05-04-2021, 14:53
It`s interesting that you say that about BOK, Dev. As a 2nd or 3rd former, he could indeed be truly terrifying and volatile; I remember in 2nd Form he threw a blackboard cleaner at the lad sitting next to me for no apparent reason whatsoever. Hit him, too – bloody good shot, to be fair – and he`d certainly have been done for it nowadays.
Having said that, if you were in the 6th Form he could be a completely different animal and was in fact a really interesting and amusing bloke to talk to. We actually got on like a house on fire then, so much so that shortly after I left school we bumped into each other in what turned out to be his local and for a few months – until I went off to uni, really - we got into the habit of having a couple of pints together every so often. It was a little pub at the top of Abercrombie Street and is probably long gone now. Was it the St Helen`s Inn? I can`t remember. His wife was with him sometimes – she was lovely – and I remember she always used to call him Barney. I`ve no idea why. Perhaps it was something to do with the Irish pronunciation of Brian; I know Gaelic is a strange language when it comes to pronunciation. (Where the hell is the v in Niamh or Siobhan?) I tried several times to pluck up the courage to ask, but never quite managed it.
The reason I was terrified at crossing Sheffield Road with his books wasn`t our proximity but his being completely impervious to the traffic. God knows what he was like driving. Mind you, I do remember him regaling us with the stories of his time in the Desert Rats during the war, one of which was how he became (in)famous in the regiment for being the only man known to have pranged an armoured car in several thousand square miles of empty desert. That probably gives a clue.
That`s what I mean. Taking French and Spanish I had a lot to do with him in 6th Form and to me he was without doubt the most inspirational teacher in the place. At that age he treated you like a young adult rather than a child and I learned a hell of a lot from him.
The teacher I loathed completely and with an intensity that was visceral was a certain very pompous PE teacher who was universally rumoured to have had an `interesting` relationship with the school secretary of the time. I won`t mention his name – the laws of libel probably still apply even after all this time – but I`m sure you know who I`m talking about. Sadly he was House Master of the one that I had the misfortune to be in and made no attempt to hide both the fact that my feelings were fully reciprocated and that he was completely aware of where the balance of power lay – and it weren`t wi` me! He made sure that I was aware of it too.
I apologise to anyone else reading this. I realise that it has absolutely no relevance to the subject of the thread and that it will be of no interest whatsoever to anyone apart from Dev and me, but having left the area some years ago I don`t often have the chance to reminisce about these things. I`ll shut up now.
Having said that, if you were in the 6th Form he could be a completely different animal and was in fact a really interesting and amusing bloke to talk to. We actually got on like a house on fire then, so much so that shortly after I left school we bumped into each other in what turned out to be his local and for a few months – until I went off to uni, really - we got into the habit of having a couple of pints together every so often. It was a little pub at the top of Abercrombie Street and is probably long gone now. Was it the St Helen`s Inn? I can`t remember. His wife was with him sometimes – she was lovely – and I remember she always used to call him Barney. I`ve no idea why. Perhaps it was something to do with the Irish pronunciation of Brian; I know Gaelic is a strange language when it comes to pronunciation. (Where the hell is the v in Niamh or Siobhan?) I tried several times to pluck up the courage to ask, but never quite managed it.
The reason I was terrified at crossing Sheffield Road with his books wasn`t our proximity but his being completely impervious to the traffic. God knows what he was like driving. Mind you, I do remember him regaling us with the stories of his time in the Desert Rats during the war, one of which was how he became (in)famous in the regiment for being the only man known to have pranged an armoured car in several thousand square miles of empty desert. That probably gives a clue.
That`s what I mean. Taking French and Spanish I had a lot to do with him in 6th Form and to me he was without doubt the most inspirational teacher in the place. At that age he treated you like a young adult rather than a child and I learned a hell of a lot from him.
The teacher I loathed completely and with an intensity that was visceral was a certain very pompous PE teacher who was universally rumoured to have had an `interesting` relationship with the school secretary of the time. I won`t mention his name – the laws of libel probably still apply even after all this time – but I`m sure you know who I`m talking about. Sadly he was House Master of the one that I had the misfortune to be in and made no attempt to hide both the fact that my feelings were fully reciprocated and that he was completely aware of where the balance of power lay – and it weren`t wi` me! He made sure that I was aware of it too.
I apologise to anyone else reading this. I realise that it has absolutely no relevance to the subject of the thread and that it will be of no interest whatsoever to anyone apart from Dev and me, but having left the area some years ago I don`t often have the chance to reminisce about these things. I`ll shut up now.