Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, but that's still CH related.

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sejintenej
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Post by sejintenej »

rockfreak wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:22 pm . On the measures of OECD figures about inequality we show up badly. And also in the research by Wilkinson and Pickett in their much praised book 'The Spirit Level'. Homelessness, food banks, the middle classes sofa-surfing, an epidemic of knife crime (this not entirely based around recent immigrants).
The same applies in France. HYes, there are people sleeping in the streets. Yes. there are food banks (run by the Croix Rouge - there waa a long article in La Dépêche du Midi last year about Foix (where parts for Ariane and the aviation industry are made), sofa surfing - I knew a few who were doing it, not knife crime per se but how about the Gilet Jaune movement which puts UK knofe crime into oblivion?

Spain which is in multiple areas and languages has its own problems, many of which are hushed up. Remember the opression of the Basques and, far worse, Cataluna.
It seems to me that our fractured society is mirrored by our fractured educational system. Private schools, grammar schools, comprehensives, faith schools, free schools, academies). Does any other country in developed Europe have this ridiculous system?
If the majority of teachers actually took pride in their jobs there would be no need for different systems. When a maths teacher of A level students spends the lessons on preaching Marx (as happened to my son) why do parents want better?
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Post by rockfreak »

Ajarn Philip wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 8:59 am
rockfreak wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 9:10 pm ... rock climbing and snow and ice mountaineering ...
Well, that explains the user name. There was I thinking you were an early headbanger... :rock:

Am I the only one who can't help forming a mental image of other posters? In my head (and possibly my nightmares) rockfreak has einsteinian hair, Professor Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody's rolling eye and Michael Foot's duffel coat. No offence intended!

It's partly rock climbing Phil. But before that I did indeed write for the music papers and that was the reason that, on registering, I tried to think of a moniker more imaginative than, say, DavRed. I was never a convinced headbanger although God knows I covered enough of them and now have a mild case of tinnitus to show for it. When that little girl violinist turned guitarist in Rock School said that she thought that rock music was just pointless noise I nodded in sympathy and thought that I wouldn't have introduced her to rock through Kiss or Motorhead. I looked at the CDs (and sometimes old vinyl - I still have Dylan's second album on vinyl, the one with Susie Rotolo on the cover) that I have played recently and they run from Etta James, through the electric folk revival, through Joni Mitchell, through all the great 60s bands, through Steely Dan and Paul Simon's 'Graceland'. I've ducked out of modern popular music these days because it's simply not my generation any longer. It's the youngsters' music. There's nothing sillier than an ageing trendy. The last new album I bought, which I still play all the time in the car, was 'August and Everything After' by Counting Crows. I get a lump in my throat every time. Anyone else into it?
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Post by Foureyes »

JR says: "...My wife, Jan, of well over 45 years often calls me a hard, cold and emotionless b@stard which she blames CH for directly."

While I hesitate to challenge Mrs JR's views, why should his 'hard,cold and emotionless' psyche necessarily have developed at C.H.? Could he not have been born that way, or, perhaps, developed it as a rozzer?

David :shock:
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

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... answers on a pair of old bands to..........
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Post by sejintenej »

Foureyes wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 4:52 pm JR says: "...My wife, Jan, of well over 45 years often calls me a hard, cold and emotionless b@stard which she blames CH for directly."

While I hesitate to challenge Mrs JR's views, why should his 'hard,cold and emotionless' psyche necessarily have developed at C.H.? Could he not have been born that way, or, perhaps, developed it as a rozzer?
OK, JR and I were in adjacent houses at the same time but IF I met him at any time I don't recall it.
CH in our day did make you hard. You had to survive an alien environment filled with monster (it seemed) blokes out for their own benefit and survival and you, as a lower form of life, were prey. You were cut off from everything you were brought up with - parents, friends, brothers and sisters, the local shops etc and there were no substitutes. Get it wrong and there were two simple possibilities - a thorough beating by a housemaster caused by a lying monitor to prevent being found guilty himself or ending up in the sicker after being beaten black and blue and blind (as I was).(I suspect that at least he didn't get beaten because he didn't speak the local lingo)
JR, advisably or not, joined the police - I suspect the Met for whom I have little but contempt. My local force is not exactly civilian friendly. There was word of a possible barney and all off-duty peelers got into uniform to go and sort 'em out. (My ex trainee regretted not going because he was responsible for trainees who must not see such action).

With that background could you expect JR to be permanently all angelic and lovey-dovey? I didn't go through the second half of that (I merely concentrated on sweeping up the bl**dy limbs and trying to keep the rest alive) and my wife reckons I am cold. We were trained to be efficient - to take 3 minutes to dress, to whirl through the supermarket, list in hand, in 6.35 minutes ..... Our wives were not trained like that (excepting possibly denizens of the cellar's of Hertford, may the Lord have mercy on their sould.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

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sejintenej wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:22 pm
Foureyes wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 4:52 pm JR says: "...My wife, Jan, of well over 45 years often calls me a hard, cold and emotionless b@stard which she blames CH for directly."

While I hesitate to challenge Mrs JR's views, why should his 'hard,cold and emotionless' psyche necessarily have developed at C.H.? Could he not have been born that way, or, perhaps, developed it as a rozzer?
OK, JR and I were in adjacent houses at the same time but IF I met him at any time I don't recall it.
CH in our day did make you hard. You had to survive an alien environment filled with monster (it seemed) blokes out for their own benefit and survival and you, as a lower form of life, were prey. You were cut off from everything you were brought up with - parents, friends, brothers and sisters, the local shops etc and there were no substitutes. Get it wrong and there were two simple possibilities - a thorough beating by a housemaster caused by a lying monitor to prevent being found guilty himself or ending up in the sicker after being beaten black and blue and blind (as I was).(I suspect that at least he didn't get beaten because he didn't speak the local lingo)
JR, advisably or not, joined the police - I suspect the Met for whom I have little but contempt. My local force is not exactly civilian friendly. There was word of a possible barney and all off-duty peelers got into uniform to go and sort 'em out. (My ex trainee regretted not going because he was responsible for trainees who must not see such action).

With that background could you expect JR to be permanently all angelic and lovey-dovey? I didn't go through the second half of that (I merely concentrated on sweeping up the bl**dy limbs and trying to keep the rest alive) and my wife reckons I am cold. We were trained to be efficient - to take 3 minutes to dress, to whirl through the supermarket, list in hand, in 6.35 minutes ..... Our wives were not trained like that (excepting possibly denizens of the cellar's of Hertford, may the Lord have mercy on their sould.
Pretty accurate comments, David.

However, not the Met, but Surrey Constabulary, as it was then, and soon to combine with Sussex Police, rumours tell me.
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Post by sejintenej »

J.R. wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:40 pm J]R says: "...My wife, Jan, of well over 45 years often calls me a hard, cold and emotionless b@stard which she blames CH for directly."

While I hesitate to challenge Mrs JR's views, why should his 'hard,cold and emotionless' psyche necessarily have developed at C.H.? Could he not have been born that way, or, perhaps, developed it as a rozzer?
In my reply is that I omitted that we were being trained for Wipers (if you don't understand that your history teacher was a failure). Your best mate get killed - so F*** it and get on with gtrying to survive. That was the ethos of the CH toat JR and I knew. We even used WWI weapons.

JR was in neither of the platoons involved but some of us realised from our training that if necessary we would use our rifles or bayonets on UK citizens if the circumstances seemed to require it - no enquiry, no trial - just take him her out and do the deed. You have to be hard to do that in cold blood. (BTW saw my first corpse at 6 years of age). I would not be surprised if, like me, JR had someone really begging him to put that person to sleep PERMANENTLY. CH taught us to be able to handle that - in my case the man survived (he was a well known sports star) but was permanently handicapped.
Last edited by sejintenej on Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Post by J.R. »

Another good post, David.

I was fortunate in the CCF to become trained as a 'Bren gunner' by RSM 'Cookie' Cooke. There were two Bren squads in my time and I still have fond affections for the weapon.

In Surrey police, I had training with the 'Magnum', SLR, Colt 45 automatic, standard '38 handguns, all by the Army at Stoughton Barracks, Guildford.

Sadly, this was long before the advent of the modern raft of weapons avaiable to the forces today, which, I still at my age, would love to range fire. No - I'm not a typical white American gun lobby racist. I'm told that the Glock handguns are really remarkeable.

For the record, the only deceased people I have encountered was in my time with Surrey Plod. Never a pretty site, always a sad occasion.

Q.E.D.
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

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sejintenej wrote: "In my reply is that I omitted that we were being trained for Wipers (if you don't understand that your history teacher was a failure)"

Thank you for the comment on 'Wipers.' You were not to know that I was in the Army for 32 years and that I authored the C.H. book 'In their own words' about Old Blues in WW1. I spent several years sorting out the CH WW1 Roll of Honour (subsequently handed over to Bill Richards) and am also rather proud of the fact that I got Etta Harris's name included on the Dining Hall War Memorial - she was an Old Blue who was killed in the bombardment of the Hartlepools in December 1914 and had been omitted from the list for many years.
So, I am reasonably au fait with Wipers/Ypres and other WW1 matters, even without my history teacher!
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

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J.R. wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 7:01 pm Another good post, David.

I was fortunate in the CCF to become trained as a 'Bren gunner' by RSM 'Cookie' Cooke. There were two Bren squads in my time and I still have fond affections for the weapon.

Q.E.D.
So, you will be able to answer the password: which part of a Bren was 'the dog's delight?'
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

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LongGone wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2019 12:44 am
J.R. wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 7:01 pm Another good post, David.

I was fortunate in the CCF to become trained as a 'Bren gunner' by RSM 'Cookie' Cooke. There were two Bren squads in my time and I still have fond affections for the weapon.

Q.E.D.
So, you will be able to answer the password: which part of a Bren was 'the dog's delight?'
You've got me on that one.
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

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J.R. wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2019 11:45 am
LongGone wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2019 12:44 am
J.R. wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 7:01 pm Another good post, David.

I was fortunate in the CCF to become trained as a 'Bren gunner' by RSM 'Cookie' Cooke. There were two Bren squads in my time and I still have fond affections for the weapon.

Q.E.D.
So, you will be able to answer the password: which part of a Bren was 'the dog's delight?'
You've got me on that one.
According to RSM Cooke: "the piston post" Ta-dah!
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

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LongGone wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2019 12:36 pm
J.R. wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2019 11:45 am
LongGone wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2019 12:44 am

So, you will be able to answer the password: which part of a Bren was 'the dog's delight?'
You've got me on that one.
According to RSM Cooke: "the piston post" Ta-dah!

I should have got that using logic.

I honestly don't ever remember dear old 'Cookie' saying that, though I'm sure he must have during 'stripping, cleaning and re-assembling' !!
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Post by Foureyes »

The Bren - a very superior piece of kit, although the 7.62mm version was even better than the 0.303in we had at C.H.in the early 50s. For some reason, the only part I can remember, apart from the biggies like the barrel and butt, of course, was the smallest; the 'body-locking-nut-retainer-spring-plunger'! Who thought up those names?
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Re: Anyone else who hated being at CH ?

Post by scrub »

Hated it?

I definitely didn't like aspects of it and would have been much happier if some of those hadn't existed, but I can't say I hated it. A mix of some good and some bad memories of my time there. For me it's just part of the past and somewhere I hadn't thought much about until finding out about the court cases and some of the surrounding details.
I'd say that now I still feel mostly indifferent about the institution itself, but a mix of angry/disappointed/sad about the things that happened to kids I went there with.

Like a few others, I left with a few bad habits and personality quirks, but those have been mostly fixed up by now. Or, fixed enough for me not to worry about them in any case.
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