May - Old Scarborians

24cold cocoa for which he was famous, nor agame of table tennis. He always asked for“Nazareth,” but as we never had time to rehearseanything our rendition was never verygood. Some years later I made a point of learningthe carol and dedicated it to Bon’s memory.We would sing “Christians Awake” at thestroke of midnight on the South Cliff and thenwend our weary way homeward.I remember a fish and chip supper which Joeyhad provided in the Dining Hall after a performanceof “Hamlet”. After supper we areasked to help with the washing up. There weredozens of plates to wash but we enjoyed theevening so much that we turned up for dutyfor both the Saturday matinee and eveningshow. We had a marvellous time.“H.M.S. Pinafore,” under the direction of MrCostain, was a great success, but three eveningperformances and a matinee was quite somethingeven though, at the time, it seemed effortless.When Cossie put on a production of“Merrie England” at The Open Air Theatre, thefirst post war performances there, they got thepriorities right when they opened the firstscene with, “Thank you Master Shakespeare,thank you Mr. Costain.” I was rather shy ofthe Costains, but when invited to tea by them,he smilingly said, “Do you like FatherBrown?” and switched on the Light Programme.Ferdie Freeman was tutoring me at Maths as Ihad carried a “class exam” for two years in athree year Chemistry course and couldn’t affordto fail again and so lose my degree. Comingfrom his home one evening, and whilstwaiting for the bus to Ayton I overheard agroup of boys swopping accounts of their recentexperiences at Juvenile Court. One worthy,in a strong Scarborough accent declared,“He says now I’m going to fine you four andthrupence and he bangs the table with his littletoffee hammer and says, and don’t you go anddo it again. I wonder what they do with allthose fines? I’ll bet the Mayor and the wholeCorporation go down on to the Foreshore andblow it all on shrimps and winkles!”Pike Richardson, unfortunately, suffered frommy clumsiness. One day, after Speech Day, wewere invited to tea with the staff. Whilst holdinga cup of tea I was introduced to Pike. Smallas he was he had a mighty handshake, whichresulted in my spilling the entire contents ofthe cup all over his best suit. I was so embarrassed!We always marvelled at Joe Marsden’s strongconstitution. He always found the hard andtasteless school pies quite digestible, eventhough everyone else always left them uneatenon their plates.Joey’s tact, or lack of it, was quite legendary.One boy who always came to school on a motorcycle and who had sight in only one eye,and was therefore, deemed to be at some risk,was asked by Joey, “…..er, is your eye glass?”To Mr Freeman with his arm injured by gunshotwounds and supported by and fastenedto, a large metal frame, was asked, “Do youthink it’ll have to come off?” Another classic!Commenting on the suitability of the stageblocks being used as scenery for the Captain’ssoliloquy in Act 2 of “H.M.S. Pinafore,” “Getthose things moved! It looks as if Appleton’ssitting on a damned bucket.”MEMORIES OF A GIRL AT THEGIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOLby Joy Hodgson (nee Youle)On a recent visit to my step-brother John Corradine(1949-54) in Wroxham, I was very interestedin his collection of Old Scarboriansmagazines as they brought back many happymemories. I attended SGHS from 1939-46 and Ienclose some photos taken at the harvest campat Myton-on-Swale in 1943. A small group ofgirls attended, principally to assist with domesticduties, but I remember many occasionswhen we were delivered in an open-backedlorry to the fields to pull carrots and flax, collectpotatoes and stook barley sheaves. In 1943,I think, boys and girls rehearsed and presented