School Days - memories & outings

Oh dear Prof, the sins of my past finally catching up on me. If my levity has offended, I apologise. It would have been between Easter 1947 and July 1951 when I left KHS.

As part of our French studies, we went to the Butts to see Le Mariage de Figaro. The educational benefit was minimal; zero to be precise. The play was all in typical spoken French - they speak far too fast for much of it to be understood. The theatre was crammed full of boys who equated the excursion to packs of wild dogs suddenly let of their leashes. One of the cast was in period dress, which really did expose an unnecessarily large amount of bare flesh belonging to her ample cleavage. This was evident to all, including those of us seated some distance from the stage. The audience of teenage boys was far from quiet, and there was a constant background noise of sniggers, inappropriate comments, gestures, suggestive grunts, catcalls and suchlike. It culminated when one of the boys from another school (Bablake allegedly) let out a shrill, deafeningly loud wolf whistle, immediately followed by two large pops, timed to perfection, just as said actress leant forwards at the front of the stage. The theatre audience erupted in laughter. I admired the way the actors ignored the distractions and carried on regardless. Obviously professionals. Later that day, back at school, our teacher gave us his resume, in French, and I remember him saying that there had been some people there who were tr

Here's a combined tale of a failed school trip and a concert. In early 1963 I was in my final term of a very unremarkable career at Caludon Castle. We had a decent man, Mr. Matthews who put a great deal of effort and enthusiasm in attempting to inspire us for an appreciation of music. Mr. Matthews was normally very placid, almost absent minded and put up with our obvious lack of interest and our poor manners with good grace. He did however occasionally explode with a kind of manic fury if provoked too far and could be terrifying in his rage. Sort of safety valve I think because within seconds he would carry on as though nothing had happened. His passion was Gilbert and Sullivan. I have no idea if there was a curriculum that he should have followed but G and S was all we ever did. For several weeks he had us singing a piece from the Pirates of Penzance. Over and over again - "With cat like tread, upon our way we steal, with silence dread our cautious way we feel" and so on. Then one day he revealed his dream to us. He had arranged a bus for the following morning to take the set to a school choir festival. We were to perform our piece on stage! He was very excited. I don't know why because he couldn't have been hearing what I was hearing. The following day we boarded the Corporation double decker. When the bus reached a convenient point I decided that I wasn't singing on any stage in what promised to be a car crash so I jumped off as we slowed for a corner. A couple of others did the same. I got on with a school free day. The following morning I learned that my action was contagious. Out of a set of 42 or so only 4 stayed on the bus to reach the venue. Nobody from the school staff said a word. Nothing was ever mentioned about the incident. No recriminations, detentions, canings, shoutings at. Mr. Matthews must have simply ignored what we did. Some time later at a subsequent music lesson Mr. Matthews announced that we were in for a special treat. Three boys in our set were going to perform an excerpt from the Mikado. We all looked around the room to guess who was missing. Mr. Matthews opened the classroom door and then went to the piano and began the introduction to "Three little maids from school are we". To our jaw dropping amazement ******, ********* and ********* dressed in exquisite Japanese costumes, fully made up and bewigged shuffled in on platformed sandals. They had taken the parts of Yum-yum, Peep-bo and Pitti-sing. For a very short time there was a kind of puzzled silence while we processed the scene. Remember it was 1963, we were 15 year old boys in an all male school. We were pretty well ignorant of sexual matters, especially anything considered different. A harsh, restrictive social morality prevailed, at least in public. Everyone conformed as far as we knew. Ordinary working class boys did not wear female clothing, especially foreign female clothing. The silence didn't last long and the set erupted into a jeering, sneering, insult throwing mob, worthy of anything Golding could have imagined. Many times I've remembered those boys, their courage to perform in front of crass juvenile fools. Some of us at least should have had more sense. Even after 55 years I feel embarrassed about my scorn for those lads. I wish I could sincerely and deeply apologise and assure them that I admire what they did. Showed an interest, got involved, learned and rehearsed, obtained props, put themselves out there. Real guts. I hope you've had a successful life.

Walrus, don`t know if my dad (George Turner) was still teaching at Caludon then, but certainly that tale didn`t come to my notice. Sounds like a scene from "It aint half `ot mum". But school life can be pretty tribal and I am sure your experience isn`t unique, I know, I was at a training school where there was uncalled for beastliness meted out to someone (sotto voce whispering of the lad`s name en masse) I agree you look back and the self loathing and embarrassment is still fresh, something akin to "drunken remorse". rite of passage, I suppose the psychos call it!. If it cheers you up, I can reveal my dad`s leaving do was held at Kenilworth Rugby club, hosted by his `mates` Dai Davies and Ben Vickery, I had to pick him up, it was obviously a bawdy do and they virtually "poured" him into the car.

I was at Whitley Abbey in the 60's and we went on a few trips, all educational, London museums, Madam Tussauds and the Planetarium, a couple of times, Lichfield Cathedral, Dudley Zoo and castle once, someone was bitten by a camel so we didn't go again

Thanks for your response Roger. I'm afraid I can't recall George Turner, Caludon was a very large school and many staff were not familiar. Ben Vickery was my housemaster in Segrave and Taff Davies was my housemaster in Clifford, might he also be "Dai"? There were at least three Davies and several more Welsh teachers. As for the Mikado incident, it was simply one of countless alarums and excursions (see Moderators, I'm still on topic) that occurred at the old alma mater. Ted Brown, who passed away fairly recently, took us on a day trip to London in '63. There was no educational value really, we just went to see some of the sights. He was a good bloke and I think he was giving us a jolly before leaving school for good. When we got to Euston we sort of went where we wanted with the instruction to meet up for the train back. A good day out.

The most remembered school holiday for me was Empire Day, a party at school with flags, bunting, paper hats, cakes, sweets, small sandwiches, all brought in by the mothers, donkey rides, the colouring of maps with crayons, and a white cloth was thrown over the blackboard and someone showed photo slides of kangaroos and Australia, lumberjacks in Canada, orchards in South Africa. We kids couldn't believe our eyes, we knew little of the world in those days. In fact neither did the grown ups. But a most exciting day every year.

Kaga, Do you remember why the 24th of May was called Empire Day, I know but do you? Not celebrated now I believe.

Let's hope we can re-introduce it, (well celebrate what's left of the 'British Empire') and trading without restriction with them again once we are out of the 'EEC' ! personal opinion of course !!

And of course it was Queen Vic's birthday. I am sure most of the forum members share a birthday with a celebrity, ancient or modern.

Dreamtime, yes I do know, and I believe it changed to Commonwealth Day in the late fifties

Loved school, Caludon Castle, 1955 til 1959. Didn't learn a lot, had lots of fun and made lots of friends. Was not their fault that I did not learn a lot, completely mine. Was not ready for learning at that stage of my life. Fortunately for me, after 15 months at E. Laxon & Co., a brilliantly happy time, 1959 til October 1960. On 1st November 1960, joined the Royal Navy, to this day I do not know why!!! Got the best education & training available to man, and paid whilst I was trained. 11 and a bit years in the RN, then a lifetime of full employment, in civvy street, working on industrial boilers and associated similar equipment. Back to summer holidays, living in Sewall Highway, at a time when behind the houses across the road were fields for what seemed forever. We just played out all day. Football, cricket, building dens, lighting fires, baking potatoes (pinched from home) on our fires. Life was just awesome, just fun, friendship and happiness. What more could one ask. We were not far from the Devon. Recently seen a play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival about a football team from Darwen, in Lancashire, playing football in the 1850's. Reminded me of a time in our youth when many evenings there would be an adhoc but quite serious game of football on a field just near the back of the Devon. Played by bigger kids, we would always go along and watch. No referee required, just good spirit and sportsmanship. Happy happy days. B

Visited my mum today in Allesley Park. Almost forgot about the view from Torbay Road/Winsford Avenue I think that must be the highest point around Coventry? (it was certainly a pain walking up Torbay every day from school!) Post copied from topic Three Spires on 30th Oct 2018 1:07 pm

What school would that have been, Neil?

St Christopher's, Dream.