Correspondence.

From Kenneth Watson, 6/2/02

Hi Guys

First of all my congratulations on a splendid web site, its almost 45 years since I left Downhills in 1957 and your site has brought back many happy memories of my school days in the UK . Together with the Friends ReUnited site it has given me the opportunity to make contact with old class friends in Canada and the UK and reminisce about events, teachers etc of 50 years ago.

Whilst communicating with John Cunningham he has suggested that you might be interested in some old photographs of a school outing to Gorham undertaken by Fred Hoskins 4th Form class in 1956. During this outing Brian Howett and Geoff Lane managed to capsize a canoe whilst boating on the Thames. For the rest of us it was probably the highlight of the day and most amusing,. However for Geoff and Brian it was not so amusing as somehow the local press got hold of the story and managed to turn it into a life saving incident. The first 4 photographs are of class members on a Thames pleasure boat later in the afternoon following the canoe capsize incident.

I don't know whether you aware that in the late 1950's and early 1960's there was a very active old scholars association that was very actively supported by Geoff Rowe. The primary role of the association was to provide activities and a regular weekly meeting place for the ex scholars as they first left school and those of us who stayed on over the years to help run it would meet for a pint or two at the Blackboy at the end of the night. Besides running the regular weekly meeting activies the association ran one or two reunion dances one in particular I was involved in at the Angel in Edmonton. It also had a quite active Drama group and in the late 1950's and very early 1960's put on several comedies that ran over 3 to 4 nights and were very well supported both by the school and the old scholars association. I have long since forgetten the names of each of the plays or all of the players except the last one that I was associated with, possibly because I was mostly involved with back stage needs but on this occasion was lent on to take the lead role . I have attached a photograph which I think includes almost all of the players in this particular comedy which was entitled "Widows are Dangerous" which you may find of interest. From memory the year was 1961 and the cast included from left to right of the photo- Marsha ????, Dennis Clark, Ken Watson, Jean Every, Roy Spratt, and Diane Fydelor. The Producer was Brian Reynolds, Stage Manager was Les Building and stage hands were Russell Chaplin and Alan Godfrey.

I hope you find the above information and photographs of interest they may arouse memories elsewhere and perhaps more photgraphs, who knows?

Thanks again for your efforts with the web site.

Sincerely

Kenneth Watson

PS Is it known whether any of the teachers from the 1952-57 era are still alive today? I'd also be interested in the timing of any planned reunion as it may fit in with a possible visit to the UK later this year.

More from Kenneth Watson, 22/6/03

[This was written just after England had shown the Aussies the way home at Rugby, hope fully a precursor to the World Cup].

Firstly, before I'm inundated with emails, I agree England were by far the better team in the Rugby match last night; Australia's performance was not up to standard. ( I trust you all got up early to watch it.) Fortunately we have a few months in which to pull up our socks before the Rugby World Cup is played here in October. Note that hither to I have retrained myself from mentioning Australia's 2-1 over England in Football known here as Soccer.

Now here's a litlle bit of history trivia that you might find interesting; I found it a lot more interesting than the history class of Henry Winbourne (known fondly as Windbag). He of the heavy horn-rimmed glasses and black Colonel Sanders gottee who taught history to form 1A at DCS in 1952-1953, and in whose class I had the misfortune to fall asleep. For which dastardly deed I paid the supreme penalty, a visit to "Basher" Baker who expressed some sympathy for and understanding of my predicament; however I recollect the fingers and palms still tingled afterwards.

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it - hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof-hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs." There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway,hence a "thresh-hold."

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while -hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old". Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and
"chew the fat." Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust." Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up - hence the custom of holding a "wake." England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins,1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night the "graveyard shift" to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer." And that's the truth... (and whoever said that History was boring)?

Regards to all

Ken Watson