Andy

When you move to a new school, it takes time to settle down not just into the formal structures of the school such as school break times, weekly Assemblies, and your years timetable but also the pupils and forming friendships.

 Andy never Andrew who lived near Tarporley soon became my best boy friend to the point we were almost inseparable always being in the sides when it came to joint activities such as games or playing together at recess.

Between us we run the form Chess Club during dinner time recess arranging with the stuff to have classroom access during the period and to share  wall place in the store room to keep or chess sets and help other boys and girls out cos we were very much for treating everyone as a equal.

Andy and I shared something else, we shared a few of our interests and attachments for that era with girls, we were very nurturing  to others especially anyone who we saw as vulnerable and although we were eleven and twelve year olds, we still very much loved cuddles and teddy bears.

We also did manage to borrow the girls skirts a few times trying them on too deciding they weren't us and like me outside formal lessons we both wore shorts so with hindsight we were both boys but just a little less conventional than most.

It was suddenly around April of 1977 after taking a day off, being at home, that I returned to school to start gazing out of the window only to be informed he'd died in his sleep.

I was very very heartbroken to hear this and indeed just typing this today makes me cry because I so loved this boy, a boy who was to use that modern expression a "soul mate" someone who I cared for and it has to be said returned it hundred fold.

This is for him, a boy never forgotten, by way of  tribute.

School Soccer and the boy

Something that was hard to avoid when I was at school was team sports cos you'd know before even getting as far as picking the team positions if anyone was missing and there was spare kit about so the old rouse of leaving your stuff behind wouldn't cut it.

 Team sports are one of the most gendered activities in school which amounted to if you were a boy you HAD to play soccer which had a full kit that you needed to change into which is taxing if like me you have dyspraxia struggling with pull over, fastening and tying things.

First on over your vest would be a thick red football jersey with long arms and white ribbed cuffs which is different than most today and did help keep you warm in the winter months.
Next on were your shorts which were next to your skin to prevent your school ones from get damp and muddy.

It was always taken by our headmaster.

 Our shorts in the 70's and especially early 80's were short being  cut high in the thighs with contrasting ribbing along the hip seams and my last pair worn for soccer were just like these.

Personally I preferred them cos it was it more easier to move in than the longer ones which started coming back from the mid 90's onward.

Then came on your thick stripped socks cos you just NEVER wore your regular socks cos again they'd soon get damp and muddy which is no good for regular lessons afterward.

 Then came you dedicated football boots with studs to help deal with muddy fields like our school ones but were laced up so I had to beg other boys to fasten mine up for me and in that era we didn't have elasticated laces that could be pre-tied and you were inspected before team selection.

Team selection if like me you were physically disabled always had the potentially to be very humiliating  as one of two teams of  boys first of all had to have you - and often they'd sooner not -  and then find a position in whatever team formation they chose to play and usually they put me in defence and the odd time in goal so you'd hope you didn't let anything in you could just about stop.

Defence could prove a taxing cos they'd long periods of nothing much happening when my attention could drift off to passing aircraft or traffic as the school field corner passed a major road with trucks passing along it that interested me more and that was when my tackling didn't result in a yellow or red card being issued that is if there's didn't leave me on the ground for minutes being unstable on my feet at best.

Afterward we had to clean ourselves up as we had no proper change facilities, just a cloakroom with water and towels and get changed for regular classes.

Looking back on it I do sometimes wonder just what my attempting to play the game was about as later on I moved to school that played disabled sport which while taxing was more suited to me.

The conclusion I came to was it was about learning to have a go at anything and about trying however imperfectly to integrate me in non disabled gender norms for boys, to give me a space I might let boyish things out and join other boys doing the same.

While I was more open to playing sports across the genders and of preferred to chosen sports I felt more at one with, ultimately I believe in its own way it was another example of my headmaster caring for me by treating the same as all the boys providing an identity which while not being perfect was at least an identity and a space 'to be'.

For that I'm grateful.

Easter Boy

Easter was a time when we did a lot of arts and crafts, making home made Easter cards  from card and felt or making Easter Bonnets which I vividaly recall making of been around thirteen years old at my secondary boarding school.
I often needed help and I was helped by a classroom assistant to make my hat based on the ideas I communicated so it was my work just helped as needed to realize it.
I used thick card to make the brim and top and the used a lot of felt and other pre cut shapes to  decorate it, proudly wearing it that weekend as it was one where we'd go home on the transport provided for us

Easter of course means Easter Egg hunts that are most popular as the Easter Bunny has hidden them in the most obscure places and often a Big Egg from our school and parents too that I always looked forward to.

Happy Easter everyone!

Cub Scout Camp season

In a week that has seen the start of Spring even though we started the week with heavy snow  and has ended with warmer temperatures  and the spring Daffodils coming into full bloom thoughts always move toward things such as being away with others.

 As I explained earlier on, my parents didn't enrol me in Cub Scouts probably because they didn't think they had a use for a disabled boy in the pack even though later I learned packs in my era did.
I would of loved to have gone on an organized cub scout or main scouts week long camp because although it would of been hard for me, I felt at the time I needed the structures, discipline and character building that not only being a part of such an youth organization could of helped instill in me but also they would help me become more independent and self confident as one of the boys helping with that bond too.
Boys at least as I recall tend to have blind spots about packing often leaving it to Mothers to do for them but how would they know what to pack because a weeks clothing and so on is quite a weight?
This drawing is actually very good for explaining what you'd take and why you would such as Poncho's for keeping dry which in the country can be a problem during spring and early summer with showers as well as your regular uniform which to be honest is something I've always coveted from having seen my siblings at the time.
When it comes to swimming trunks, while most boys tended to wear the tradition V shaped trunks, I always preferred the more squarer trunks styled more like short legged shorts with a mesh lining.
The narrow aerodynamic Speedo types weren't around at the time that just fitted where needed for speed in competition swimming.

Tuned in Boy

Amateur Radio aka Ham Radio is something that has been around my life for a long time not least for my personal interest in receiving overseas broadcast on the Short Waves on various radios I had in my boyhood most of which also were capable of receiving Ham transmissions be they speech or morse code.
The Hobby of Ham Radio is really about communicating with others, learning and discovering more around radio and learning to understand and repair ones equipment as one big difference is the Ham Operator can build his or her own equipment and is expected to able to deal with anything such as interference from it to tv or audio equipment.
From around the age of ten I had a receiver built during the Second World War as part of matching set with it's transmitter used in England in the Spitfire airplanes to defeat Nazi Germany which I used with a long length of wire and a device called an antenna tuner to get the best signals on any group of radio frequencies to pull stations from Australia, Africa and the Americas.
I often listened to Ham operators from mainland Europe and conditions permitting  Asia or the States who would seek out "DX" - that's ham slang for long distance - stations for  contest where you had to get so many in fixed period on certain Ham frequency groups (bands) and would enter those I heard on a paper based log.
I had a small shortwave receiver and long antenna at school in my teens -the antenna being a source of arguments between school grounds staff and I at times  that I'd listen to certain stations like Swiss Radio Internationals Short Wave Jukebox or stations that talked about international developments and other cultures during the "Cold War".
My Dad got licensed by the time I was just sixteen so inherited some of his newer radio receiving kit by which point had gained digital displays for more accurate tuning and a 2 Meter Ham radio for the band used for local chats people at the club he belong to and to which I had been inducted in as that teen boy surrounded by men, used.
While I didn't get a license myself I did use under supervision the kit to talk 'on air' to other stations while attending club activities as "Junior Operator" and went to many meets called Ham Radio Rallies in my t shirts and shorts.
It was something I enjoyed as a boy.

Birthday Boy

Birthdays are both a important part of your social life as a boy because you often have friends over for tea and some kind of games such as pass the parcel, board games or maybe a kick about.
They came be awkward too for those family members who you don't really get on with but nonetheless mommy and daddy have invited least they be offended or for what I tend to call the wrong kind of presents.
They can be things you all ready have so are pretty boring, things that if they truly knew me they'd know I just don't like but cos maybe most boys do they assume I'm the same or if they're clothes they tend to be miles too big cos I'm small for my age.

I like teddy bears and oddly enough for a boy dolls although I do like models and music and this year I have some cds seeing it was my actual birthday a few days ago plus I love birthday cake to share.
I like to read and had this book which may be for girls but I like the whole series anyway.

Something that's a bit awkward is birthday focus peoples minds on your age and how you have developed especially if they haven't seen you for a while. The thing with me is I haven't much because of how I am so I don't have what adults call milestones outside of stuff connected with school like tests and exams so I am still a little boy except I'm taller and maybe weigh a bit more than I did.
It's kind of fitting then I tidy myself up and wear my shorts on my day as that's still me.

Snowy playtimes

This week it has been snowing and for me the Winter snow is very much a part of boyhood  so I thought I'd write something about it today.
In the main mine was a generation that tended very much to be out of doors playing with friends not least compared to today technology was primitive and not that portable so generally several of you would gather together from a couple of streets and make your way to wherever we were going to play.
Typically we'd do things like making big round balls of snow that we then fashioned into snowmen, begging coal and carrots from our folks to add the eyes, nose and mouth to him.
As well we'd gather smaller balls of snow and take turns throwing them at each other or passing girls for a laugh, the stronger of which would toss them back at us with deadly aim as our coats and pants got all covered in snow.
Our folks weren't worried about that cos we were having fun and they saw it as a healthy activity for a boy to be engaged in.
One that sometimes did trouble them was tobogganing from a step snow covered part of our recreational park down slope or playing ice hockey near the inland waterways in case the ice broke  or we struck each other with our hockey sticks or improvised skiing.
Although I injured myself fracturing my upper arm requiring to be in a sling for a period one year which by bad timing was the time of the 16+ Mock examinations, I always enjoyed the snow.
Snow was always a magical part of our childhoods.