British apathy? Check this out

Subject: British apathy? Check this out
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 16 May 02 - 07:46 AM

Are the Brits apathetic?

By way of the FriendsReunited site, a few of us former pupils of West Bromwich Grammar School met up last Autumn for the first time in thirty-one years.

We all looked exactly the same - minus a few heads of hair, naturally. One guy even recognised me in the car park, in the dark, from the way I walked!

Over a few beers, we had a great time telling un-told tales of yesteryear and generally dishing the dirt on all our old mates, including ourselves!

So, somebody says casually, it's the school's centenary next year, how about a re-union? In hindsight, I don't think we really appreciated what we were letting ourselves in for.

We had a lot of interest, from all over the world, and amazingly our (legal) limit of 610 attendess began to look decidedly flaky. However, we knew that the crunch would come when we sent out the invitations asking people to actually pay money for their tickets...

To date, four weeks later, we have over 500 (FIVE HUNDRED) confirmed attendees and some £10,000 pounds sterling in the bank. And it's still rolling in.

It's going to be the biggest re-union party ever and is generating a lot of enthusiasm. The people at West Browich Albion Football ground, where the main evening event will be held, are over the moon and pulling out all the stops. I printed off the tickets last week, four to an A4 page, and my local printer wouldn't take any money for guilloting them.

People are coming from all over the world (Bermuda, Canada, North and South America, Australia, Europe - you name it) and the local hotels have all given us special rates. One guy reckons he'll be in New York that weekend filming for the BBC and he is checking out the Concorde schedules to see if he can make it...we sent him a free ticket (to the event, that is, not Concorde!). Some people have other commitments, but have sent us a donation anyway.

My advice is that if you want a drink on July 20, don't come to West Brom - there won't be any left.

To say we (the eight organisers) are stunned is the understatement of all time.

Pete J(ennings)

PS. And given some of the anonymous crap we've seen recently on the 'Cat, I'm going to change my cookie to include my full name from now on.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 16 May 02 - 08:00 AM

I think you could be right. So the 'cats come out to play! My name was Sally Stamford and I went to Wigmore Secondary School in Herefordshire, UK. More follows on Friends Reunited.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Cappuccino
Date: 16 May 02 - 08:22 AM

That site has come in for a bit of stick in the press - some people have said what they really thought about their old school, and the schools didn't like it!

- Ian B

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: AliUK
Date: 16 May 02 - 09:10 AM

I don't get why the schools don't like it. joined earlier this year and have got in contact with loads of friends from way back when. It really bucked me up at times. Way to go Pete.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 May 02 - 09:37 AM

I was going to check it but I couldn't be bothered.

Seriously though - I have attended a couple of re-unions and they have been great up to now. Nothing like your interest though, Pete. Well done that man!!!

Mind I could always ask if there was anything else to do in West Brom but coming from Salford I would just be asking for trouble...;-)

Cheers

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 May 02 - 09:46 AM

That's really kewl! Have fun!

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 May 02 - 10:24 AM

West Brom eh - at least the Football yobs won't be active in July. I used to live on the Yew Tree - worked at the Avery site there for 13 years! and NO I don't support West Bromwich Ambulances.

My old school has open days every year but dunno about re-unions. I know one guy who would never attend a re-union - Eric Idle nudge nudge wink wink - he has a good reason to hate the school and he is right to. Me I'm apathetic about it - or would be if I could be bothered to finish this senten...............

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 16 May 02 - 10:36 AM

Nothing to do in West Brom, Dave? I live near Bedford...

Small world, Mr. Red (but I wouldn't want to paint it!). Lots of WBGS kids lived on the Yew Tree. Some of them still do. And some of them support WBA, unlike Harvey, who obviously supports Brum. Pete

PS. For overseas readers, Yew Tree is the name of a housing estate, (residential area). It's not actually a big tree colonised by Brummies.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 May 02 - 10:42 AM

I gather, AliUK, the problem was people going on and making pretty harsh and sometimes libellous remarks about teachers from all those years back. Including the kind of trolls that every interactive website gets from time to time.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: little john cameron
Date: 16 May 02 - 10:42 AM

Ah been oan that site for twa years an' never even seen wan name a recognise.Ah'm beginnin tae think ah dreamt the hale thing.ljc Great stuff Pete I hope you all have a great time.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 May 02 - 10:54 AM

Thread drift...

Do you know if the folk club is still going at the Prince of Wales feathers in Bedford then Pete? I used to go quite regularly many years ago and I am sure it was run by some guy from a popular 60's or 70's folky type band - but I'm not sure which!

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 16 May 02 - 11:06 AM

More thread drift (but it is my thread, so there!)

Dave, that would be George Norris, ex Magna Carta. The club is now at the Kings Arms (right at the bottom of the High Street, not the best venue for folkies) and meets every Thursday. It's now run solely by Mike Blair since George moved away (nearer to McGrath). They have occasional guests, but mainly it's a sing around.

George is still going strong, still as good as ever and does the odd local gig. I was with him at the weekend at the St. Neots (my preferred local club) festival.

Pete

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 May 02 - 11:21 AM

Saint Neots was who, please? (Really enjoying this thread!)

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: GUEST,Bullfrog Jones (on the road)
Date: 16 May 02 - 11:45 AM

610 at The Hawthorns, Pete? Biggest crowd in years!

Tee Hee

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 16 May 02 - 03:41 PM

Kat - Saint Neots (pronounced "neets") is a little known English saint of French descent but she was reputed to have been more than just good friends with a wandering minstrel who happened one summer to travel by boat down the River Great Ouse and chanced upon a local hostelry where the beautiful Anita ("Neeta" to her family, "Neets" to her mates and probably most of her clients) was holding court in the front window. Mmmm thinks the minstrel upon espying her I fancy a quick pint (or was it one) so in he goes and the ale is good and the gossip is fruity and he entertains all and sundry and especially the lovely Neets with his lute and after a while she is totally entranced by his finger style and custom being a bit slow that night she gives him a freebie and he so enjoys himself that he decides to stay on and he becomes a regular fixture of the inn, singing and playing and occasionally bringing his mates Mortain and Swervedick in to play with him, not forgetting Neets of course, and in good time and on a fair tide many more players congregate on a regular basis mostly Tuesday nights to sing and entertain the local populace until eventually when many centuries have passed the inn becomes the venue of the very famous and rightly so Neets Folk Club except that Roger the organiser can't spell for toffee and my missus says dinner's ready and if I don't stop typing into that bloody computer right now I will die a slow and horrible death and get not get fed so I haven't got time to work out where the Saint bit comes from or even where all the commas have gone or was it the flowers.

Bullfrog - I don't support the Baggies or any football team in particular but my old mate Graham, fellow organiser of the Great Reunion, does and he says fuck off, wanker.

Pete

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 May 02 - 04:19 PM

Cheers Pete - Yeah that was him !!! Did he have 'big' hair or am I mixing him with someone else? Brought back many memories anyway. We were down in Bedford around 1978/9 testing the North Star Horizon POS machine - pre PC stuff - 8" floppies etc. I reckon that project was the one that led me on the slippery path to computer consultancy;-) Took us months of travelling up and down the M1. I didn't drive at the time and got a lift everywhere so I got well ratted at the 'Feathers many a time. I assume my memory did serve me well with the pub name did it?

Back full circle - I was part of a team from Manchester. There was me, a lady called Jean who used to mix orange cordial with Glen Fiddich (Yeach) and a very tall chap (around 7') called Ron. We used to meet a guy from West Brom (Or was it Aston? mmm - Maybe I'm getting my footy teams mixed) down there - Max someone. Just need to remember his name now! Coincidence anyway!

I called in the feathers on my own and sang a couple of times before the others joined me one night. (Wednesday?) They were quite surprised at how much they enjoyed it and came back a few times after.

Eeeee. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be though...

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 16 May 02 - 04:27 PM

I think the effort that everyone here puts into Mudcat gatherings proves that we are not as apathetic as people think. I have tried FriendsReUnited but found several flaws -Coundon Court Coventry 1974 shows several male entries which is worrying since it was an all girls school at the time!!!

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 May 02 - 04:34 PM

St Neot: Hermit, and relative of King Alfred the Great. A monk of Glastonbury, England, he was ordained before he departed to become a hermit in Cornwall. Tradition states that King Alfred visited him for his counsel. (Feastday: July 31).

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 May 02 - 04:44 PM

Maybe someone should start up a version of Friends Re-United for folkies - old folk-clubs, broken-up names and so forth.

After all, there's a version for ex-cons who want to get together with people they were in stir with.

I love the bit where their registration page says "Convicts Reunited neither condones nor encourages the use of these pages to organise or facilitate criminal activity." We could have something equivalent on Folkies Reunited.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: GUEST,Julie B from home
Date: 16 May 02 - 04:57 PM

More thread creep. I was at St. Neots this last weekend. Pete Jennings, are you the Pete that was running the Sunday foyer singaround? If so, I'm the Julie who answered heartily in the affirmative when you enquired whether I had fallen instantly in love with Steve Knightly on seeing 'Show of Hands' in concert for the first time the previous evening. You explained that this is a well-documented phenomenon affecting the whole female population!

Julie

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Penny S.
Date: 16 May 02 - 05:53 PM

I've met up with one old friend on that site (which I heard about here), but all the rest seem to be lying low - and as these were all girl places, there's no other way of finding them.

But, on the negative side, after sticking up for the site when the head teachers started on about it in a ridiculously teacherish way, I found a rather nasty description of myself on our school part of it. Oddly, it was placed by someone who, from her own records on the site, arrived during my first year there, was in a different building, never taught by me before she left at the end of that year. She gave me a nickname, which no ex-pupil I know knows of, and which I had to have removed because it could be interpreted as racist. She hasn't been back, but it really hurt, the moment I saw it. It was rather sad trolling, of course, but harmless compared with the false accusations of abuse which some teachers have suffered.

To do the site justice, it has checked all the entries from ex-pupils, and returned many, including some references to dubious practices from one school I attended as a pupil which I know to be true. So it isn't entirely knuckling under to the "What are you doing boy? Well, stop it at once" brigade, while observing proprieties.

Its message board is dire, though- groups of people who know each other talking about nothing much.

Penny

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 May 02 - 06:01 PM

LMAO...thanks,. Pete!! Swervedick??!! Oh, my what images that conjures...I can't get no satisfaction...*bg*

Thanks, McGrath, as well...

kat

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 May 02 - 07:25 PM

"Its message board is dire, though - groups of people who know each other talking about nothing much."

Do I detect a touch of sarcasm there Penny, posting that on the Mudcat ?

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 16 May 02 - 08:01 PM

Dave, yep ol' George used to have big hair alright, beard and all. Was it Max Milligan? Don't know any 7' Rons I'm pleased to say, but have to admit I too am a computer/outsourcing consultant when I'm not playing guitar...although I can't profess to an 8" floppy!

Linda, our school was segregated boys/girls but that didn't stop any male entries being made...

Mac, how come you know about the site for ex-cons? And we already have a site for (ex-)folkies, you're reading it! And I know a lot of people who would say it was definitely criminal!

Julie, I cannot tell a lie, it was me. I'm dead jealous.

Penny, my experience of FR has all been good, so I share your anguish at its abuse.

Kat, you got me at last, what on earth does LMAO mean?! Is the first word "Laughing" and the last word "off"? And last time I saw ol' Swervedick (last year at St. Neots) his fingers were working just fine and his right hand was a blur...

Pete (going to lie down now)

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 May 02 - 08:50 PM

he so enjoys himself that he decides to stay on and he becomes a regular fixture of the inn, singing and playing and occasionally bringing his mates Mortain and Swervedick in to play with him, not forgetting Neets of course, and in good time and on a fair tide many more players congregate on a regular basis mostly Tuesday nights to sing and entertain the local populace until eventually when many centuries have passed the inn becomes the venue of the very famous and rightly so Neets Folk Club Sounds like a GREAT music jam to me.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 16 May 02 - 08:59 PM

From: Lion

Hi Katlaf!! Long time,no chat, WE should have a reunion! My sister Jan, based in Bournemouth is a major promoter of school reunions. One of the "old girls" even had an ancient uniform, left over from Senior School. We raised money for the local boys club one year, the following year money went to the nursing home where my Dad was living. These things are an absolute blast, unless some of the blighters drink too much, and get into fights but we pretty much KNOW who they are!!! Have fun.

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Trevor
Date: 17 May 02 - 05:21 AM

I agree that it's a pity if FR gets hammered because a few lameheads don't have the gumption to realise that in the real world they can't behave, and talk, like ten year old kids.

For me, it's the closest I've ever got to a time machine and I've found some of the contacts I've remade quite poignant. (Especially the old girlfriend who is now a great-grannie on the Isle of Skye).

And Pete, I went to Holly Lodge, just up the road in Smerrick, as did fellow 'catter Rana in Canada. Have a good time at your re-union. And up the Baggies!!

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 17 May 02 - 07:49 AM

It's amazing how many of my old school pals have turned out respectable; lots of ex-Bash St (aka Beechdale junior/infants) kids have become head teachers (including my childhood sweetheart). I ought to send off the fiver so I can actually communicate with them.

Steve

Subject: RE: British apathy? Check this out
From: GUEST,Bullfrog Jones (on the road)
Date: 17 May 02 - 01:26 PM

Pete -- Glad to hear the Baggies tradition of witty repartee is still alive and well in your mate Graham!

BJ