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Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted -
17/12/2007
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22:32
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Childhood memories of Doreen Gail Bancroft (nee Maisey)Originally written in spanish 1998.translacion by DoreenGail Bancroft.
BIRTH ANYBODY ELSE BORN IN A PUB?
Edited by - Doreen on 01/01/2008 11:45:22 PM
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things.
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Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 10/01/2008 : 17:51
PETER
Nobody has ever made my brother do what he didnt want to do, he had a very strong caracter , a scorpio, he would never bend himself to anybody elses pattern , and was a dab hand at pushing everybody one way or another to gain his need. Dad had promised him that he would never abandon him, but during the separacion ,and divorce it was a long time before dad was able to see us, mainly because mother didnt gladly accept the divorce. But the separacion from Dad was too much for Peter he had almost no resorces to play with ....almost... At five years old he put the baby in the pram, thats me, went to the corner shop bought a loaf of brown bread, something we loved,and a bottle of tizer to start the long journey to auntie florries in Sawston in another county, i suppose its the only place far enough away that he knew how to get to, and once there to appeal to auntie florrie to phone dad up so that he would come ,and save us. He nearly made it he had walked all day non stop flat out.we were about 15 miles from our town, when a police car from the next county sighted us on the AI roundabout , and hauled us in. Meanwhile mum had gone frantic when a while after we left she couldnt find us, she did the rounds of all the friends and neighbors. she went to the police , they laughed at her saying what do you think we can do? nothing, untill they are not missing 48 hours we dont even start looking ,any way they are kids kids always come home when they are hungry, by that time we had been missing 5 hours,a six year old with a two year old baby. so she kept on looking but couldnt go far from home in case we returned ,and she wasnt there. later she returned to the police but they just were not interested. In the end the police from the next county arrived at the police station hours later with us , and all hell was let loose, first Mum was acused of neglecting us ,and not repoting that we were missing. then our local police were threatened to be put on some sort of a charge, for not treating the matter properly. peter was determined ,and later tried to run away again with me ,but this time in a different direccion so as not to be caught , but the police were very wary about not doing their job after the last affair , and we were found very quickly. As i say Peter had caracter , and knew he had to look after me, he couldnt just leave me behind, in those days he was my male father figure.
So ive been kidnapped several times in my life,twice by my brother, another time by the merchant navy, you can read about that in the time served in the merchant navy topic if you wish.
Edited by - Doreen on 10/01/2008 6:02:47 PM
Edited by - Doreen on 16/01/2008 1:45:46 PM
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 10/01/2008 : 20:15
PEGGY
At the time of the divorce Mum had been denounced for leaving us unatended after school,so she was forced to engage the services of an oficial child minder for me after school. To become an oficial childminder you had to have a certificate. Auntie Peggy was very proud of her certificate. in order to obtain one an inspector came to the home to see that it was clean, had running water,a toilet properly conected to the drains, electric light, and heating that didnt present any danger for small children, in this case the fireplace had a fixed fire guard, a coal fire was the common method in the fifties. apart from these requisites, it didnt seem to be of any importance that auntie Peggy had a very low inteligence,was incapable of an original thaught , or a simple improvisation in any imaginacion game. She had two teenage daughters ,and one son a year younger than me, a yellow wimp that cried or watched television he never played, it had to be the wooden tops every afternoon, spotty the dog ,and weed, this was a torture for me, ive never been so bored in my life. but when the big girls were in things changed, they had a wind up gramaphone and some records, I discovered rock and roll, they had 15 tu tu peticoats between them to make their skirts stick out , and they let me dress up in them once, and we danced to the records taking turns to turn the handle, it was such fun when it started to run down slow then we wound it up quick , the voice dragged ,and then ran. I remember how the girls used to wash and starch the peticoats , and then spread them on the grass full circle to dry, it made a pretty sight as they were of several coulors , and looked like giant daisys on the public grass patch. Dads lawyers decided to get ready for the court case over us children , and decided to interveiw Peggy to see if they could glean any usefull informacion out of her against my Mother. She was to be tricked into talking, so the lawyer went to see her , and did not say who he was just asked questions, she thaught that he was from the social security ,and thinking that she would be doing Mum a favor saaid that we went all winter without coats, and that we were starving ecetera , the lawyer was very happy with this ,and somehow engaaged her to make a statement to a judge. She was to be taken in a car, and given lunch in a restaurant by my father, As i said she wasnt very bright, and to ride in a car was the thing she loved most , she was always looking for an excuse to enroll my Mother into taking her for a ride somewhere, so the lawyer found it an easy task. at that moment the case was titering between the two sides , it was unheard of in those days that a judge could even consider giving the children to the father , but it was neck ,and neck, just one more push and dad would win the case, their trumph card being Auntie Peggy. When the letter arrived from the court Peggy realised what she,d got herself into,and showed it to mum, mum said that she had to go and tell the truth. so when the day arrived she went off in dads car was given an expensive lunch, then she testified That all that she said in her state ment was not true ,and that the lawyer had come under the guise of a social worker , and that she had said those things to see if it helped us to get more from the social services . then mum came on to the stand with her fotografh of the poor starving little children ,and she won the case. Dad was devastated , and afterwards he had to take Auntie Peggy home , she was so thick that she didnt even think that it would be better to go home under her own steam or with Mum after the case was over considering what she had done I think it was amazing that Dad maitained his gentlemanly atitude with her all the way home . Edited by - Doreen on 10/01/2008 8:29:19 PM
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
timgord
New Member
5 Posts
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Posted - 10/01/2008 : 21:42
Doreen,a fantstic story .like all good tales, you can't stop reading until the final setence is read .well done girl. tim gordon.
tj.gordon |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 10/01/2008 : 21:57
thanks Tim , im not done by a long chalk yet he he
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 10/01/2008 : 23:12
TARZAN
When spring came at painters lodge, the mud road on the way to Painters lodge dried out into ridges ,and weals,sometimes daisy touched the ridge in the middle , and the new greenery in the middle scraped her bottom. At the side of the lane there grew a great variety of wild flowers, of all colors, the fields would be full of fresh green corn ,and wheat, their green was very bright,everything smelt diferently in the spring, even last years haystack began to warm and the odd green shoot found its way to the light. me ,and my brother Pete would walk along the lane after the school bus dropped us off at the main road, he always taught me to count by this time he had got me up to a hundred which for me was the top of the world, but he carried on to show how much more clever he was to impress me he used words like millions trillions billions, from there on he made up words for each new rung of numbers that did,nt exist, i was sure that nobody had a brother that was so inteligent as mine . When we came to the bridge we spent some time making ecoes, its some thing that never tired us over the years , we always had to eco under the railway bridge. After the bridge there was on the right cornfields ,and the left for the rest of the way big thick shrubs , these were perfect for making bows ,arrows, and good long spears, we could play at being Indians or african tribes. just before we came to the houses there was the tiny spring, at this time of year you could find diminute bright green frogs the size of a thumbnail, i loved to see them jump after discovering them underneath a leaf. some times in emergencies mother would collect water here by making a little hole to colect water for cooking , that is when the cuba of water had ran out and we waited for the new one to come. we were free here to shout play get dirty run about nude nobody cared , nobody saw us , nobody heard us. my brother loved playing tarzan of the apes best, yes you guessed he was always Tarzan , and i was always Cheetah the chimpanzee. Near to the houses there was a tree house the tree was high and strong, it was the perfect scene for our games,. it was about four meters off the ground, and had a cord to climb up the tree house had been made by Auntie violets sons when they were younger. My brother was three years older than me, and had no trouble in climbing up the rope , but i never got more the a yard and a half up it. My broyher aalways tormented me from the tree house, telling me of all the things he could see, he even made up things that didnt exist like crows nests , and eagles. he constantly gave the Tarzan cry aaAAAAAR AAaaAAAAAAAAAARRRaaaAAAARRRR He was so good at it , as i say our family have a good pair of lungs on em, when he started up al the birds in the bluebell wood flew of in terror. Sometimes we played trekking in the woods, the wood was quite big i never saw the other end of it. Uncle Jack told me that the wood was full of wild wolves that liked eating little girls, ( highly improbable as the wolf was extinct 100s of years) but i did,nt know that. uncle jack did,nt want me to disturb the fur ,and the feather breeding ,and hatching for the next hunt, after all he was the game keeper , and they paid him for keeping the game. after thet tale , everytime my brother went too far into the wood i would be afraid , and run home again. By the side of the House there was an old black car abandoned for us to play in, we used it as a museum, we had flint arrow heads and axes, fosiles,skeletons of all sorts of animals, we didnt kill them , we just found the skeletons,the prize piece was a cows scull. when winter came it was very cold , so my brother lit a fire on the floor of the old car to warm it up a bit , but it soon got out of hand , and the car ended up burning untill the petrol tank exploded. Mum was very angry, but we were always let loose to as we pleased. we had so much liberty always, who would be the one to curb that when we got bigger?
Edited by - Doreen on 10/01/2008 11:18:51 PM
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 11/01/2008 : 10:59
TEA
When Mother was invited to tea with an old friend from the days when we were living in Cambridge City, i was alowed to play out with the ladyies son who was my age. The area was posh , a nice row of georgian houses in front of one of the parks very near to the bus terminal. the little boy had a tricicle so of we went to play in the street, on a hot summers day, we got on like a house on fire , one pedaling ,and the other on the back shelf , ticicles were made for two in those days , there was always a shelf for the pasenger to stand on, yo held on to the drivers shoulders, a simple arrangement but worked perfectly. Mum had lots to talk about , and her friend too,as they had not seen each other for acouple of years, so quite a while , and many cups of tea after tey came out into the street to look for us. And there we were absolutly nude going up and down the street shreiking or hearts out with the joys of being on a roman charriot. i had got to hot playing ,and had stripped off, my playmate had followed my lead. Of course this was very out of place in the city, nudism was something very badly looked on in those days even for four year olds. Mum was very embarassed,but the other lady went into a state of shock,and said that i had induced her poor innocent child to this depraved conduct , and OH MY GOD WHAT WOULD THE NEIGHBORS SAY!!. needless to say we were never ever invited to have tea again.
Edited by - Doreen on 11/01/2008 11:03:18 AM
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 16/01/2008 : 14:37
HANKIES
Going back to my infant school days, its strange the things that stay with you from childhood days, i still can,t go anywhere without a hankie.
Every morning the big brass hand bell would come out of the staffroom, and be violently rang, this was the moment of truth, nobody could speak after the bell rang ,and we had to instantly run to form perfectly straight lines each acording to their class. then we would march line by line into the asembly hall , which doubled as 1st infants class,where we maintained the lines in perfect order,we would have made passable soldiers on a parade ground. we would then sing a hymn, loudly, and if it was,nt loud enough for Mrs herberts liking it would be repeated untill it was, she never tired of hymn singing, so that could be anything up to 5 times , no verses spared, the poor soul that didnt have a musical ear was set about severely, and if somebody realy ofended Mrs Hs ear they were sent out into the yard intil assembly was over, for once she could not fault me on that score i had good lungs ,and was never off tune. Then came the crunch , the bit that terrorised some of us. I t was time for the hankie count. Everybody had to hold up their right hand, with a a hankie in their closed hand , with just a corner of the hankie sticking up in the air , one of the teachers would then make an inspection of the lines of hankies. if you didnt have one you were slapped very hard three times on the thigh,some times with a medium size ruler, or with the bare hand, this always hurt , and left red patches for a few hours ,if you had forgotten your hankie another day that week , the punishment was double. some of us were always repeating punishments. It was so easy to lose a hankie going to school, or not have one in the first place. Usually girls clothing didnt have pockets , and if they did they were so skimpy that the hanky fell out, if tou stuck it up your sleeve that was a sure way to lose it, and if you stuck it up your knickers leg , if they were not fairly new the elastic would be weak enough to let it fall out too. some mothers put the hankies on a safety pin at the end of the sleeve, so you used it pined on then stuffed it back up the sleeve. that was ok untill the jumper had to be washed then the hankie was separated for the whites wash , and not always remembered again. not everybody had real hankies, bits of sheet were alowed, or any other siutable rag. Here is when the school yard black market comes in... the thing was to find somebody who was a friend with a nice big piece of old sheet that could be torn up into smaller pieces, this being changed for that mornings buiscuit or milk, Another solucion was to ask permission to go to the loo just before assembly bell, and as it was not alowed that anybody interupted assembly oncea hymn iwas started, waiting for the second hymn so that you knew that the inspeccion was over , there were always three hymns. You could sometimes pull it off, but if you did that more than once a term they rattled you.
Going to the loo was a major event, and very publick as you always had to go to the staff room to ask for toilet paper,then cross the playground with it in your hand, somebody would invariably make some remark like hurry up or you,l do it in yer pants,...who,s going for a shite? these were things that under normal circunstances were never talked about, so having to do jobs on the loo were avoided at playtime if possible. the paper was hard ,and transparent , Bronco Billy make, and had to be handed out as if it were ratcioned, i could never understand why it had that name. It evoked the thaught that using it was like sitting on a wild horse because of its harshness. You may think that all this buisness of the hankies was a bit too much but remember that English winters are long , and cold. and snotty nosed children many, what happened if the child did,nt have a hankie? Imagine 30 kids wiping snot up their sleeves, or the candles on the top lip, or the sloppy one that just hang on a thread like elastic,up and down with breathing untill it fell splat in the middle of the book, that read :THE CAT SAT ON THE ..green snot. Then there is the blunderbuss type sniff sniiff sneeze caching whoever splatt ! was nearby, the teachers repeated the same phrase thousands of times a week : WIPE YOUR NOSE.
Edited by - Doreen on 16/01/2008 7:18:36 PM
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 16/01/2008 : 16:33
Keep going kid, we are reading........
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 16/01/2008 : 19:58
the reason for ratcioning the toilet paper was that it very good for tracing paper, and many would take whole packets home if it were left in the loo, The loos were by the way of three diferent sizes,and you were allowed to use them depending on the class you were in, one of the middle sized loos , there were two of each had a dicky bolt that used to get stuck if you drew it too hard , i remember being locked in for hours on a snow on the ground winters day ,untill it was play time when somebody could hear me. It was like that for severall years nobody mended it , and quite a few girls got locked in while i was there, after which were duly serenaded for a bout a week with: Oh dear what can the matter be , dear old doreen got locked in the lavatry, she was there from monday till saturday, nobody knew she was there. In the early years most of ouf sex educacion came from things that the older girls had drawn on the painted wooden walls, this was also the place to slander the names of teachers , as they had their own loo in the staffroom area. Our vocabulary was streched here too.
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 17/01/2008 : 01:36
A WHITCH
my second year at school passed without any major events in a class with a kind teacher , that did,nt inspire you in any way, but it was very pleasant not to be picked on by Mrs H who was only a thin sliding door away, I could still hear her shouts through it but i now felt safe away from her beatings. After the school holidays we moved up to the next class, now able to read and write quite well. Miss was younger ,she liked her work, i never saw her smack anybody. She always explained things very well, helping us to reason things out for ourselves,this resulted in better learning , and comportment, we loved her , and wanted to please her. in the afternoons the last half of the classes was dedicated to playing, or being read to by miss , and ourselves taking short turns. we sometimes play acted out, short fairy stories, there were no toys in the class except a few board games that were rarely used. But there was a large tea chest that smelt very nice , it was filled with all sorts of stage clothes, and we could dress up in what we liked best. Some times Miss would pick us out to go and get dressed for the play acting part, and so we went to the box ,and put on the apropiate clothes for each part, we took turns in this so nobody was left out of the fun . when it was my turn to play act she chose me to be the wicked witch, nobody ever wanted to be the wicked witch because she was bad , and ugly, the girls always wanted to be the princess the Queen and the fairy godmother. I did,nt mind to much, i remembered the night mares i had had about the wicked witch , but she no longer frieghtened me,so i took the part with some sort of inside knowledge about witches, always the one to make the best of things. the witch was described as making liberall use of evil laughter ,and cackles, there i was in the limelight with my black cape ,and pointed hat terrifying all and sunder with my loud and cruel laughing fit. i had won my first public. They made me repeat the act several times, each time i loosened up more , and made more noise . two of the teachers from adjoining classes came in to see what all the hulabalou was all about. the whole class were shouting more
!DOREEN MORE GO ON DOREEN MORE DO IT AGAIN!
Miss was absolutely flabbergasted, she had given me the part because i was the quiet one that was more passive than the rest , she had beleived that i was a bit slow , she didnt know about my age, but came to the conclusion that there was more to me than met the eye. She had opened some sort of Pandoras box, after that i was frequently picked to do my much aclaimed witch.
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 17/01/2008 : 18:17
V.I.P.s
It was some time since the Christmas we spent at Granpas house in london,he had taken us to what i think must have been Harrods to see Santas cave,and we used a space ship to get there , the stars flew past the portholes of the rocket ,and it made some outer space noises moving from side to side , I think it was a simulated flight cockpit roped in for the event at hand. When we landed inside Santas grotto , santa had gone to tea, there were only a few elves there, of course i knew it was all a sham, but the flight was something different to talk about when i got home. We were preparing for christmas in the class, we made decoraciones for thwe walls we coulored a father christmas with his sack each , the walls were covered with gaiety , and paper chains of our own making. we sang christmas carols for weeks at assembly, which was a nice change from onward christian soldiers, at that age i could not understand how they could both be christians ,and soldiers at the same time, some how they didnt mix in my mind. we read stories , about scrouge , the little match girl, and Rudolf the red nosed raindeer. A week before the Holidays it was anounced that Santa Clause was going to come to the school, at first i didnt believe it much, as i knew that he was a lie that grown ups made at christmas. But as the days went by , caching the general emocion that came with all the preparacions, all the story telling,i started to be a bit brain washed like the rest of us, Miss had never lied to us before , why would she do it now?. So on the last day we waited with great expectacions the arrival of a very important person Santa. He was late , and miss said it was because it was snowing , and it was dificult to see the school , so we had to shout santa so that he could hear where we were, we repited SANTAAA! SANTAA! for about five miniutes, getting louder , and louder miss covered her ears with the noise of us, then the door burt open ,and in came Santa Claus HO HO HO with a big brass Bell clanging in his hand , that looked surprisingly like the school assembly bell, the whole class shrieked with delight. He led us into the assembly hall where we were amazed to see his golden ,and red sled drawn by a live red haired raindeer, dressed in a green sparkling harnessthat came up over his head , where the small velvet horns were,this was wonderfull, santa existed in a way , even if his beard was false, it was the best , and only father Christmas i would ever see. The raindeer looked remarkably like uncle jacks goats , but goats did,nt have forked velvet horns like this raindeer Rudolf. It was all like a dream, every little boy had a toy car from Santas sack, and the girls had a little hard plastic doll dreesed in velvet with red , black ,or blonde hair the dresses were red , blue or green, mine was blonde with a blue dress,stuck to its body with glue. we were all very happy with the adventure, and having seen , and touched a real Rudolf raindeer was the best present of all.
But then when you are six all things are wonderfull.
Edited by - Doreen on 17/01/2008 6:24:27 PM
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 18/01/2008 : 23:30
KEITH
At home things had changed quite a lot. Auntie Violet ,and Uncle Jack were no longer in t he adjoining house. They had moved to another county, their house was empty ,and sad It looked enourmouse without all the furniture. the ivy leaf wallpaper had large white patches, and i could see the forms of the old clocks that had been inherited from the family had hung on the wall. one of their relatives must have had something to do with railways as one of the clocks was a very large stacion clock,all the clocks were of an impressive size but this one stood out from the rest,it was also the loudest. i missed the chimes of the clocks , when they were there we hardley noticed them, the three big ones could be heard way of down in the garden, to hear the cucu clock ,and the other one that played a little tinkle tune could only be heard in the house. The sound of the clocks had acompanied us for a couple of years , at night in bed they were always there like old friends. Now some times whilst playing out , you stopped instinctivly to listen for them,only to be rewarded with a silence ,or the cry of some bird in the wood. the chickens had gone the pigeons too only a few grey ,and white feathers in the dove loft, ,and no spotty gun dogs to cuddle. This silence was strange. Before they moved away auntie Violet was a little angry with my Mum. Keith the son that had been doing his military service in Malasia had come home, he was much younger than mum, but she was a vlumptuos atractive woman, and he a healthy young man,and these things happen...
Keith had dark blonde hair ,and blue eyes , he was tall with an athletic body, thin but with some muscles, that had been tatooed with roses, a hula hula pin up, and a heart with Mum in it . this was normal practise in the army who served in Malasia sooner or later nearly all of them ended up with a tatoo, and if they resisted ,their mates got them drunk,and they would wake up with one the next day.
Keith courted Mum, even yhough they were very different to each other, necesity gave Mother a country air at this time, but she was from acopletly different background, had been brought up in a city,had educated to be a teacher, an artist,liked classical music,on the whole she was inteligent. Keith on the other hand was the oposite, brought up in the country, a very basic educacion, he lacked the type of inteligence that pushed others on to greater pastures, but he was a rude happy soul, there was no bad in him , he acted in a soft natural way,no posh manners, and i liked him because he was aproachable, and understood some things that Mum never would, and the most important for me , he loved me ,thirty years afterwards he surprised me by taking a foto of me when i was four years old out of his wallet, it had always been there , i was his little girl, even thuogh he had re married ,and had fathered seven more children. He loved Mum too , and when his parents moved he told them that he couldnt leave her here on her own to fend for herself,with nobody to protect her, and with two small kids. I remember the Day i acepted him as part of the furniture , i came home from school one day, and went through the house to see if Mum was in or not, on entering her bedroom as a last hope of finding her there she was , Keith was on top of her, i thaught they were playing,. My attencion was imediatly taken not by the couple making love , but by something new, it was a large chocolate box top hung on the wall above the bed, it had a pink ribbon with a rosete in one corner , and depicted a can can lady by Tulouse loutrec. These three things Pink, art, chocolate, a perfect combinacion to win my mothers favors or heart. they had not noticed me opening the door , but when i shrieked OH! THATS PRETTY ! pointing to the chocolate box on the wall ,Mum screamed OUT! OUT! dont ever ever come into my bedroom without Knocking OUT!. I rushed out complexed, i did,nt understand why suddenly the ruless had changed.
Edited by - Doreen on 20/01/2008 09:25:57 AM
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 20/01/2008 : 10:13
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 21/01/2008 : 05:36
Brilliant pic. Better fitting shorts than usual. Remember Morecambe and Wise and the shorts with the wires in the bottoms? It was a sketch about Cleopatra.... Ernie; "Do you have the scrolls?" Eric; "No. I've always walked like this!"
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Doreen
hippies understudy
429 Posts
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Posted - 21/01/2008 : 10:04
HA HA HA HA there was nobody like morcambe ,and wise. Did you notice the fag in hand, and the roses, it must have been the set for wedding fotos, and he is hanging on to the trellis the pose , the glazed happy look, mud on boots.... I have the feeling in my water that this is one of those things the gang did while under the influence.
Dordygail
always the one to make the best of things. |
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