Well-scrubbed infants
The 5- and 6-year old pupils of Welholme Infants School, Grimsby line up for their school photograph. The year was 1956, and that lot includes Yours Truly (4th from right, top row). Although I haven’t clapped eyes on any of my classmates since moving away from GY 60 years ago, I can to this day name every boy on the front row, and all but a couple on the top row. At the end of the second infants year, we moved up to the primary school stage, which separated the boys from the girls. Thus I cannot identify the girls here - apart from one, Cynthia Higgins, smiling (toothless) at the far right on the upper line of girls.
Alas, I managed to remove that smile from poor Cynthia’s face, made her cry in fact, and I have been very remorseful for all these many years. The story is that my father came along to pick me up after school, and while he waited, sweet Cynthia struck up a conversation with him. When he revealed that he was my Dad, Cynthia declared that she loved me. I reacted with disgust when my father relayed this to me, not wanting any truck with sissy girls. A day or two later, I gathered a couple of sidekicks and we gleefully knocked her around a bit. Some sort of divine punishment came in later years, as I had trouble in convincing women of my Adonis charms.
It is inevitable that we young boys and girls will have enjoyed varying fortunes as we forged our paths through life, and doubtless some of us have already passed on. I will point out one person who went on to grander things: plumb in the centre of the front row in tie and braces is the current Member of Parliament for the Cleethorpes constituency, Martin Vickers. I wonder if he still has a copy of this photograph?
Well-scrubbed infants
The 5- and 6-year old pupils of Welholme Infants School, Grimsby line up for their school photograph. The year was 1956, and that lot includes Yours Truly (4th from right, top row). Although I haven’t clapped eyes on any of my classmates since moving away from GY 60 years ago, I can to this day name every boy on the front row, and all but a couple on the top row. At the end of the second infants year, we moved up to the primary school stage, which separated the boys from the girls. Thus I cannot identify the girls here - apart from one, Cynthia Higgins, smiling (toothless) at the far right on the upper line of girls.
Alas, I managed to remove that smile from poor Cynthia’s face, made her cry in fact, and I have been very remorseful for all these many years. The story is that my father came along to pick me up after school, and while he waited, sweet Cynthia struck up a conversation with him. When he revealed that he was my Dad, Cynthia declared that she loved me. I reacted with disgust when my father relayed this to me, not wanting any truck with sissy girls. A day or two later, I gathered a couple of sidekicks and we gleefully knocked her around a bit. Some sort of divine punishment came in later years, as I had trouble in convincing women of my Adonis charms.
It is inevitable that we young boys and girls will have enjoyed varying fortunes as we forged our paths through life, and doubtless some of us have already passed on. I will point out one person who went on to grander things: plumb in the centre of the front row in tie and braces is the current Member of Parliament for the Cleethorpes constituency, Martin Vickers. I wonder if he still has a copy of this photograph?