Tommy and I met on our first day at Halliford Boys Secondary School . It was our first lunch break and the prefects had just hung us up by our blazers on some coat pegs. With our legs and arms flailing I turned to Tommy and said “Hi, my name’s Paul and I really want to avoid these guys”. Complaining about the prefects wouldn’t have helped much as the Head Boy was the Headmaster’s son!!!
Aaarghh the Headmaster, his nickname was Boris and Halliford was less about learning and more about avoiding the cane! Boris had a whole rack of them. Benny escaped the cane by the skin of his teeth (that’s another story). I was next closest, one day Boris dragged me to the ground by my ear, I was screaming like a piggy, because he thought a mole on my ear was an ear piercing, it wasn’t. As for Tommy he was the golden boy who later went on to become Head Boy but I don’t think he ever hung boys from coat pegs.
Except for lessons, the one thing all three of us did were the school house plays. Tommy’s house Greville always won and Russell house, which Benny and I were part of, always came last. Not sure what that says about the two of us, I blame it on the master. The first time we did the house plays Tommy and I went into town and bought the latest Christmas hit – Jona Lewie “Stop the Cavalry”. You can guess the year from this (1980).
From the second year onwards Tommy and I cycled to school together. To entertain ourselves we would often cycle no hands while chatting or try out stupid ideas like linking the two handle bars. It didn’t end well. When we couldn’t cycle Tommy’s gran would take us to school in her MK1 Ford Escort, dirty yellow with a rusty wing patched up with a plastic bag later to become Tommy’s first car.
Tommy was raised by his gran after his mum passed away from cancer when he was 12 years old. She was an amazing woman who looked after Tommy, his sister and brother. To Tommy’s gran (Mrs B) Benny and I were known as her boys. In her lounge she had a drinks bar. I cannot remember how many times Tommy got back from college or university to find me paralytic chatting away to his gran. Recently his grans house came up for sale. To look at the floor plan of the house brought back fond memories of our child hood.
Good memories buddy, you will be sorely missed
2 replies on “School days – by Paul Milner”
I guess the adversity and hardships in school welded your friendships, I guess shared pain can do that. I still think it amazing how close all you guys are so many years later. I remember when I first got to know Tommy, asking why he drove every day to Sutton from Staines and had he considered moving closer to work, and he looked at me as if I had two heads and said I couldn’t move away from the guys… and as Jamie said to me, he was Neil’s family, the guys were his life!
Neil loved to go into Sutton as he loved people, none of this remote working for him!! he enjoyed interaction being face to face….and would always have time for a chat with work colleagues…