barrettkeller
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Posts posted by barrettkeller
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#129 - Well - we had the pit, Byron and Scala cinemas, Johnny's cafe, the Co-op, the Beehive, Stallards, Frank Sissons, the pit, Vedonis,Top rec., Bottom rec., the Baths, The Dispatch, Midland General and Trent buses (1s1d return to Nottingham), Nelly Rick's, Rediffusion, the pit, Titchfield Park, and er,..the pit. It wasn't a bad place to live but I found it very insular and somewhat dominated by its mining community identity.
When my father was still working at Hucknall Colliery, we moved from my grandparents' home in Beauvale, to a council house. I recall a neighbour saying to my mother, 'Now you've got a little house to look after, you'll never move and your kids'll all be colliers.'
She did - and none of us ever were.
Having said that, the pit closures (and council house sell-offs) seemed to have transformed the old town into a bland, 'commuter-belt' area with little character. Shame.
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Being nipped in half is an occupational hazard for them Margie - you should see what the blue-tits do to them! (or perhaps you shouldn't!)
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Lincoln’s speech broadening the base of the war from defending the union to the wider cause of freedom for all men may well have been politically motivated, but it did not reframe the issue already in the balance:
The Confederacy was defending a way of life that was inextricably bonded with slave ownership. Many of the secessionist states mentioned in their ordinances, the suffering of, ‘slaveholding states’ caused by the actions of abolitionists in the North, or blamed the abolitionist movement for challenging the ‘constitutional right’ to slaveholding. Whilst it may be a spurious argument that the North was solely fighting for the emancipation of slaves, the view of the Confederacy fighting to preserve a society with laudable values is equally specious.
As far as Britain‘s involvement is concerned, the commerce raiders appear to have had little impact upon the eventual outcome of the war and blockade-running was certainly not universally supported in Britain- as in the case of workers in Lancashire, who had more reason than most to resent the hiatus in the supply of cotton. In my view, of greater significance is the clear reluctance of the British government to provide any substantial aid in terms of financial or material support to the South.
By the way, you will see in #48, that I referred to the ‘formal ending’ of the war: ‘proclaimed to be at an end by the aforesaid proclamation of the 2nd day of April, 1866,’ clearing the way to begin the legislative process.
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My wife thinks that it was called 'Neem (?) Oil' Margie.
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Sorry to hear about that Margie. When we used to grow gooseberries we encountered a similar problem. One of our neighbours' sons worked on a smallholding and told us that it was most probably sawfly larvae - as they are the gooseberry's most common pest. He gave us some insecticide that he used at work that was safe with to use with pollinating insects. It was very effective in halting the damage, but sadly, neither my wife nor I can remember what it was called. (Sorry....it's the ageing process...)
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I would not take issue with with your comments about the origins Civil War and its aftermath. However, the statement that most Confederates were not slave holders does not give the full picture of the significance of the place of slavery in the lives of those serving in the army.
Glatthaar, who cross-indexed the Confederate muster list with the 1860 census, found that:
‘One in every ten volunteers in 1861 did not own slaves themselves but lived in households headed by non family members who did. This figure, combined with the 36 percent who owned or whose family members owned slaves, indicated that almost one of every two 1861 recruits lived with slaveholders. Nor did the direct exposure stop there. Untold numbers of enlistees rented land from, sold crops to, or worked for slaveholders. In the final tabulation, the vast majority of the volunteers of 1861 had a direct connection to slavery.’
My point was simply that although there may have been many examples of benevolence towards slaves, or that some black people became slave holders themselves, the concept that, ‘the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition’ is abhorrent and was - and continues to be - rightly opposed.
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It is certainly too simplistic to argue that the rise of abolitionism was the sole cause of the American Civil War. However, it is difficult to see how slave-owners could not be defined as ‘racist’ and dismissed as propaganda. The ‘Cornerstone’ speech delivered by the Vice President of the Confederacy sets out the Confederate position:
‘Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.’
This was not a class issue, but one wholly of racial superiority as a ‘natural law’:
‘Many governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws.’
Slavery might have ‘ended peacefully’ had the states not gone to war but given the views espoused by the government of the South, progress towards full emancipation for black people would certainly have been even slower than the snail’s pace that followed the formal ending of the war in1866.
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I too, have positive experiences in working with German - and other - European people. However, perhaps the most significant event that I have ever experienced was in Israel in the 1970s when we were invited to a Passsover meal by some Israeli colleagues. When we arrived, I was surprised to see that a number of German students had also been invited. The meal had religious and historic significance for our hosts and I and other members of my party, were a little apprehensive regarding how the evening would progress. However, there was no need for anxiety. An elderly Israeli man (whom I learned later, was the host's uncle who had lost close relatives in the holocaust), welcomed us all to their celebration and smiled whilst the guests joined in the singing and dancing. Whilst we were sitting together, I asked him how he, who possibly had more reason than any of us to be resentful of German people, could be so welcoming. His reply was humbling: he said that the young people had done nothing to him or his family and that although he had hated the perpetrators, 'living in hatred is a waste of life' and that if he continued hating would become like the Nazis who, 'never learned that we are all human beings and that a religion, a skin colour, or a nationality doesn't make someone a lesser person.'
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Arnold County High School had:
Albert Schweitzer
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anton Semlonovitch Makarenko
Lakshmi Pandit
Sue Ryder-Leonard Cheshire
Gladys Aylward
I can't remember any house being characterised by particular qualities or achievements - although as i recall, Aylward House seldom seemed to win anything!
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I think you're right, Margie! Incidentally, I found this site the other day - lots of memories jogged here:
http://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1950s/
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Yes! Wasn't Grandma Grove, 'starved for want of nourishment,' most of the time?
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Yes, I remember the Groves with a certain fondness - nothing much really happened in the way of 'drama' but when i was a young lad, it was somehow, very reassuring. The actor who played the father ('Bob Grove') was Edward Evans.
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Thank you Margie - I have the same op looming up on the horizon (whenever my name gets to the top of the list).
Your account was very reassuring indeed. Thank you again.
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My memories of attending Methodist chapel (the only way that you would br allowed into the youth club in Hucknall) was, 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus'. Later in life, i discovered this hymn that became one of my favourites:
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‘IQ’ is a construct – something that cannot be observed. It is a meaningless measure when considered in isolation: Many individuals with Low Average IQs may be highly successful whereas many individuals measured as ‘superior’ on a standardised intelligence test may experience great difficulty in functioning in the community. Such tests sample some – but by no means all – essential skills and the results are vulnerable to cultural and linguistic change.
All that completing a test in isolation could achieve is to compare how two, or more, individuals of similar age and experience perform on that test.
A true assessment of an individual’s cognitive ability would include information on their health and development, their educational and other experiences including personal relationships.
Test like this one are simply, a bit of fun.
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Yes, It's a remarkable overturning of the betting odds but, 'the greatest achievement in the history of sport anywhere in the world' ? (BBC Breakfast). Really?
The team that wins the most points become 'champions'. It happens every year. However, there are many variables that are not in the control of managers/teams that introduce an element of chance. To enter into hysterical hyperbole about this competition - regardless of whether the bookies badly miscalculated the odds - belittles the very real achievements of tens of thousands of sportspeople - for example, all individual Olympic Games gold medallists, all World record-holders, alll World Champions, and so on. Sadly, the over -the- top congratulations, celebrations and heaven help us - honours - look like going on for weeks, if not months. What will the Beeb's commentators say during the forthcoming Olympic Games - 'Well that was an amazing run/jump/throw to win the gold - but of course, nothing like as amazing as Leicester winning the Championship'?
Leicester did well. Well done to them. Now let's recover our sense of perspective.
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My wife's grandmother always referred to lolling about as, 'orma-gorming'. It was absorbed into the famly lexicon.
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Like LizzieM, I wouldn't normally comment upon the demise of 'celebrities' but she was a unique talent as a comedienne and for me, had the rare ability to make me laugh aloud and produced so many classic characters and stories that I would regard her as one of the few 'great' comedy writers.
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My father worked on the same farm as his father and other family members, in Norfolk. When war broke out, he volunteered for pilot training in the RAF but was rejected due to having perforated ear drums - the result of a childhood illness. Two days after the rejection he received his call-up papers to serve as a 'Bevin Boy' and was posted to Hucknall colliery. Having spent all of his working life outdoors it was a complete culture shock to spend all day underground. After the war - like a number of Bevin boys - my father continued as a miner for several yesrs until a bad roof-fall trapped him and he was hospitalised because of his injuries and subsequently contracted pneumonia. My mother persuaded him to seek a less dangerous job and he worked at a bakery in Hucknall and then as a manager at the 'Sunblest' bakery in Nottingham.
After my parents divorced he moved away from the area, returning several years later to marry a Hucknall woman and working as a publican. He had tenancies of a number of public houses including the 'Flying Bedstead' and 'Nabb Inn' before that marriage also failed and he returned to Norfolk. I never heard from him again.
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My vote would be for a - long-overdue - statue of the late John Neville, placed in the area outside of the Playhouse.
Apart from being a fine actor in his own right, he really put Nottingham on the map in the 60s as far as quality dramatic productions were concerned, and attracted a stream of talented actors to work with him: Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Peter Ustinov, Ronald McGill, Michael Crawford, Leo McKern, Edward Woodward, T P McKenna, John Shrapnell, Barry Foster, Bill Maynard, Derek Godfrey, Ann Bell...and many more
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I’d like to see a good old ‘cowboy’ adventure. When I was a child, western films and TV series seemed to dominate. Commercial TV on Saturday nights often featured a Warner Brothers western series (much more action-packed than the BBC’s ‘Wells Fargo’ and ‘Laramie’ offerings): Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, Lawman, Maverick, Bronco (Lane), Colt 45 - and there were episodes where the main characters would appear in each other’s programmes. I recall acting out some of the scenes with my mates the following day using our cap guns (why were they always unrealistically silver?) and using vocal gymnastics to simulate gunfire (so much more satisfying than the sound of the pink cap strips).
I’d also like to see ‘The Outer Limits’ again. There were several TV series focusing on the ‘supernatural’ – The Twilight Zone; One Step Beyond; Tales of the Unexpected; but my favourite was The Outer Limits. Each programme began with the same voice-over: ‘There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission’ and ended with the words, ‘We now return control of your television set to you, until next week, at the same time when the Control Voice will take you to... The Outer Limits’. Scary stuff for a young lad up past his bedtime!
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joe baker and ian storey-moore
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The 'Tonight' programme was very much a feature of telly-watching in my youth, too. Cliff, Fyfe Robertson, Alan Whicker, Kenneth Allsop - it was the first program that made me think about things - partly because topical 'serious' subjects were often presented with appropriate humour. There doesn't seem to be much on TV of that consistent quality today - or perhaps I'm just getting old....
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My mum used to use up 'bits and bobs' that had lingered in the larder a the end of the month and produced some very tasty dishes, two of which I often requested: she slow-cooked a pork pie in a pyrex bowl filled with two tins of baked beans - the jelly dissolved, the pastry was soft and tasty and the beans were tangy. With chips it was heaven! The other was another tinned concoction: she mixed a tin of baked beans with a tin of stewing steak and a tin of corned beef in a large deep dish, covered the mixture in mashed potato and cooked in the oven with a grating of cheese on top. I don't suppose either meal could ever be construed as 'healthy eating' but for two ravenous boys in their young teens coming in from having been out playing footie or riding our bikes, it was gourmet stuff!
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What did you think of the England match last night.
in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !
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England out of Europe for the second time in 4 days.....