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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 0<br />
geography) were the very primitive facilities for boys and girls<br />
(separately, of course) and the air-raid shelters, more of which later.<br />
Juniors went out of their door and round the back to get to the<br />
playground, a tarmacked slightly sloping area bounded on two<br />
sides by the road. The slope, inevitable in Muswell Hill, had been<br />
reduced a bit by excavation so that by the fence and by the wall of<br />
the adjoining house was a short steep bank. At the other, lower end<br />
a stout wooden fence stretched across the playground, leaving a<br />
narrow strip of ground which was intermittently and<br />
unenthusiastically used to show that seeds put into the soil would<br />
sometimes germinate and produce a flower or vegetable. To the top<br />
right of the playground there was a small square extension which<br />
was meant to be reserved for the infants. In the garden backing on<br />
to this were kept a few chickens; these fascinated us town kids.<br />
Astoria, Finsbury Park c.1949<br />
we didn't sound too bad.<br />
We all got more and more excited and also more and more<br />
nervous. As the date got nearer and nearer to go to the Astoria,<br />
we found ourselves coming up with reasons not to go. The<br />
thought of going up on stage was suddenly very daunting, and<br />
would our bowels be able to stand it, but most important of all,<br />
if were honest with ourselves, we weren't as good as we thought<br />
we were anyway!<br />
Almost at the last minute, with a mixture of disappointment and<br />
relief, we decided not to go. So, the start of an amazing musical<br />
career fizzled out before it even started. But I still wonder, after<br />
all these years, if Bob can play more than 5 chords now.<br />
Mike Hiron 1954-1959<br />
TIN POT MEMORIES<br />
Muswell hill primary school<br />
The building was originally intended to be temporary so it was<br />
relatively inexpensively built in wood and corrugated iron. It was<br />
rectangular in plan and orientated roughly NW-SE. This meant<br />
that the five classrooms on the SW side of the central corridor<br />
were generally sunny (when there was sun). They each had tall<br />
sash windows, most of which could be opened and closed with<br />
the aid of ropes.<br />
They were fairly high up so that we couldn't see anything of<br />
interest outside to interrupt our education...... There were floor<br />
to ceiling sliding/folding partitions between at least some of the<br />
rooms, but this useful facility was rarely if ever used.<br />
The rooms were equipped with standard double iron framed<br />
desks with hinged seats and work surfaces and a pen rack and ink<br />
holder at the top. Teachers' desks were raised on small plinths.<br />
The walls would be plastered with teaching aids and occasionally<br />
pupils' work.<br />
Doors at each end of the central corridor let pupils in and out of<br />
the school, infants at the NW and juniors at the SE. On the<br />
other side of the corridor, working along from the junior end,<br />
there was a cloakroom, a store room, caretaker's den, a room for<br />
the head mistress, then the Hall. This had a platform at the<br />
upper end and many seldom used glazed doors leading to the<br />
outside. Beyond the hall, another tiny room served as a very<br />
cramped staff room, another store and the infants' cloakroom -<br />
all very tidily designed.<br />
Outside at the back (Le. NE, for anyone still following the<br />
Summer PE lessons often took place on the playground. Races<br />
were run up and down; as the fence at the bottom and the house<br />
wall at the top were not parallel, it meant that you had an<br />
advantage being on the side nearer the school - you had a slightly<br />
shorter run. I still remember the look on the face of the most<br />
athletic boy in the class, Eric Eveleigh, when I beat him in a race,<br />
having worked out the advantage. You collided more or less<br />
violently with the wall at the end of the race - it would not be<br />
allowed today by the H & S people. Half way up the playground<br />
on the right one could clamber through a couple of bushes and<br />
scramble onto the shady roof of the adjacent air raid shelter. This<br />
I would sometimes do on a summer day after returning to school<br />
from lunch at home. I would lie there in the sun with eyes closed<br />
and listen to conversations around me. I was most gratified one<br />
such day to hear a small voice ask, 'Is he dead?'<br />
I remember little of my first day in school, other than being put<br />
next to Barry Griffiths.<br />
Barry wore glasses, one lens blanked out. Not having met with<br />
this phenomenon before, I must have stared. In my class from<br />
the earliest days was Roger Heard; he and I became good friends,<br />
though we drifted apart after we went to Stationers', as we were<br />
in different classes from then on. I have recently made a small<br />
effort to trace him, and one or two other classmates of those days,<br />
but with almost no success. Talking about whom I sat next to, I<br />
remember being most upset once being made to sit next to<br />
Stinker Myers. Poor girl, I am sure she didn't deserve this<br />
nickname.<br />
At the other end of the spectrum, there was a sweet girl with a<br />
head of fair curly hair, whose name I forget at the moment, but<br />
may well remember before I finish this; she had a moderate<br />
stutter and although I didn't fall in love with her at the time, I<br />
remember her with affection. I did find myself attracted to<br />
Rosemary Dickens; she never showed any sign of recognising my<br />
affliction and at that time I was puzzled about my feelings.<br />
Whilst on this tack I will recall a school party when I was in the<br />
upper part of the school - no idea about the circumstances - at<br />
which we played various games which involved running about. I<br />
swung round one of the Hodge twin sisters and quite innocently<br />
and accidentally clutched her right breast (which must have been<br />
in its very infancy); I recall clearly the electric shock which<br />
passed through me and the subsequent wonder about what it<br />
meant. Today's young people would surely readily understand ...<br />
The Sankey twins, Ted 'n' Harry, joined the school not long<br />
before we went to secondary schools. They were good friends -<br />
and I really fell for their sister, Pat. I took her to the opera at<br />
Sadlers Wells a couple of times - so perhaps it is no wonder I<br />
made no progress with her! The only one of my contemporaries<br />
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