First post’s the past

As my Granny never said.

However you slice it, we are the past. Every single molecule of us is a slightly shabby copy of what went before.So we have to make the best of what we’ve got.

” Check your six” said every wartime fighter ace – well, all the ones who didn’t get shot down. ” Who ever ignores the pasty is doomed to eat it” … maybe I’ve I’ve got a bit confused there…

And what I’ve got was given me by my teachers. My Dad was the first. He taught chemistry and enthusiasm – I was a poor chemist but I lapped up the enthusiasm. He wasn’t just a white coat who waved test tubes about, he loved stories. When I was six he read me ” The Once and Future King by T H White. It’s a lovely book full of knights in armour, hawks, ants, beautiful ladies and battles. I lapped it up. When I was nine he read Shakespeare with me-aloud- we drove my mother wild. He acted in college plays, and I loved going back stage to see him in costume and make-up.It was thrilling.

Of course, we had disagreements. My teenage rebellion was pretty wide ranging. I didn’t want to be a chemist – and I would never, ever be a teacher and follow in my father’s footsteps. I was going to be an Actor and spent all my time in am- dram , in local theatre groups and in the university drama society. I wasted three years and came out of college with a bad degree and the dawning realisation that actors are more frequently out of work than in it. I liked eating regularly, so I did a teacher training course – just to fill in time.

I was a teacher for thirty years and loved almost all of it.

Thanks Dad

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