| Subject: |
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Hawtrey House update |
| Name: |
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John Churcher |
| Date Posted: |
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Aug 25, 08 - 11:10 AM |
| Email: |
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jschurcher@yahoo.com |
| Message: |
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I am John Churcher, the author of the original article, which I am pleased to see has generated so much interest. I was particularly taken by Mile Thomas's comments, someone I had little contact with but who I always regarded as a kind of doppelganger; this for the following reasons. I too was in a class above my age group and like Mike went on to Uppder Latymer, where I enviously recall him buying the special edition of Titbits, or was it Reveille, with the life size centrefold photograph of Brigitte Bardot inside. Now I learn that he also shared my passion for Miss King!
In 1952, Mrs Stimson, in Akela mode, suggested I might like to present a bunch of flowers to some visiting female dignitory or other, called in to open a fete or present prizes or some such civic duty, a proposition that filled me with horror and stubborn refusal, a character trait which I suspect has served me poorly over the years. My suspicion that I had been chosen as the smallest (cutest? oh dear!)wolf cub was largely vindicated when the dubious honour was passed on to poor Mike (the second smallest, cutest?) member of the pack.
Second strongest memory: Ian Faithfull stealing my tricycle from the bike shed during lessons and pedalling off into the blue. Bearing in mind Mrs Stimson's strict prohibition against sneaking on fellow pupils I kept stoom (if that's how you spell it) Stm that is until an hour or so later when all hell broke loose at the disccovery of his disappearance. "Why didn't you tell anyone?" demanded a distraught Elfrida, or perhaps his mother. "You told us never to tell tales," was my reply to their angst and exasperation. I believe Ian got as far as the foreign offic buildings/American school that day: an intrepid lad! I'm sure he must have gone far.
Third most important memory (a tale of three Johns): John Davies ordering me to punch his sister Elizabeth, while we cavorted around the hall to Ann Diver, a commission I had no intention of carrying out, although I believe I accepted it all the same. I already had a crush on his sister, who that term had just started in the Lower Kindergarten, Instead I determined that years later when we were married I would tell her the story and have a good laugh about it. Oddly enough her future husband was in that class, yet another John, and a far more eligible suitor, I don't doubt, than myself.
Happy days what? Well some of them anyway.
Happily married now for 39 years, with three adult children.
Best regards to all
John. |
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