…it’s amazing what’s yeez can see and hear when yeez really look and listen long enuff… it all started with a small shrill cry of a wee birthing baby boy in a bed in a single-end city tenement… the warmth and comfort of a suckling mother, relieved the nine-month carry was over…
…the husband garnered whatever casual labour could be found around the slums, but most days they did have something to eat, a luxury not afforded to every family in the neighbourhood… the lad grew into as mischievous an imp as any in the street… no nursery schools or pre-play schools were ever heard of in their district… the next most distinctive sound in the boy’s progress was his sobbing at being parted at the school gates from his Mam on the first day of infant school, at the all-growed-up age of five years… the next six eventful years added scrapes to the knees, skinned elbows, cuts and bruises galore, no different to the pals he ran around the streets with…
…meantime, the succession of schoolteachers drummed the basic essentials of reading, writing and arithmetic into the boy’s skull … why they call it the three ‘R’s is emb’dy’s guess, coz it’s obviously ‘R’,’W’ and ‘A’… sheeesh… nonetheless, a government-financed bursary scholarship gave free passage to a higher school of learning for a lad from the wrong side of the tracks, where, although the school courses and books were free by dint of the scholarship, his folks couldn’t afford the new school’s uniform… his primary school headmaster stepped in and covered that cost… and so began a love for learning that stays with the man to this day… books, literature, science, especially physics and mathematics were great and wondrous attractions… even now, whenever he may feel the WURLD isn’t treating him too well from time to time, Master Gallacher* looks back across the decades to these formative days and is immensely grateful… good days and better days, Lads and Lassies of Blog Land, they’re really all we have to deal in… there are hundred of millions of school-age kids around countless distressed areas of the planet who have never as much as seen a book… and for me, I constantly remind myself… there but for the Grace of God go I… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…
*front row, seated, second from the left, practising the ‘innocence of a new born-Attila-The-Hun’ look…
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Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
Seumas Gallacher calls it ‘Blether’ which must be Scottish for ‘terrific storytelling’. Funnily enough one of the few teachers I remember is Mrs Miller who honed my reading skills at age 4.
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…I recall Mrs McLaren, Mrs O’Brien, Mrs Macleod, Mr Hughes, Mrs Blackstock, Mr Caplan, … all tutorial giants in my eyes..:):)
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You are a lucky man… I went to 7 schools before my 14th birthday as we moved countries a lot.. I do remember Mrs Briscoe/Vine (she remarried from one of my stints with her to the next. It is not to say that the teachers were lacking but I think I was so busy trying to catch up with different languages, curriculums and different versions of history that I lost the plot… my fault not theirs.. Have a great weekend.
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..that’s a lot of travel… different types of ’education’ involved in that alone, :):)
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Was smiling not allowed back then, because even the teacher isn’t smiling? lol
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…i recall it being kinda stern in classrooms but still a lot of fun 🙂
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Wonderful you ‘made’ it. ❤
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..thus far, at least, m’Lady :):):)
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You’ve great and wonderful accomplishments still waiting ahead. ❤
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..you betcha!! 🙂
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❤
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Those old pictures are the greatest. I’m also fortunate to have a good many. My parents also saved photos. I think you must have heard all of us wondering “Which one is Seumas?” 😀
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..yup, m’Lady, Suzanne… second from the left, seated front, all grey jersey …squinting my eyes , coz the kid next to me said the camera flash would make us all blind unless we screwed our eyes up :):)
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Sweet!
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..ah!. them was the days 🙂
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Yeah, that’s you. 🙂
Kinda weird, lookin back on those days.
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..as with many instances like this, Tim, it’s like looking back at someone else’s life :):)
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Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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Reblogged this on MARSocial Author Business Enhancement Interviews.
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