I am starting to think there is a treasure trove of images captured in old photographs from our world travels over the last 35 years. This one is from a series of ‘snaps’ taken with a simple and inexpensive camera using Kodak or Fuji film from 1983. The 3×5 print is all I have, but after scanning and a little photoshopping, I am quite pleased with the result. Hopefully, I will find more…
Perhaps my favorite way of collecting stamps has been to collect the letters, airmails and postcards sent to me and/or my spouse from countries around the world. I find that the more remote or “exotic” the country of origin the greater the thrill, but sometimes the sheer esthetic appeal is all you need. Unfortunately, the ability to practice this type of collecting has been significantly diminished in the last decade or two with the advent of electronic communication. I was fortunate to be publishing in the scientific literature for many years before pdf’s of scientific papers were available, and the only way for someone to receive a copy of your paper was to request a reprint through the mail. Consequently, I received, and collected, many of these postcard requests – a favorite example is shown below from the “CCCP”. A larger collection of these can be seen on the pull down menu under Thematic Philately on this blog.
Receiving UK First Day covers in the mail once or twice a month from the Royal Mail is a passive form of collecting, I admit…..but the array of topics and creative art that often (but not always) is provided in these covers is astounding. I have been collecting since October of 1993, and this ‘Sherlock Holmes” theme was my first received. To view more samples go the pull down “Thematic Philately” Tab on the blog.
We all had this tremendous appetite for live music. Coming from disparate corners of the UK, all of us being 17 or 18 years of age, escaping the boredom of living at home with families in sleepy neighborhoods, we just could not believe the plethora of live music many nights of the week at the University of Manchester Student Union, the Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), downtown venues and surrounding colleges. My recollection of those times was that our ‘band of friends’ would venture out most weekend nights for one of two performances, and also mid week when possible. I recently came across my first year (freshman) student union card, on the back of which I diligently recorded the band/artist roster for the first two semesters of that first year. A list-making & collecting compulsive/obsessive pattern that has followed me into adulthood.
A total of Thirty Eight performances over the first two semesters – here is the illustrated list with a few annotated memories. This is a pretty amazing list in retrospect.
Starting with the most memorable for me – Led Zeppelin at the Students Union, March 19th. Although it was March, the Union Hall was packed solid, standing only and getting very hot. I recall making my way over the tall window on the west side and climbing onto the ledge – fabulous view over the heads of all and then cracking open the window to help cool the room.
Act #2: John Mayall Continue reading
As kids in the 60’s we use to love collecting these gruesome cards – the more gory the better. The whole collection can be found here. Never had a single bad dream….
Club Atlético River Plate is a professional sports stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina and this is the crowd for this AD/DC concert. You can check out the whole concert on youtube, but just watch the masses respond in my favorite AC/DC song “TNT” and wonder how could you not get a feeling of megalomania if you were on stage? And what a fan base they have in Argentina – they know every word!
Taken while on a Jeep tour of the Sand Dunes outside of Dubai in 2011. You can drive for seemingly miles in one direction and then realize you have been going round in a circle….
John attended Quarry Bank – which was, at the time, considered one of the top two High Schools in the city of Liverpool. The other one was the Liverpool Institute where Paul and George both attended – there was always a rivalry between the two schools jockeying for first place. If you visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, you can see the following page from John’s school report book (below) which has comments from each teacher, with their initials, and semester rating for each topic. This particular page shows John’s report at age 15 at the end of the Christmas term. The year was 1955.
Twelve years later, I was 15 and at the end of the Christmas term with a report card that looks remarkably similar (below).
I was taught by several of the same teachers as John – they would occasionally refer to him, although usually not in a favorable manner at that time. For me, this was the 1963 – 1970 era at Quarry Bank; so the Beatles were going from ‘growing UK fame’ through world-wide adulation. Interestingly, discussion of John decreased over time at Quarry Bank by the teachers in contrast to the increase in the number of counterfeit carvings of his name in the wooden school desks……
Quarry Bank was a pretty fancy school for the times – you could only get into it based upon merit, my parents had no money and I entered based upon a “life make or break” examination system called the 11 plus that everyone had to take in that era. The exam consisted of three written examinations – arithmetic, comprehension ( I think) and an IQ style test. The last year of my Junior School was spent practicing over and over again for this exam – guided and driven by a ‘Mr. Wallard’ – considered a terror by many kids, but he was one of those pivotal people in my life that got me to Quarry Bank. I have tried to trace this man – who he was, more about him – to thank him, but in vain.
The School was established in 1921, and the main building was a grand sandstone structure with multiple additions and large grounds for sports, bee-keeping (a little more on that later) and, by the time I attended, our own gym, wood and metal work shops, an indoor swimming pool, science laboratories and one of the first high tech language labs. Class year photographs were taken at the end of the first year and this is mine below, that shows you the grandeur of the place.
Close to me on the back row, fourth from the right is Clive Barker of ‘Hellraiser Fame’ (and much more) – another famous, but not so famous alumni. Notice the front rows of students all wearing short pants – in fact everyone will be, as this was the rule for the first year in the school – we were called ‘newts’ and you can imagine the persecution from the rest of the school of teenage adolescent boys who all wore long pants!
Below you will see a class picture at Quarry with John circled. Notice the same main building behind the group, and the identical uniforms. You can see the front row boys with short trousers again, but I believe that this picture is part of a full school photograph so I am unsure of John’s age here. John does stand out with the ‘Skiffle group’ hair style in this picture. The equivalent in my class picture at that time would have been a Beatle cut (over the ears) – but no one would even dare.
Back to the report books. You will notice on John’s report card that I have circled two teachers that taught both John and I. The first initial is H.D. – the French teacher. This was Harry Deutsch (spelling of surname may not be correct). He was a charming individual, very kind with the boys, who had difficulty with controlling a class room full of adolescent males sometimes. Well, most of the teachers struggled with that if I recall. The second one is ‘K.I.L.’ This was the renowned Physics master – Mr. Leishman. I noticed he was teaching Math in John’s era. With initials K.I.L., it was inevitable in an all boy’s school that his nickname was “Killer”. And he was pretty tough – and physics was not the easiest of subjects. Killer’s reputation was enhanced by his lunch time activity of minding the beehives that were located in a corner of the grounds – he would smoke a pipe and ‘smoke’ the bees, often without head protection gear. There was a rumor that his complexion was the result of a massive bee stinging attack, although I strongly suspect it was simply acne.
The School was very focused on testing and written exams. Killer use to give us a short test every week or two and then re-rank the class, and let you know that on average the bottom 10 students out of the class of 30 would not pass the ‘Ordinary Level’ exams. You will see on John’s report card his ranking for every subject and then an overall ranking. I notice that his class size is 30 – the same as mine, so that did not change in between the 12 years between us. I see that John was in Class 4C. At Quarry the first year intake was 90 boys, divided into three classes of 30. Everyone was taught at the same pace for that first year, after which the top 30 were placed in a fast stream class (becoming Class 2A, then 3A, etc). This fast stream class took their ‘O’ levels a year ahead of the remaining other two classes at age 15 instead of 16. Class 4C meant that John was not in the fast stream and looking at Harry Deutsch and Killer’s comments – John was just not interested in academic pursuit.
