School Part
2 before the pre- head injury part 2
2nd
year (year 8)
In the start of the 2nd year, it was
a bit different from the first year as we formed our friendship groups there were the class groups and break time
football friends.
I recall one of the fixed fixtures at school
was Ron’s ice cream van at lunch time. If
you were not having ice-cream, some people (cannot name who publicly ) would pop the bonnet of the van open and would mess with the engine recall Ron in his heavy set
west country accent saying ‘DON’T ROCK
THE VAN!! Or some time the occasional school bag would chucked under the van.
In school we were divided into attainment sets.
Some students were in top set, second
set or third set for math ,German and French.
The top set was for students who think that
they are very clever and would do anything for the teachers. Second set students
we were too clever to be in the top set and did not want to be in the top set. The third set did not need to be in the class
because their IQ was so high, they did their math in the shop or went home for
45 mins or didn’t come back and stay at home once registration was done, about
30 years ahead of their time the third set were mastering the “stay home and work at home” long before 2020 .
I was in the top set for German which was a bit
easy for me because I could speech German a bit when I was younger due to my
grandparents and mum (I was not thinking I was clever or wanting to impress
teacher , I was just naturally talented at the language ).
Everything
was going well at School until after Christmas. The students who were in the
top set who did German had got the bonus privilege of doing French on
Wednesdays after school for 45 mins. When the lower sets got to go home. That why
it was a bit shit being in a top set for languages.
My nickname when I was at school was Granny (I
still to this day do not know why) it started when I was 7 years old. My dad
told me that they will forget calling me granny in the morning, 36 years later I
am still waiting for that morning. When I started secondary school, I thought
it would stop but I was so wrong, by then I was so use to it I barely noticed
not being called Daniel . When the Games
teacher started calling me Granny, I knew that I would be stuck for life
as being called Granny. I think that I have been called my nickname much more then
my real name in my whole life. Also just imagine how confused my son was when
he was younger when people called me Granny (more on that later).
I loved games throughout my school years with
the exception of cross country (do they
still do that as part of PE ?) .We would have to run in the winter imagine the
fashion Daley Thomson era with the 80s
short shorts on in the freezing cold and
the rain uphill pass a restaurant and back. We would see the Games teacher car driving pass us he was in the warmth with his music on going
really slowly to rub it in. I can remember two guys had a very good idea that
they would do a shortcut. That would be a great idea apart from they got lost and the teachers had gone and found
them. The teachers were not happy at all with them especially as they has to
find them by foot .
I can't remember any of the other lessons apart CDT. My friend and I found one of those small knives. The knives (whittling knife I think ) were very sharp, and he said that he would like to be Blood Brothers, so I said that's sounds cool. First he cut his thumb a little bit , So, I did the same, but I cut myself too deep .My finger EXPLODE , the blood did not stop , I needed to go to the nurse, and We may have shortened the CDT teacher life a bit that day .That was not a very good idea because our teacher looked about 80 and looked like he was going to have a small heart attack.
I give up playing tennis on
Saturdays as to not disturb my new Football career. I got a transfer
from Shire Colts to Stoke Lane an
undisclosed fee. It was a good move for both the club and me as I was player of
the year in 1991.
I worked out quickly that having a girlfriend
would be a distraction for my football career.
So, I had to say no to all the girls who wanted me. At the end of the
year, after upsetting so many girls, we went on a trip for five days with our
year group to Wales .It might have been Weston-Super-Mare
I can’t really remember. What I do recall
is that it was great fun doing different things each day.
We had a do at go-kart or buggy racing I think. It looked fun
and easy but of course it was not. When it was my go, I went too fast and hit
the hay ( a bit like my son on his first adventure into racing more on that
later) . I got out of the go-kart with a bump my head which really hurt at the time without knowing in a month or so, I would
have a bit more than just a bump on my head. Also not knowing I was never be going
to have a real school year ever again in my life after that summer .
Before I go into what happened that summer lets go back on my great football career.
Two of my friends and me went to
a football camp for a week. The football
camp was where the England national team
did the training (not now). It was great I got new skills from the trainers and I met new people who were slightly better than me. They were a small kid who was
year below, but he was very fast and very good skills, and all the coaches were
talking about him, and he was called Michael cant remember his surname. It
might have been Michael Owen, I doubt
it, but I can say that I was friends with Michael Owen!!
A Few days before the mum and dads came, we went
to Spurs the football club. We had the choice to have a tour around the ground
or have a match inside the ground. I choice the football match inside but I
went to the wrong group, so I had to have the tour round the ground. It turned
out that going the wrong way was the right decision because spurs won the FA Cup
that year, and we could hold the FA Cup and have photos taken. To this day I still got that picture in my
bedroom. Not because the picture was taken 2 or 3 weeks before my head-injury, But
knowing that if I didn’t go on that tour, I would be signing for Spurs!!
my mum and dad pick me up after I
got my award, we went to see my Grandad and Gran and my sister. I show them my
new skills and my award. After we had our cup of English tea and the English home-made
cake. The next few days where spent getting ready for our holiday to France. Lots
of excitement Summer was here
All what I can remember from 1991
apart school was if you want to see a film, you would do to a video shop no DVD then just videos like
blockbuster. We had a top-class in the 80s computer, a Amstrad. For a game we would
have wait for about 2 or 3 mins to load it was so fast then and using tapes and
buy the games would be about £3 or £4. I had a game called player of the year.
I would play with the game for ages, the only thing is the I couldn’t save
anything of games. A friend of mine had
a Spectrum or a commodore. And each Wednesday morning I would get Roy of the
rover’s comics.
If you want to phone up a friend,
they were no mobile phones, You needed to use the land line. If you wanted to
see live football matches on tv. It was one game each Sunday on ITV the programme was called The Big Match. We would watch it after the Sunday football
when I played for stoke lane. We would be wet and cold and very muddy and just
want to go home but the dads would stay and watch the game. That was the days
when you got the first, second, Third and Fourth Division. You got teams like
Luton, Coventry or the old Wimbledon being in the top flight.
After school most of the people
would watch Home and Away on HTV at 5.10. Then after straight to BBC to watch Neighbors 5.35. The great era of the sunskissed soaps
Its time before the Internet and mobiles phones if you want to
tell someone that you like them. Give them a note by pen and paper at school not
texting. (More on my adventure in paper messages later too)
And a 99-ice cream with a flake
would be 80p not like now £3.50 or a 45 minutes walk to the local shop and back
like where I live today again that’s a tale for another day !
Thank you
for taking the time to read my ramblings – I do appreciate all the feedback
given . I am on a learning curve . Have to say I am enjoying the process a
bright side of Living
Merry
Christmas
Dan
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