Canny lass

I recognise a few faces and names in the second picture! YMCA members.

Thanks eggy. I'll get in touch with them.

Thanks Eggy. Nice article. See if you can get your hands on the poppy knitting pattern for me.

In some ways, yes. I don't think it was written by my friend. I think it's just something that's doing the rounds in the states. ... and I do love a Starbucks so I'm sure it was meant to amuse me. This one's doing the rounds in Britain and can be purchased printed on a T-shirt from Redbubble.com (artist, Dru Marland)

Received today from a friend in The USA: The unthinkable happened and enough idiots and extremists voted into office a buffoon who couldn't be trusted with a Twitter account. America has lost any last shred of moral authority it might have had. The rest of the world now must go forward knowing it cannot count on America for anything, least of all leadership. The portents are alarming, tax cuts for the rich at the expense of cuts to healthcare, Social Security, women's health and welfare, social and religious persecution, persecution of minorities, black people, colored people, anybody who doesn't conform to the Trump vision of the American Master Race. Deregulation of everything, free rein for dirty energy, protected lands to be turned over to private industry etc., etc. Hate crimes are already surging. Those of you in the civilised world please do what you can to show the Trump administration your disapproval. At least stop eating hamburgers and going to Starbucks. The Resistance.

I watched a TV documentary about Cohen a couple of years ago. He lived as a monk for 5 years but left the order as during his time there he dicovered that he wasn't religious!

... because it's a drinking fountain, perhaps?

Lovely! If this is going to be a regular display i wouldn't mind knitting/crocheting/sewing a few poppies.

Spot on! Alan Stappard it was, but i can't recall him ever being called Harry. Lovely film, damian. Brought back many memories to a 'Third streeter'.

A man and a woman are sitting in a pub discussing their forthcoming marriage. They have been ‘saving themselves’ for each other and have never seen each other naked. The woman doesn’t want any unpleasant surprises – for either of them – on the wedding night so she says to her intended, “I’m as flat as a pancake up top”. “That’s OK”, he replies, “I’m equipped like a new born baby down below”. The wedding night arrives and both undress, somewhat nervously. The woman removes her bra and says, “See, I’m as flat as a pancake”. The man removes his underpants and the woman faints. After a couple of minutes she rallies round and says, “You swine! You told me you were equipped like a new born baby”. “Exactly”, says the man, “47 centimetres long, 3.865 gram”.

You must remember his maps. HPW! They were massive! Roman Empire behind his desk, to the left of the blackboard. WW2's Europe on the back wall together with one other - long since forgotten (may have been Viking Britain). They were real works of art. Did he insist that you wrote everything in italics? We had to.

HPW, now I'm confused. Are we talking about the same picture? I'm referring to the photo 11 posts before this one and labelled "WESTRIDGE - UPPER REMOVE - SUMMER 1960". That date, I think, is correct. It fits in perfectly with my time at Westridge and Robert Cross as head boy.

I just had a lovely mental picture of Mr. Abrahart doing just that! I wonder what he would have painted on his classroom wall? Can you remeber those lovely maps he had hand-painted around his classroom?

Could this be a group photo of the prefects together with the head boy and the head girl? That would account for the different ages. As for 'remove classes' I vaguely remember Mr. Hemming visiting Junior Remove, within the first few days of my starting at Westridge, and explaining to us that it was a class which - if they worked hard - would be allowed an extra year of study in which to obtain GCE O-levels. At that time, the standard, compulsory secondary education lead to the Northern Counties Certificate of Secondary Education. Like the public schools he wanted "good achievers" to have a second chance and be able to obtain - by way of an extra year's work - the same level of examination success (O-levels) as pupils in the Grammar school. I don't know if it was his idea or if it was something happening in all secondary schools at that time.

I thought nr 16 might be the head girl. I remember the head girl as always having a 'sash' like the one she's wearing. She's also wearing the school tie which makes me think she's a pupil rather than a teacher. Just a thought. Number 11 reminds me of George Mitcheson. Would that name ring a bell, HPW?

Thanks HPW. You don't get this in history books!

We are very lucky to have access to HPW and his knowledge. A veritable 'mine' of information.

Now where have i heard something like that before? ....... Ah, yes ... i think it was the leek show at Netherton Colliery.

A million thanks HPW! A very vivid and easy to understand description of what it must have been like for my relative in 1913. Knowing what miners endured makes me very proud to come from a family of miners who, when you think back on it, were at the very heart of the industrial revolution in Britain. Without them where would we be today. Hats off to each and everyone of them! PS your decription of the pit 'netties' left me gasping for breath!

Happy thanksgiving to you too, Vic! Have you got snow? We had our first in September but it didn't stay long. Lake temp. down to 13 degrees now. That's my limit for swimming this year.

It's all this new-fangled technology, Eggy! It was much better with photo albums and sticky tape.

Two working class lads were invited by an upper class gent to swim in his private pool. While they were changing into their swimming gear one said to the other: “Did you notice how small the private parts of the rich are?” “”Yes!, said the other, “ but it’s probably because they had toys to play with when they were kids.”

That's my knuckles well and truly rapped! You know it was appreciated.

I'm amazed that Foxy hasn't got this going already! Never leave anything to a man! Happy birthday 4G!