Old Boys, Girls and Teachers Guestbook

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Welcome to the Guestbook
Feel free to add messages relating to the site and the school. The only rules are: real names only, no personal attacks and no unrelated messages (inappropriate messages may be edited/withdrawn without warning).

It would be appreciated if you gave an email address, where you now live and said when you were at the school, but you don't have to.

Plase note that if you click on an email address below you will need to replace ~DOT~ with . and ~AT~ with @ in your email program. The Guestbook presents these this way to avoid email address harvesters collecting your email addresses from the page. I know it's a pain, but it's very much better than the alternative.

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There are 500 messages in the guestbook
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Viewing messages 161 to 170

Neale Backhouse | nealebackh~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Growing up in South Shields in the late forties,"Sandancer" was a rather derogatory term used to describe people of Arabian descent who lived in the Laygate area.I recall only one boy of such a descent, while Alex and I were at the High School. If I remember, his name was Harry Said and he was afforded special respect by all staff and students.

Sat 5-Feb-2022 23:53 - Victoria BC

Alex Patterson 1946-1951, VUA | ad1935ap~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hello Eric,
So glad to see your back (Sorry, that should be "you're back") and that you and Doreen are both well. I was wondering about some of the other contributors, particularly the venerable Ed Forster from P.E.I. If anyone has heard from him please let us know and Ed, if you read this please drop us a line. It's good to see that Bruce and Neale are still writing although Neale's latest references to "Sandancer" has left me stumped.
I have been fighting "Wordle" for the last few mornings,
and I wondered if it is popular in England too. I feigned ignorance of the rules when challenging my descendants and pretended that the more green squares I had was a winning outcome and that "6/6" was a good score. It's fun to play particularly with competitive offspring like mine. Let's hear from you Ed and Mike take good care of yourself. Off to our nearby daughter's for Dinner.
Best wishes to all,
Alex

Fri 4-Feb-2022 22:45 - North York, Ontario, Canada

Eric Moyse | eric~DOT~moyse~AT~sky~DOT~com

Firstly, I am alive and well and still living with my dear wife Doreen in Reading. Sorry that I have not been contributing for a while but firstly commiserations to Mike re his heart attack and thanks to him for maintaining this fine website.
There are many matters being discussed currently but Alan Wightman's reference to a game played in the schoolyard interests me. We called it "Loppakitty" but a one-time work colleague of mine from North Shields insisted that it was "Mountacuddy." It featured in a book on children's games with various names being attibuted to it over the country. For some reason the nearest place calling it "Loppakitty" was Dunfermline! Some boys in our year played a jumping game called "Yards," which I never understood. Regards to all, especially our Canadian friends Neale and Alex.

Fri 4-Feb-2022 11:47 - Reading, Berkshire

alan wightman

Bonjour.

WCTAH TIHS SCAPE !

Sandancer. `Geordieland` England.

Tue 1-Feb-2022 09:19

Neale Backhouse | nealebackh~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Lighten up there Alan old boy. Espousing Dickensian wisdom is not going to change the world. There are no fair shares in this life. Never have been, nor will be.But keep up the good work.Keep smiling and enjoy yourself. Oh and bye the way "Sandancer" is starting to sound a bit racist these days. Cheers, Neale.

Sat 29-Jan-2022 15:58 - Victoria BC.

alan wightman

Refer to the works of Charles Dickens and `Singing for your Supper´ i.e. to do something for someone else in order to receive something in return, especially food. Dickens identified the reality of poverty as not the fault of the people who endured it, but the fault of the establishment´.

A `Flagship Study´ now reveals that the North-East is the hardest-hit poverty region in the UK. Defined as cannot afford 2 or more of essentials e.g. food, heating and clothing.

Volunteers at our Food Banks distribute kind donations to address the situation.

Surely disbelief on the part of Dickens at this apparently `incurable ´scenario at this day and age.

Sandancer in `Geordieland´.

Fri 28-Jan-2022 10:54 - south Shields

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Robin Leslie has a very good memory!

Yes I was a chorister at St Peter's church which led to an interesting event when I went to our school in 1950.In those days the school had a (really quite good) choir that led the choral efforts at morning assembly, among other things. Each year Mr Jackaman (head of Music) had a recruiting drive among the new boys to bolster the ranks in his choir as the older boys left because of breaking voices. Based on my experience at St Peter's I put myself forward for inclusion. Now, although I had several years experience as a chorister I have to confess that my vocal talents were limited and Mr Jackaman was very dubious about taking me on. However, he gave me the benefit of the doubt and I joined the choir as the pictures in the school photographs for 1950/52 verify.

Robin, I have no knowledge of what happened to Mr Rpbertson but I do recall the choirmaster at St Peters. The other person who sticks in my mind was Mr Fairs who lived in a very big house in North Avenue and held memorable Christmas parties for the choir.

Thu 27-Jan-2022 14:53 - ruskington lincolnshie

Robin Leslie | robin~DOT~leslie~AT~yahoo~DOT~com

Hello all who continue to be in touch with this excellent Alumni website, and a special thanks to Mike for a great effort on all our behalf. A word for Bruce(Graham). Bruce I think you said a while back, that you had sung in St. Peters Church Harton choir between 1948-1954 and you remembered a Mr. Davidson (never knew his Christian name)the choirmaster with tuning fork at the ready. Just to recap do you know what happened to Rev. Henry Robertson. Others who were in the choir at that time were Wentworth Driver, Geoffrey Hilcoat, Ronnie Kemp. I found out about Ronnie Kemp, he played a big part in South Shields Amateur Dramatic Society then moved to saltburn where he died 15 years ago. I have no idea what happened to anybody else(perhaps you know).Im trying to recover information about loose ends in Shields.

Tue 25-Jan-2022 15:11 - Cobham Surrey

Colin Harrison | 01mackem~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hello, I just wanted to ask if anyone remembers me from 1965-73? I was in 1o, 2o, 3Sa, 4Sa, 5Sa and 6I. I was made House Captain by Fred, and had the honour of being addressed by him by my Christian name in front of the whole House. I later became an English teacher through his inspiration.

Wed 19-Jan-2022 16:05 - Knaresborough

Bryan Cooper | brayncc~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Does anyone have any information as to the whereabouts of Kenneth Cooke (1954-1959). He live in Witton Avenue, just as it joined Centenary Avenue. A friend of mine, Bill Scott, has recently been given some scout memorabilia that will be of great interest to him.

Sat 15-Jan-2022 12:41 - Whitchurch

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