keith lockey

Happy birthday, Merc'. All the best and have a good one.

Yeah, that struck me, too, Merc'! You would have thought the journalist who posted that would have been a mite curious as well. He / she let that one slip by. AAHH, of course, how could we have not seen it sooner. The Lady of the North earthworks strongly resembles the face on Mars. It's obvious why the MOD are taking an interest. They are preparing Nedderton (& Bedlington) for the Martian invasion and don't want any wind turbines getting in the way of their jet fighters The scoundrel who designed Northumberlandia has set up a beacon, like the Nazca Lines, for the Martian Motherships to home in on. Fill the sandbags, Merc', barricade the streets; rally at the Red Lion and fill your souls with Dutch courage. The invasion is imminent.

Anglo-Saxon dictionary = Baedling, [baed or bed a bed, ling from linigan to lie] 1. A delicate fellow, tenderling, one who lies much in bed; homo delicatus. Baedlingas effeminate…. 2. A carrier of letters, as if derived from baed a prayer, or command, ling from linigan or lingan to lie, lie under, tend,, bring; tabellarius If you then check out 'delicatus' we find the Bedlington males are Slaves that enjoy servicing both Master and Mistress. So is that why I dress up in women's clothes on a Friday night, Eggy?

I actually just heard of this via this site (I got rid of my Telly three years ago in disgust at the crap they were expecting licence payers to watch.) So at first I thought it was a joke!!! I watched the video and couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. How can people in authority - the vet and the manager of the zoo - be so callous and arrogant and I hasten to add ignorant. I hope they slip on a pile of giraffe dung and fall into the lion's enclosure. If not I'll be happy to lend a hand.

The dates don't match on my way of thinking, here, but could the BIR stand for Bedlington Ironworks Reserves???

Sorry Reedy with the mix up with whose photo it was. I wish I could help with naming the people but I wasn't born when those were taken. Eggy, I know when I was at the Whitley in the 60s we used to play at what is now the Terrier's ground, that's why I still think those houses in the background are Haig Road.

This might help with that last 'YMCA' photo. It's one of Foxy's again, I believe. It shows the Whitley School but look above it to the top right to the football field and then the houses beyond. They look similar.

It's not Burnside, is it Eggy? Keith 1 would be able to tell us. Someone give him a knock on the head with a sledgehammer.

I'm trying to place the houses on that second photo - is it Haig Road? Were they playing at the Terrier's ground?

Same here, Reedy, but early 70s. Me, Jim Hunter & Jimmy Mitchell went into the Terrier on a dare. The two Jim's were tall and older looking and I was small and looked like an angel descended from on high, honest! The proverbial piano player stopped playing and all eyes stared in amazement as I asked for a pint of shandy. Vic Cowell snr served me and to make matters worse my brother and his mates were all sitting at the back. You could add an H to sitting when they saw me enter because they knew I was under age. But prior to that we used to put our pocket-money together and go to the hatchway at the Bank Top and get a can of Tartan. Vile stuff and I never touched it again.

I wonder if it could be the same ball with different dates painted on. Here's one from 1967-68 with Matty Hall in the background and Neil Watson holding the ball. (Still can't work out how he was at that school!!!) PS. (A) Derek Wilkinson is sitting to Neil Watson's right. It can't be the same one as Reedy's! Not unless he has discovered the elixir of life! But there is a remarkable resemblance

The brickwork on that photo actually looks like the Whitley! Could the 'seniors' have played from there? PS, photo not mine, I think it's Foxy's.

I think every household had a sideboard with one drawer dedicated to bits and bobs and buttons. I know we did; there would be dufflecoat toggles, brass buttons, brooches, WWII medals and who knows what else. We also had shrapnel from a German fighter that came down at the Bedlington brick kiln. (At least that's what me and my bro were told) Now with me it's books. I hoard books, hundreds of them, mainly for nostalgia. They remind me of times gone by and I am loathe to part with them, every book takes me back to a certain time - the same as my vinyl records. When I pop my clogs someone is going to get a treasure trove of non-fiction and fiction books and 60s - 70s LPs.

Ditto.

I've been reading all this recycling stuff with interest especially this bit from Vic... Some towns here have one Sunday a month when you haul useful stuff to the curb and people cruise around and you take anything you can use, then you put back anything not taken! cheap recycling! Without getting of topic, has anybody considered a swap-shop on this Forum? For example books - I'm after Resurrection by W. A. Harbinson - has anybody got it and maybe I have a book I can swap it with. Just a thought!

Me and my brother, especially my brother, had an extensive collection of Subbutteo teams, etc. You should see the price they are asking for them on ebay - some were in the hundreds of pounds, especially in Japan.

With me it was cards; Thunderbirds, Batman & Robin, American Civil War; WWII, and these lot below, the Tarzan collection. I had this complete set. http://www.erbzine.com/comics/banner10.html

Then there was The Good Old Days with Leonard Sachs - but when that came on me and my bro went into the other room and played Subbutteo.

How many people remember their Sundays? Here's a basic rundown of our house in the 1960s. Bread and dripping for breakfast. Listen to the Clitheroe Kid on the wireless. Jam tarts and chocolate cake freshly baked by my mam and gran. Sing Something Simple on the Wireless. Black and White Minstrels on the telly. Roger Moore in The Saint. (Black and white then in colour) Beans and fried tetties for our supper. A bath with Mister Matey bubbles then off to bed. (In the winter going to bed comprised of a pair of socks, hot water bottle and ten blankets on top of you. If you didn't freeze to death overnight you went to school on Monday morning.

The one smell I don't miss is the soot from those coal fires - after the chimney sweep had been. Then he'd bury it in the garden and you would dig it up months later and get the same smell!!!

I often wondered about that cowbell around her neck! But she had lovely eyes and long eyelashes. Here's another smell I remember - OXO Chipmunk crisps sold at Strakers at the Oval shops.

FOUR SMELLS WITH ME. 1) The pages of musty old books takes me right back to the Station Library where I used to get my Hardy Boys books. 2) Fish and chips always reminds me of the Wallaw - we used to come out of there and go to Wales' chip shop for our supper. 3) Aniseed reminds me of the Domino / Lucy's where I used to drink Pernod. 4) Fresh cut grass always reminds me of a girl I fell in love with during the summer. All these smells are like a time-tunnel to me.

Happy birthday, all the very best to you.

Can anyone remember who taught Technical Drawing at the Woody School - 1969-70s. I have my own idea but I'll reserve it until someone answers.

Thanks Symptoms. I will tell my friend about the PVA problem tonight.