Ian Kirby
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I was at Fulham County School the same time as you, 1961-1966. I was in York House. Yes I remember Miss Clarkson, Miss Twigg who was very fat, Mrs Barton, who used to strike terror into me, Miss Smith who taught science, Mmsl Bayard ( cannot remember spelling of her name), but she wore her hair in a big plait wound around her head if I remember correctly, and being a French national, she taught French, and Miss Smith, who taught Art, and looking back, I think she may have had a stroke as the bottom part of her face was twisted. A great teacher though. Then there was Mrs Bell, with light curly hair, who must have been near retirement age then, who taught Music up in the Music Cells at the top of the building. The teacher who really stands out in my mind even all these years later, is Miss/Mrs Williams who taught English. If she got rather exasperated with you, her favourite remark was "I'll smash you!" We all laughed hysterically and probably made things worse. As I write, I am thinking along the lines of St Trinians for such an assortment of oddball characters, but what fun we had. Do you remember the home made sweet shop a couple of doors down, where the smell of aniseed cough candy twists lured you in from miles away?
Ian Kirby
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My father was manager of the Co-op Funeral service which used to be the site of the Angel Inn and we lived in a maisonette above the premises. At the back were two branches of the river Colne - a fast flowing millstream where I used to catch crayfish and see kingfishers and a slower branch that iced over in winter where I skated in Winter. I attended Stanborough seventh Day adventist school and later Rosary Priory where my best friends were Lesley Parrish, Amanda Cook, Sally Tedd and Gillian Benton. I remember the stench of the gasworks, taking metal scraps to Ausdens next door for pocket money, going to dances at the Top Rank (once the Odeon and later Sainsburys)and taking my dog for walks across Watford Fields and through the park at the back of the Wheatsheaf pub. I attended Watford Tech college and George Stephenson where I befriended Peter Jones and Peter Jennings. Would love to share memories with anyone who remembers me.
Ian Kirby
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For about 6 wks prior to joining the navy in 1963, I worked at the Fyffes banana warehouse in Williamson St. It paid about 3 quid a week (and all u cud eat). Still, a handy easygoing fill-in job for a naive halfwit 15yr old about to take the queens shilling and sea the world. The bananas arr from the West Indies on the stems and were hung in the firms hot rooms to ripen, B4 being cut and boxed 4 sale. I never got to use the sharp knives, but I WAS trusted with the (seemingly) less perilous job of sticking a fyffes label on each hand of bana. I recall being quite chuffed at the two handed speed in which l was performing this duty. However, the foreman (who ironically happened to be an ex R.N. Petty Officer), on seeing me licking the labels burst my bubble when he said, ''if u keep doing that ur mouth's gonna taste like a Shanghai ...erm outhouse''! As intended, this (albeit implausable) anology immediately prompted me to use the wet sponge provided. Alas, (along with the resulting slowdown in production), Shanghai, as an exotic city, took an Acapulco like dive on my bucket list. All sorts of huge, wierd and wonderful insects used to stow away in the bunches. Naturally, l'd take the bugliest specimens home to show off. Reactions ranged from wonderous awe to backpedalling fear. Fear was always good, so suspecting an elder brothers girlfriend mite be an interesting case study, l cornered her with a particularily sinister looking tarantula. The scream that reverberated around the neighbourhood was gratifying to hear, but it was when she kept trying to climb up the wall that l knew l'd struck the Mother lode... 24 carat ARACHNOPHOBIA! Eureka!!!
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When I was about ten years old or so I remember going to Liverpool St. station lots of times on the steam train with my dad. We would leave Enfield town about 4 a.m. to do the buying at Spitalfields and Covent Garden markets for our greengrocery shop. On the days we took the train the produce would be delivered to our shop by lorry later that morning. The huge steam engine would chug and puff out big steam clouds across the platform.