual man!.....not thier falt......!!!!!

Trubble is,Eggy,aa write like a taak...gaan roond the toon ti get ti Bedltn.....![MTH..!]

Apologies to all!

.....and I am an honourable man....!

[bluebarby]

If Pauline Pearcey is No 14 on 'middle remove' then she is No 21 on Julius Wasisname.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

15 minutes ago, bluebarby said:

If Pauline Pearcey is No 14 on 'middle remove' then she is No 21 on Julius Wasisname.

Last update of the day =

Act 5, Scene 1, Page 6 :- 

“O that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come!
But it sufficeth that the day will end
And then the end is known.” 

 

[bluebarby]

1 hour ago, Eggy1948 said:

“O that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come!
But it sufficeth that the day will end
And then the end is known.” 

You have just made me realise why I much prefer D H Lawrence to Shakespeare .......................

BB

[Canny lass]

11 hours ago, Eggy1948 said:

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; 
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him; 
The evil that men do lives after them, 
The good is oft interred with their bones” 

As I said - we are none of us too old to learn! Well done!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

"The evil that men do lives after them....."

Not a truer word written....ever!

Auld Willie knew summik we didn't knaa....lukking back on British History!!