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Tales from the Island of Serendip
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Started by Flex Mentallo,

8,956 posts in this topic

adamstrange

adamstrange

Posted
Posted

Thanks for sharing the stories and marvelous images.

 

I highly recommend the original serials by Louis Feuillade. They are impressive on their own but also provide an interesting look at life from almost a century ago.

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Cat-Man_America

Cat-Man_America

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Posted (edited)
Thanks for sharing the stories and marvelous images.

 

I highly recommend the original serials by Louis Feuillade. They are impressive on their own but also provide an interesting look at life from almost a century ago.

 

+1 (thumbs u

 

[font:Times New Roman]This is a wonderful thread!

 

 

[/font]

Edited by DavidMerryweather
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Flex Mentallo

Flex Mentallo

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Headmaster: [leading a school prayer] Oh Lord, we give thee humble and hearty thanks for this, thy gift of discipline, knowing that it is only through the constraints of others that we come to know ourselves, and only through true misery can we find true contentment.

"Ripping Yarns" Tomkinson's Schooldays (1976)

 

School bully was nearly 6 foot tall at the age of 14. He was a great athlete, especially at the 100 yards dash, all power and pumping arms. But when we ran the cross country, he always made the mistake of running off too fast, as though he could somehow defeat the laws of aerobics and win by sheer determination.. I was weedy, and slow, but when I ran, I could run for hours, so inevitably I would run him down, being careful to cross the track to the far side as I left him (all power, etc) flailing in my wake. His many victories took only seconds - my few, much longer.

 

We were never friends.

 

School bully's nemesis was Mr Brannigan. He was our form teacher in third year at St Cuthbert's Grammar School on the western fringe of Newcastle on Tyne, a ten mile journey every day from my home on the Northumberland coast.

 

Mr Brannigan was only approximately 5 foot tall. Every single school day that year, he would bounce into class, and the first words from his mouth would be "Stand up Sumner!"

 

And not without trepidation, School bully would rise slowly to his feet, towering over his teacher.

 

Whereupon, to the daily mirth and occasional downright hysteria of the class, he would proceed to poke School bully repeatedly in the stomach.

 

As I said, School bully and I were never friends, but one day, by sheer chance, we both happened to catch the early bus home. Since no-one else was present, and his street cred was not in danger, School bully deigned to speak to me. It wasnt exactly a conversation. More a monologue on the theme of his life plan to become a rock star. He spoke with such absolute certainty about this I decided he must be as crazy as Werner Herzog, but I wisely refrained from pointing out the statistical unlikelihood of this.

 

On the other hand, local band The Animals had recently reached the top of the charts with House of the Rising Sun. Along with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five, and The Kinks, the group had introduced British music and fashion to the world. Like every other boy my age I was keenly aware of this...

 

...but that was the only proper conversation we ever had and I thought no more of it.

 

The years passed, and as I've recounted earlier, I went to India, returning to the UK in 1982 after a two year absence.

 

Many things were different. Fashions had changed. People had begun to become noticeably more health conscious. There were people on bicycles, and skateboards, and even roller blades, listening to music on portable players.

 

And the music was different as well. The atrocious "Sugar Sugar Candy Girl" music of the late 70's had been replaced by the Eurythmics, and The Police.

 

And all of this was good.

 

Years later, perhaps 1992, I was working as a community artist at a large psychiatric hospital in Tooting Bec. There was another community artist working there and I noted from his accent that he came from the same northerly climes as I. We compared notes, and it transpired that like me he had been attending St Cuthberts Grammar School in the 1960's - a year or two ahead of me.

 

We chatted for a while, and then he said, "Sumner did alright for himself didnt he, aye?"

 

I said, "What, you mean our old friend school bully? Why, what did he do?"

 

He looked at me in quiet amazement and said, "You know, man! Gordon Sumner! Sting!"

Edited by alanna
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jimjum12

jimjum12

Posted
Posted
Headmaster: [leading a school prayer] Oh Lord, we give thee humble and hearty thanks for this, thy gift of discipline, knowing that it is only through the constraints of others that we come to know ourselves, and only through true misery can we find true contentment.

"Ripping Yarns" Tomkinson's Schooldays (1976)

 

School bully was nearly 6 foot tall at the age of 14. He was a great athlete, especially at the 100 yards dash, all power and pumping arms. But when we ran the cross country, he always made the mistake of running off too fast, as though he could somehow defeat the laws of aerobics and win by sheer determination.. I was weedy, and slow, but when I ran, I could run for hours, so inevitably I would run him down, being careful to cross the track to the far side as I left him (all power, etc) flailing in my wake. His many victories took only seconds - my few, much longer.

 

We were never friends.

 

School bully's nemesis was Mr Brannigan. He was our form teacher in third year at St Cuthbert's Grammar School on the western fringe of Newcastle on Tyne, a ten mile journey every day from my home on the Northumberland coast.

 

Mr Brannigan was only approximately 5 foot tall. Every single school day that year, he would bounce into class, and the first words from his mouth would be "Stand up Sumner!"

 

And not without trepidation, School bully would rise slowly to his feet, towering over his teacher.

 

Whereupon, to the daily mirth and occasional downright hysteria of the class, he would proceed to poke School bully repeatedly in the stomach.

 

As I said, School bully and I were never friends, but one day, by sheer chance, we both happened to catch the early bus home. Since no-one else was present, and his street cred was not in danger, School bully deigned to speak to me. It wasnt exactly a conversation. More a monologue on the theme of his life plan to become a rock star. He spoke with such absolute certainty about this I decided he must be as crazy as Werner Herzog, but I wisely refrained from pointing out the statistical unlikelihood of this.

 

On the other hand, local band The Animals had recently reached the top of the charts with House of the Rising Sun. Along with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five, and The Kinks, the group had introduced British music and fashion to the world. Like every other boy my age I was keenly aware of this...

 

...but that was the only proper conversation we ever had and I thought no more of it.

 

The years past, and as I've recounted earlier, I went to India, returning to the UK in 1982 after a two year absence.

 

Many things were different. Fashions had changed. People had begun to become noticeably more health conscious. There were people on bicycles, and skateboards, and even roller blades, listening to music on portable players.

 

And the music was different as well. The atrocious "Sugar Sugar Candy Girl" music of the late 70's had been replaced by the Eurythmics, and The Police.

 

And all of this was good.

 

Years later, perhaps 1992, I was working as a community artist at a large psychiatric hospital in Tooting Bec. There was another community artist working there and I noted from his accent that he came from the same northerly climes as I. We compared notes, and it transpired that like me he had been attending St Cuthberts Grammar School in the 1960's - a year or two ahead of me.

 

We chatted for a while, and then he said, "Sumner did alright for himself didnt he, aye?"

 

I said, "What, you mean our old friend school bully? Why, what did he do?"

 

He looked at me in quiet amazement and said, "You know, man! Gordon Sumner! Sting!"

 

Sha- DANG !..........Now THAT'S a story. The courtyard fountain is still more sublime....... ENCORE..............GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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Kevin.J

Kevin.J

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Posted

We are from the same place, I live about 2 miles from St Cuthberts school, a lot of my friends went there about 10 years after you, if you are the same age as Sting.

I didnt go there though, I went to Slatyford about a mile away.

Its a small world and thats a great story (thumbs u

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