from Jim Fleetwood (1946-51)
Jim Fleetwood (1946-51) writes:
“I was just looking, quickly, over the COSA website and thought I would pass on a few memories from my schooldays. These are, in fact, culled from correspondence with Mike (Jeff) Jeffery. The vague “We” is used to protect the not-so-innocent.
1) In Form 1A(? – we were still in shorts I remember) some kind senior brought in a large bag full of chocolate squares to share with us (In 1946 ‘sweets’, you will remember, were still subject to rationing and, so, quite scarce).
Being ravenous young lads, we, gratefully, tucked in with great gusto. It didn’t take too long for the fact that the ‘chocolate’ was Ex-Lax to be painfully realised. (I don’t care if that IS a split infinitive. ” — The resulting hasty mass exodus from the School back door, across the yard to ‘The Bogs’ was, truly, a sight to behold! Preferably from an up-wind position)
2) The familiar sight of the School caretaker’s invariable routine of carefully checking the time on his old pocket watch and then, ringing the large hand bell to signify “End of Break’ led a small (nameless) group of us to one of my favourite moments.
We had removed the clapper from the bell and substituted a soft rubber handle purloined from a lavatory chain. Instead of the usual loud clangour, the bell emitted a soft dull thump which carried only a few feet.
The look on the caretaker’s face, as he struggled to understand what was happening, was comical in the extreme. (We had found places to hide up the old spiral staircase where we could observe) — Incidentally, was he known as “Nosmo” only to our year, or was this
a commonly used name ?
3) ‘The Big Bang’ – I have forgotten what form we were in at the time but we were in the Chemy lab watching Harry Jacques demonstrate generation of a retort full of hydrogen.
Next he removed the stopper for a few seconds, allowing some of the hydrogen to be displaced by air, his object being to demonstrate the explosive nature of such a mixture. He then wrapped the retort in his gown explaining that “the next time it shattered would be the first !”
His next move was, very ostentatiously, to switch off his hearing aid, point the retort down the lab, and remove the stopper over a lit bunsen burner.
The resulting explosion and jet of flame down the length of the lab sent us all cowering behind the benches, rattled the windows and doors, and brought both Spud and Pongo rushing to investigate ! As the whole class of white faced pupils hesitantly began to emerge from behind the benches, Harry, calmly, asked:
“Well, did you hear it?”
Obviously, a lesson well taught.
Ed. This last memory is also remembered here