I don’t know when we, as children, first became involved in April Fools’ Day but I do remember my entry into the work force and trying to understand the ways of the world. Like most 18 year olds, I was more worldly-wise than my teachers, I knew better than my parents about everything. I knew …
I was, Dear Friends, a teacher for 43 years. I still marvel at the elusiveness which allowed me to get away with it for so long. But, Dear Reader, I was lucky that I received some good advice early on and even luckier that the arrogance of youth did not bar me from taking it …
There is a growing, gnawing unease in the Davidson equanimity as Spring approaches. I, Dear Reader, assure you that I have not slumped into a depression or succumbed to winter blues, but there are events in the news over the past few months which I feel the need to get off my chest. I recently …
If we are of a certain age, Dear Reader, we will remember the scandal that was President Richard Nixon. The break- in at Democratic HQ at the Watergate building and the subsequent attempt at a cover up meant the end of his presidency. He and his crony, Henry Kissinger, recently gone from us at the …
The adolescent boy could not wait. In 10 days his boarding school would shut for the summer and he would be home with endless days of sunny freedom laid out before him, a patchwork quilt of time that was his. Fishing in Scotland, fudge in Scotland, playing with his friends around the deserted castle in …
The fire roared in the grate, the wind howled outside. The rain spattered against the windows. But the inside of the converted barn was dry and warm. The sofas and chairs which had seen better days were occupied by a group of 9 adults. Before them was a man who was sat by the fire …
Like many of you I like the beginning of a new year. And, of course, I wish the world and its inhabitants an healthy, prosperous 2024 without war, hunger, prejudice and strife. I won’t go into a cliché ridden diatribe about this most important of days. But sometimes I wonder, Dear Reader, why we pick …
There has been great consternation here in Norgate Park over the building of a new Sewage Plant between us and the waterfront. OK, I know that I am not supposed to call it a ‘Sewage Plant’. I have frankly forgotten what its official name is. ‘The Rose Garden’ is a euphemism too far because it …
Obliviousness to the obvious is an aberration with which we are all faced at some time or other, are we not, Dear Reader? I have been lucky enough in my teaching career to have worked in three schools. I began in the London Borough of Hounslow, migrated to the village of Brant Broughton in Lincolnshire …
It was the end of the school year. Peter and his fellow RAF cadets had been driven from their boarding school in Somerset to an air force base in the North-East of England called RAF Consett. The ancient RAF uniform felt heavy and rough on his skin, itchy at important parts of his anatomy. The …
