When i remember ,Emmanuel school , It weaves so many memories for me , my short time in the Boys Brigade , which i attended , each week with my brother walt , i was,nt overly keen but it gave me something to do , we,d gather in the school hall and be taught to march it was a bit like dads army for lads to be honest , i say that because each week you,d get a piece of uniform rather than all at once , The reason they gave was that lads had come along got their uniform ,then never showed up again,i had this image, of lots of young lads wandering round preston dressed in Boys Brigade uniforms,for what reason . your guess is as good as mine . So each wednesday night ,we,d gather and march around the school hall. one evening i recall being dressed in normal shirt Brigade trousers,Brigade cap tipped slightly to one side of my bonce,thinking look at me are,nt i cool, well maybe not cool,i must have ended up with the complete uniform as i recall marching along brook street, During some kind of procession but thats all i recall,it also saw the beginning of my footballing years .. I played for my school on a regular basis,we d play on the recreation ground top of brook street ,fondly remembered by anybody who knew it as The Rec...... That combined two of my interests,football and railways you could play football,whilst watching trains whizzing by . At that time the rec , was a very open sparse kind of play area , with sand pits behind a handful of houses at the corner of brook street and blackpool road ,and a grassy embankment ran alongside the blackpool road bit. Between the rec and railway stood a wall of railway sleepers stood on end to create a a barrier , but not one big enough to stop my enjoyment of the passing locomotives. I was later to go on and represent my county at football as part of lancashire school boys ,which was the first time i got my name in the lancashire evening post ,i was so proud ,our family name was,nt usually in the lancashire evening post ,unless our walt was bending, Because i dont like to say breaking the law , but a pig in a frock is a pig in a frock . i was given a beautiful green goalkeepers jersey , with the lancashire badge on the chest and rushed home to show my mum , who immediately threw it in the back yard , the look on my face was one of shock and horror , and the words that followed will haunt me forever , we dont have anything green in this house she informed me due to the fact she was very superstitious , like that made it alright , she followed it up with... take it back and get them to give you a blue one ,i think she thought this would some how soften the blow of watching ,the thing i had worked so hard for ,lying in the backyard , the end of this story ,is as silly as the beginning i had to end up keeping it safe at school and my teacher Mr Hudson would out of the goodness of his heart take it home and get it washed for me ,and my mum never knew ,or even bothered asking. Achievements,meant very little in our house , even when i told my dad i ve been picked to play for my county ,it made no impact at all , he was nt bothered he hated football, years later i would stand by football pitch after football pitch and watch my son struggle to make the grade , he tried so hard ,but was nt as gifted as some of the other kids , but if quality was measured on effort, he have made the team every week , Mitchell if i never tell you again i am telling you now , i love you with all my heart and i ll never forget how proud i felt and still feel when i watch you try , your a big lad now in fact a grown man and you dwarf me in height , but that little boy i see in my minds eye,will remain just that ,and when we d walk home after you,d played maybe ten or fifthteen minutes in a meaningless game ,and you d ask how did i do dad ...? , I d tell you then what i ,ll always tell you ,you did fine son , you did fine ........ So yes i craved what every son craves,his dad,s approval but i didnt get it ,but its ok ..when i look into my sons eyes and see the warmth reflected there i tell myself ,ya did great ,ya did great .. So thank you Mr Hudson , he,ll never read this but thats ok he was my hero when i was at school. because he told me i could be so much more ,and i am , he might have had dodgy dress sense and an even dodgier tach ,and he even brought his german shepherd dog into class and parked it at the side of his desk imagine that today with health and safety.. But he was the father figure i never had ,so has i end this chapter and my time at Emmanuel comes to a close i thank Mr Hudson , Mr Slater , Mrs Ruxston , Miss Guy , And the final headmaster Mr Rackclefft and his high pitch voice . As footnote to my time at Emmanuel , My introduction to girls , but not on an emotional level ,Began with Pauline wilson ,her mum had a fruit and veg shop opposite the front entrance of the school on brook street , now iused to call into the shop each morning to meet pauline and we d cross the road together , all innocent i can assure you but not without cunning on my part. The first day id met pauline her mother gave me a bag of fruit ,and ithought i am on to a winner here , cant be bad just for crossing a girl over the road anyway one day me and pauline had words over something trivial , and the next day when i collected her , i was still handed a bag of fruit but this time it was bruised fruit , of course i only found this out in the school yard ,as opened my bag and was met with the sight of slightly browning fruit.. iLL be honest with you i still ate it ,because i was hungry but like the fruit ,our friendship had waned,and no more would i meet her in a morning. They say there s no such thing as a free meal ,and you know what there right ................. IMAGE - 1 is taken in the front playground of Emmanuel school ,with brook street to the left of the picture , Yours truly is far left ,and my mate Roy Patchell is on the far right ,no jokes about his ears but they were whoppers ... Image -2 is my final class picture taken in -1970 , Mr Hudson is stood on the far right , make up your own minds about his dress sense and dodgy tach ,but a smashing fella ... and below this section a colour image co - of Preston Digital Archiive , of Emmanuel taken in -1980 , 9 tears after I left .......Ps in the class image I am second row from the back ,to the right of Roys big lugs .............
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 18:53:01 +0000
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