Paradiddle

Used to like Russ Conway, think he sometimes appeared on the Billy Cotton Band Show! Didn't he have a finger missing?

In our house we had PHB soap!

Gas powered buses - nothing new!! Have two or three of these newsletters if anyone is interested.

Nice picture CT, much prefer the building on the left, the planning committee obviously not aesthetically minded - nothing changes!!

Went to the wedding of a farmer's daughter at the weekend, it goes without saying that 'We Plough The Fields and Scatter' was on the hymn sheet, however, the German bloke 'wot wrote the words' wouldn't have been looking out of his window at this!!!!! That's what you call a tractor, for sale at the moment, one careful owner, £250k if anybody's interested!!

I take it you enjoyed your school dinners then den? The bell at Gedling wasn't very musical, I think they just blipped the fire alarm unlike at primary school (Plains Road) where we had a proper handbell - not sure who had the honour of ringing it though?

Left school in 1965, started as an electrical apprentice at Players. Thought if I started puffing away I might not be able to stop so sold my allowance (Perfectos) to a relative. As I was there until around 1979, made a few bob without any damage to my lungs!

Took a stroll around what was the spoil tip, now part of Gedling Country Park. As previously mentioned, from the classrooms used to watch the buckets tipping so stood on what is now a grassed bank and took a photo of the old school - sadly the bulldozers are moving in next week! Had to zoom in a bit so not the best of pictures but shows the school and Perlethorpe Avenue which on a bike was very dodgy, especially turning the corner at the bottom!

David, remember taking the main music exam which was in the library on the upper floor. Not sure why Mr Wilson was allowed to be present but like you I needed a bit of help with some of the answers and whilst certain pieces of music were being played he did his best to give us some clues without actually saying anything, dancing a waltz springs to mind.

Thanks to CT who has repaired all my image links, thought I might carry on with this thread which stared at Gedling School. Sadly, the buildings are now derelict and due for demolition as the picture below shows. The music room which was on the ground floor and now boarded up was our form room in 1964/65, FDWilson being our form teacher. Those of us who decided to take CSE music were told we would have to be able to play an instrument and as I was able to play 'chopsticks' I figured the piano would be ideal for me. FDW had other ideas and so I ended up with the dreaded recorder. On examination day we were all waiting outside a first floor classroom and FDW asked who wanted to be first to demonstrate our instrumental skills. Somehow, everybody else took a step backwards and so in I went to face the examiner. I was so nervous that from beginning to end I managed to add vibrato - still managed to pass the exam though. Happy days.

Phil, I knew Bob Coote fairly well from my time at Players. All the factory clocks were sent an electrical impulse every 30secs, triggered from mechanical master clocks which Bob used to maintain. Whenever we altered any wiring to the clocks we had just the 30secs to disconnect and reconnect. If we missed a pulse, all the clocks in factory would be out so we had to go back to the master and send an extra pulse. When the clocks changed (BST), we had to go in on the following Sunday and either switch the master off for and hour or send another 120 pulses down the line. Spent many an hour adjusting the public clocks which most of the Player's buildings had. He was quiet and well respected and I'm pleased to say that I did know him.

Never mind the OJ and CLO, what about that 'orrible chocolate' covered in hundreds and thousands and that malted concoction ('mop')! No wonder we're all still chugging along!

LizG, no buses yet but you might like this image which I posted earlier but which has since gone missing!

Mary, came across Doug in the mid 60's when I started my apprenticeship at Players. He was a fitter and had to supervise me for a time and help me with a tricky test piece, fitting a square within a square! I also played football with him in the engineers team. Bumped into him a few years back at the passing of another Players engineer. A good man and a pleasure to have known him.

In the 60's the bungalow was owned by the Broadbent's. Knew the children, Jimmy and Shirley (who went to Carlton Le Willows school). She asked me to a school dance once which I declined - big mistake!!!