A nation mourns

We did not touch upon the developing news on Thursday as last weeks entry went to press simply because things were changing that rapidally so it was on the other blog earlier this week we touched upon the death in the afternoon of thursday September 8 of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral.

There was a special on CBBC by Blue Peter looking at her role and her appearences on the show itself such when she was awarded the Gold Badge.

Indeed reports since showed even some of her family were not able to arrive at her bedside before her reported death and that in effect there was a news embargo upon issuing it until the royals all knew having a family member working at ITN News.

As a Monarch she was very hard working, well prepared knowing who about the people she was to meet and the topics that would be discussed and very friendly even where sometimes protocol can trip one up when it comes to how exactly you engage with her.

She was the longest serving monarch we have had - many of us have only known her - seeing out some 15 Prime Ministers in her time.

The Royal family is just that - a family whose only major difference to us is they are born to serve - and I prefer to look upon her death as that of a girl who became a woman who reigned, who had a family we all followed, making scrap books of as children who themselves had children that we all knew.

In later years we saw the girl within with her jokes, those timeless expressions as things just turned comic and not least the great Paddington Bear sketch she recorded for her 70th Jubilee we only celebrated in early June.

Today we have our new King, Charles III having been proclaimed across Great Britain and Northern Ireland plus the realms and territories who will do his very best to follow in his Mother's footsteps and we give our thanks to her.

God Save the King.

Why best friends?

Seeing the difficulties some people are facing I thought the wisdom of Winnie The Pooh seemed rather appropriate because the kind of friendships we formed initially at school, then our home circles and later on college or work do go a long way in meeting our needs.

The company of those who may be connected around a cause or hobby by itself seldom enough because it lacks the depth being focused on the role and not actually about getting to know and understand the whole you such as what really matters to you, the times you may struggle with confidence or in need of emotional support.

Yes boys and men do have emotions and need to let them out as much as to let in others they trust for their own emotional wellbeing, talking through things.

Memories of the school bus

 

This time of year brings back memories as next week, school is back in England and I suspect for some of us the school bus is one possibly the best and the worst rolled in one.

If you were very lucky you may of had a escort in addition to the driver to deal what often happens when a group children are all together in a confined space.

One starts whispering things in the ear of another as the other soon enough works out they are the subject and dispute breaks out, meanwhile another starts pulling a girls braids or pony tail which is followed by screams as typically one boy starts a fight with the other over football or a girl.

Soon enough the bus stops and everyones told to "cut it out" and you're all back in your seats.

Some of the things I had was travelling all the way down to London and back sat on a upturned bin as we has insufficient seats, holding on as the bus would sway to side to side and vibrate as we went over potholes.

Another was trying to stop an unsecured wheelchair sliding in the back of bus coming toward me in those days where modern health and safety seemed eons away.

Somehow travelling on train was just a bit more civilized.

Back to school 2022 edition

September,eh? Not so far way now as we think about how the Hols have been for going out with extremes of burning hot sun and heavy showers that are so unusual for our Country and indeed this region that concern me as we look towards next summer.

Looking a bit at the past we have made five years more or less uninterupted at the Uniformed Regressors site although we had our worries  earlier in the week when it looked as it it had gone  but as it happened some wierd techy stuff with servers and Cloud force had knocked out a good number of sites including the users support site at TapaTalk!

We're doing things our own way there, always sfw, always the boys we were and remain intereacting as we are.

Of course September is when school is back as we look back to those days with our new uniform kit and just what our new teachers were going to be like  and at least with some of us who was going to be first standing outside the headteachers door looking sheepish.

In with this terms replacements is this Grey with Royal Blue jumper/sweater from Mr P and I might add photo credits Albert Prendergast Ltd before the fingers beckoning me are waving,lol!

High quality stuff that you feel great to be in as that schoolboy all over again, looking smart.

Toss in suitably short grey shorts and turn over top socks and we're as happy as larry.

Sports bags of the cylindrical shaped short were verboten for putting exercise books in never mind ones text books.  Some of us still recall the chastisment we had for getting our Geography classwork  books covered in oily crisp stains!

Happy new term!

Jackson Brown collected

 Beyond the 45 rpm pop singles I grew up with in early to mid 1970's  which tended to by people such as Gary Glitter, Showaddywaddy, the Glitter Band and obviously the Bay City Rollers I did hear on radio shows a lot of Southern Californian with the exception of the Eagles, singer-songwriter based such as Linda Rondstadt usually on Asylum or Elektra records  I enjoyed.

Probably the biggest with my was Jackson Brown whose songs were covered by the Byrds, Jackson Five and the Eagles and it is telling these albums are all on record in my collection.

The first album from 1972 features Doctor My Eyes and Jamaica Say You Will which covered by the J5 and Byrds respectively.

My copy is a UK first issue which like all until 1976 was cut at Abbey Road and pressed by EMI Records.

The second album featured Take It Easy co written with Glenn Frey of the Eagles and featured on their first album and These Days.

These early releases used a white label on the disc with the Asylum Records logo in colour which was estblished in 1972 by David Geffen.

1974's Late For The Sky is regarded by many as a classic of the reflective singer-songwriter genre and actually I have two copies, my 1974 white label original and the 2017 remaster  which is marginally more open.

It features For a Dancer", "Before the Deluge", and "Fountain of Sorrow".

It was nominated for a Grammy-his first.

The Pretender from 1976 was issued at an difficult time for Jackson Browne personally, losing a girlfriend to suicide.

It features Here Come Those Tears Again and the title track which sizable hit singles.

1977 saw many things, for me musically I was starting to by more albums and these typically showed more maturity thematically and musicaly than the mainly 45's I had bought following bands as singles having only the Rollers albums and odd Greatest Hits set bought for me.

Running On Empty was an unusual album for having songs recorded in hotel rooms on the road and the odd live track and this captured for me the vitality of this performer.

This remains his biggest selling album to date with the title track being a sizable U.S. Hit and has its original booklet.

Fair sized pauses between albums were not unusual but such was the trust in him we'd buy it straight away and Hold It from 1980 was a good example of that

December 1983 saw Lawyers In Love come out with  its clutch of singles such as Tender Is The Night, For A Rocker and the title track and had that on Chomedioxide tape and lp as soon as I heard it on Paul Gambaccini's BBC US Chart show on Radio One

1986's Live In The Balence concerned itself with the Cold War, the impacts of Reaganomics and the decline in the smokestack economy.

Beyond the musicianship, one thing he has been involved in for a long time is environmentalism and the threat to our welfare from not being a responsible steward of our planet taking part in campaigns.

Thoughts upon the death of Raymond Biggs

 

Goodness it's jam hot already so we've been on the soft drinks and ice creams trying to stay cool and as staying in the shade is a must I had been doing some reading.

A couple of days ago, it was announced that Raymond Briggs, a towering stroy writer and illustrator of the 1970's and 80's had died.

Raymond didn't, couldn't write soppy happy ending stories but more gritter ones that although he wrote for all children had a lot of Boys Own appeal such as Fungus the Bogeyman, a tale of working class bogeymen with slime appeal.

One that I feel is magical is The Snowman which was turned into a animated cartoon in 1982

James plays out in the snow, building a snowman who comes to life.

The Snowman and James become friends and James is taken on a majestic tour to see his world full of wonderment.

They return and the next day James sees the snowman has melted and so grieves for him.

It is one of the most touching animated films ever aided by a voiceless soundtrack with orchestral playing by the Sonfonia of London and the haunting song Walkin In The Air as James floats effortless with the snowman.

Writing this was quite emotional so rest in peace Raymond.

Summer hols reflections

Pretty much every educational establishment has shut for the summer hols although unlike the past some of us recall this no longer means the school is not in use.

For instance my local junior school, the one I did actually attend does have the breakfast and after school clubs running for working or "vulnerable" families even though they are not undertaking formal education.

So far in I have seen few school children about which suggests they are either away or plugged in to their electrics which these days doesn't mean the tv, games console or a personal computer but their mobile phones eating up the data allowances too.

It's also worth saying something I touched on elsewhere which is children don't wear uniform 24/7 even though we see them as schoolboys because they do other stuff like play and so may have sports shorts and t shirts on if not actual football strips if having a kickabout in the park.

Sometimes I think we forget that as adult little boys or schoolboys who for whatever personal reasons are emulating that life we do not have to either so for instance I may wear a t shirt and a plain shortish pair of sports shorts if out going around in the park.

You do look more blended in doing that when school is out than in your full uniform although there is no reason of itself not to have your grey shorts on as if you may of been visiting a mate rather than with blazer and cap.

We're not avatars, we're schoolboys of adult chronological ages.