Hola Ian,

Won't make 2009 reunion because still living far away on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean and don't much get to the UK these days - having way too much fun on the beach!

Just found this old picture from a newspaper of a day out of Class 3B in 1959 visiting British Timken in Duston.  Valerie Titmus, Susan Crouch & Peter Heath are definitely in the picture, but others ??

Surprised that no-one ever makes the comment that "Buzzer" used to walk with a bounce? I always remember him striding along with a pile of papers under his right arm, his black teacher's robe flying out behind him and him bouncing along. In 1960 we (Class 4M) nicknamed him "The Mekon" after that funny little green, big foreheaded enemy of Dan Dare in the comics. Buzzer looked as if he was floating along sometimes, just like the Mekon!

Reminds me of my almost monthly visit to Buzzer's office for a caning.

I think I was a little naughty in those days or just unfortunate in getting caught? Blah, Blah, Blah from Buzzer but he always ended up giving me a few of the best with his cane.  Sometimes across the hands but usually he whacked my bum, which hurt like hell but made you a bit of a hero when you got back to class, especially if there were marks!

4M was the only mixed class so even the girls got to look if the scars were really bad. "Bend over, touch your toes and look out of the window"; so I bent over, touched my toes and then got up to go look out of the window .......... that got me 2 extra strokes!!!

"Gunner" had us for French so we learnt to accept the regular large 'T' Square across the back of your head for getting the verbs wrong.

Needless to say we were all too busy being petrified in case it was your turn next to answer a question, cos' you were going to get whacked.

Couple of teachers were very good with the blackboard duster thrown accurately across the room.  One English teacher (I think he was Welsh?) used to snatch off his slip on shoe and bung that at you - he was pretty accurate too.

All that school violence?  Totally agree with it.  It never did us any harm and we grew to respect authority because of it.

In 1960/61 Mick McMahon & I discovered the Army Recruiting Office where we could get off school for an afternoon every couple of weeks and go fill in a few forms, talk to an Army Recruiter, take a written test or two AND get paid half a crown every visit. Whoopee we thought.

So we'd do the visit, get paid and then go watch naughty French movies at the sleazy cinema at the bottom of Grove Road. We did this for quite some time but eventually had to bite the bullet and sign up in the Army for 22 years with an option on 9 years!  And all this at the age of 15!!  I finished up at the Army Apprentice School in Chepstow & then the Royal Engineers for 17 years, Mick went to Harrogate and then the Royal Signals.  We're still very close friends even to this date.

Ah well, enough rambling, gotta go do stuff on the beach as it's nearly sundowner time or beer o'clock as we call it here.