keith lockey

We have done this subject somewhere on the site........

Didn't know we elected leaders..........I thought we elected an area rep and they elected their own leaders.

To quote Voltaire..........An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Or even FDR.........Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Or Indeed...

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.

- HL Mencken

Was it not the "Dear Leader" Tony "The Tory" Blair?

Thought it was him. The trouble with politicians is that they all sound the same and make the same promises. I think there is a special farm where they breed them - like dolly the cloned sheep - then they pull out a number and it's the next one's turn. Talking of which - I don't want to get into a political argument here, but am I right in saying we have not had a properly elected government since Blair! No one voted Brown in, No one voted Cameron in - they both got in by default. So is Tony the last elected leader our fair isle has had?

Keith - I agree, there should be more funding for computer training, and not just for the older members of the community. Some kids are being left behind too, and they will need more computer skills in the workplace than ever before.

I may be wrong but are they not still being ran on an evening class basis at the local collage and high schools?

Didn't some politician say that everybody would have a computer in their homes if he was elected?

I think the college is still doing evening classes for computer training but you have to travel to Ashington, but I think the high schools pulled the plug on the computer evening classes because they were not popular but don't quote me on that as I'm not 100% sure.

Yeah Adam, I did my computer classes at the High School but I also believe they stopped them - though maybe have started them up again!!! But the Open Learning centre next to Bedlington station library does them If I am not wrong. I did my ECDL & Maintainance courses at Blyth college - NOW CLOSED!!!!! aargh!

I would Brett but the Government pulled funding for them!

We were all giving our time up free but the room and hardware had to be paid for. We did manage to get about 60 people through the complete courses!

They have done this, pulled the funding, while at the same time deciding to put everyone through online application processes.

So even more need to be computer literate I would have thought?

I even argued that I knew first-hand how ill prepared some of the older members of our community were for this but all I got was a shrug of the shoulders!

I think it's shocking and will result in even more isolation for some people.

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It's annoying, isn't it. We have a system where everybody assumes everybody else has a computer and is computer literate. I put myself through evening classes and did a thirty weeks ECDL course just to keep savvy. At the end of the course they told me Windows Vista or 7 was out and some of my training was obsolete now. You just cannot keep up with computer technology

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11011100?

Binary code. (You're sending a secret message to the Anunaki on the planet Nibiru in prep for the 2012 invasion.) Only us nerdy ignoramusus (?) can't decipher it. (I was never any good at binary, Malcolm, unless Patrick Moore was going on about double stars and wotnots.)

ONE FOR YOU FISHERMEN (PS - Bad language used - for obvious reasons!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5QMUCLqoY4

I just saw that one recently - but here's another.

I think my brother means the one that was at the bottom of the Furnace Bank. There was a small circular bandstand there. The attached photo shows you the area where it used to stand.

I remember Wards Photography shop but am I right in saying he had the contract for the local school photographs? Because I bet he would have a stockpile of old bedlington photos.

Your right Canny lass. Do you think all these men got their skirts at Feasters?

Ah yes, picnic day was never the same without the Lanarkshire Ladyboy Pipers or the Tayside Trannies. Give us a squirl girls. (Nice to see Moldens shop sign and I do remember Carrs - but the rest...!!!)

I remember a Rediffusion workshop where Tyred and Exhausted is. (Or on the green next to it). But as my Bro pointed out, there was a Rediffusion shop up near the post office. But the shops leading down from the Northumberland Arms towards the Monkey are a mystery to me. But then again I was just a young whippersnapper and if the shops didn't sell sweets or comics then I wouldn't have gone in them. (PS I've still got some issues of the Legion of Super Heroes.) Nerds live, okay!

Another of Foxy's pics

What was Gallon's shop? To be honest Keith I recall next to nothing about these shops. Cheers.

Binks

You're a star, Foxy. Just what I am after to show my brother. Now he can't deny it. Cheers.

You may well have bought school trousers here even if you didn't go to Westridge. The official uniform items were those with a badge on - or you could just buy the badges and sew them on yourself.They also sold the blu/white striped blouse for the girls. Ordinary grey/navy trousers and skirts were also on sale here as were plain white shirts.

I'm now wondering if we're on about the same Moldens and Feasters? The ones I'm thinking about weren't at Vulcan Place. They were further down the front Street - at 'the bottom end' as they used to say - to the right of the Northumbend Arms in Foxy's Picture.

That's what i am saying, Canny Lass. I said they were either at the florists shop or the one next door. My bro is the one who says they were down Vulcan's Place. It's a running argument I am having with him. Cheers for confirming it.

Must be your brain that is adled, Binks shop is on the photo.

My adled brain apologises to you, Foxy. That is so weird. I wasn't looking that far down and i didn't even recognise it. Humbled by a box brownie. Oh for a brain that works in conjunction with my tired eyes.

I know weve discussed this on the phone bro, but im STILL convinced the shop / shops we are on about was just BEFORE you got to the Northumberland arms....ie, just after the Monkey. Thanks to the rest of the people here, the names of Feasters and Moldens do ring a big bell. I just cant remember them being around the corner from the Northumberland which is what you are saying. I KNOW the florists shop WAS something else before it became established as a florist, but what it was i cant remember. Another thing to think of bro. Why would we go there for our school trousers ? As so rightly pointed out by Canny Lass, they were the suppliers of Westridge's uniforms. It's a time machine we need :-)))

I wish we did have a time machine, bro - then I could leave you in the fifties or sixties where your adled brain belongs. Watch my lips - Feasters and Moldens were next to the florists - roughly where the solicitors is now. You can't even remember the corner shop - Binks - between the Whitley school and the Coffin Chapel. Oh for a photo of all these shops, please, someone.

Are these the shops you mean? The florists you mention and to the other side of the Northumberland Arms was James Millnes Cycle Shop.

Funny enough I cannot remember any of those shops in the photo. In fact the only building I recall in detail down Vulcan's Place was the old rediffusion shop where the garage is now. (Or thereabouts). PS - the car licence plate in the photo spells out my initials - KL - spooky.

Forgot to mention, Proudlocks was definitely a bakery but I'm not sure just where it was. I think it was in Bedlington though, rather than at the station. There was one at Ashington as well so maybe they had a few other branches. Might have been one at the station as well.

Feasters and Moldens were sort of connected. They were next door to each other. They had only a very small window facing the street. Between the two shops and running at right angles to the road, was a sort of 'arcade' where they had their main display windows opposite each other. At the end of the 'arcade' the doors to the two shops stood at an angle of 45 degrees to each other. I don't remember any connecting door in the shops. You had to come out of one to go into the other though you were still under one roof. They were the mainstay of Bedlington, as far as school clothes were concerned. They were the authorised suppliers of westridge school uniforms. They were also the last shop in Bedlington selling cross-over pinnies (aprons, to the uninitiated).

Yeah, I remember the layout of the shops and I recall Feasters having glass counters. But I got the name of the shop wrong. They were very Olde fashioned. The men wore suits and ties and the women, if I recall, wore aprons! Am I right?

INTERESTING!

They used to be the official suppliers of the Westridge school uniform.

So was that Molden's? Please give me more!!!! I'm happy someone else remembers the shop!

Proudlocks, was that not a bakers shop at the station, dont quote me on that as I could be way of track

You might be right, Pete. The little gray cells aren't working as good as they used to. But I do remember the clothes shop where the florists is now. (Beside the Northumberland Arms) If I'm not mistaken my mam used to buy our school trousers there.

How about Feasters for the Ladies and Percy Molden for the Men? Symp or Vic should remember them.

Now that you mention those names they do ring a bell. (So where have I got Proudlocks from???) But were Feasters & Moldens connected? I vaguely remember going to the back of one shop and into the other. I may be wrong on that. But am I right in saying they stood where the florists is now?

HEADS UP EVERYONE.

Me and my bro - who is on this Community site and is well known to be a penker short of a bag of muggies - are having an argument about PROUDLOCKS. I can remember a men & womens clothes shop where the florists is next to the Northumberland Arms. (Actually it might be the next shop along!!!) Anyway there were two doors - you took the left to the womens part - lingerie, hankies & doillies!!! - to the right was the gents department. But bro can't remember PROUDLOCKS as such, but he insists there was a clothes shop where WHOLLY GOODINGS used to be. Come on everybody, help us solve this location. Cheers.

My hubby thinks the girl (seated row) 3rd from left is his cousin Christine Riddell (now Taylor) and the girl 3rd from right is Alison Short (now Coull)

Yeah, Alison Short was in my class now that you mention her. Cheers.