Old Boys, Girls and Teachers Guestbook

home > guestbook

home

past

Welcome to the Guestbook
Feel free to add messages relating to the site and the school. The only rules are: real names only, no personal attacks and no unrelated messages (inappropriate messages may be edited/withdrawn without warning).

It would be appreciated if you gave an email address, where you now live and said when you were at the school, but you don't have to.

Plase note that if you click on an email address below you will need to replace ~DOT~ with . and ~AT~ with @ in your email program. The Guestbook presents these this way to avoid email address harvesters collecting your email addresses from the page. I know it's a pain, but it's very much better than the alternative.

Add a message | Search

There are 500 messages in the guestbook
<<< 1 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 50 >>>
Viewing messages 141 to 150

Alex Patterson VUA 1946-1951 | ad1935ap~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hello Mike et al,
With reference to Alan Wightman’s (AKA Sandancer) letter about the ‘2’s’. First, I notice that he has covered all the 2 words, viz, ‘to, too and two’. Well done Alan, and second, having ‘National Service’ and ‘horror’ in the same sentence surprised me. I was in the R.A.F. in Weston-Super-Mare and Forres in Scotland and had two wonderful years, which had positive impact on me and I look back on those two years with great pleasure. Perhaps I was one of the lucky ones.
Eric, I played ‘Loppakitty’ in the backlane of my gradparents in Garwood Street, to the strains of “Loppakitty, loppakitty, one, two, three. Off, off, off, with a “Whee, whee, whee”. I once overshot the mark and leapt headfirst into the back yard wall…and the Ingham.
Bruce, were you related to John Graham the giant long plunger? I don’t see him on any of the school photos. His name crops up in The Atom a couple of times, but not in the list of names. All I remember of him was his size…I thought he was a teacher and I’m not mistaken he ended up on stage at one assembly being admonished by Mr. Lucas for some misdemeanour.
Back to the ‘2’s’. The numerologists have been going crazy here about the palindromic date this week, 22022022, which only works of you insert 02 for February. But I’m sure it won’t be included 200 years from now when the corresponding date will be 2222222, when the same people or I should say their descendants will go ballistic.
Best wishes to all and for peace in Ukraine,
Alex Patterson

Wed 23-Feb-2022 20:36 - North York, Ontario, Canada

alan wightman | aconlan111~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Good Morning `2´ Mike & `2´ everyone,

From 2 years 6th. Form directly `2´ Catterick Camp for 2 years National Service & the `horror´ proved `2´ true!!
Anybody else?

`Sandancer´- `Geordieland´.

Tue 22-Feb-2022 11:16 - south Shields

alan wightman | aconlan111~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Good Morning, Mike & Everyone,

Heart-warming to see so much effort by `The Few´ to vindicate my choice of pseudonym.
However, I concur with Mike: `How the people from South Shields got this nickname is a total mystery - nobody really knows´.
Perhaps the need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer?

`Sandancer´.

Mon 21-Feb-2022 10:27 - south Shields

Eric Moyse | eric~DOT~moyse~AT~sky~DOT~com

Is no one interested in Loppakitty? Oh well -- Sandancers.
A few years ago I was at the Roman Fort and asked the guide why we were called"Sandancers." His explanation was and,he must of course be right,that in the 60s the pits in the west of Durham were closing, so the miners from there were bussed into Westoe Colliery. Banter ensued: the locals called the incomers "Hillbillies" while the incomers replied by calling their hosts "Sandancers." I always thought this was appropriate, considering South Shields' miles of golden sands and the Arab community of which we were pretty proud (I remember Harry Said as a grand lad). The sand dance performed by WK&B strengthened the idea, even though it was meant to be Egyptian while our Arabs had originated in Aden, Yemen. WK&B was a brillianty funny act, which I had the pleasure of seeing at the Sunderland Empire at least once.

Sun 20-Feb-2022 11:24 - Reading Berkshire

Neale Backhouse

Hi Bruce,
I know I said I was done with this subject, but here I am again with another nugget.
I just discovered, in a drawer in my bedroom,a whimsical little volume called "Passport to South Tyneside" by Scott Dobson,(1980). I'd forgotten I had this.
In it he reports in an article called The First Shields Ferry, that the Romans brought in a special unit from the Middle East to man this military ferry, who could well have been the first Middle Eastern people to settle in South Shields and subsequently become the oldest and best integrated community of that origin in Britain. Since 600 or thereabouts it became Muslim and indeed the oldest Muslim community in Britain, which has today a fine little Mosque in Laygate. I'm not sure whether this information is still current (the pamphlet is dated 1980) nor do I know whether Scott Dobson's research is accurate.(I must admit it does sound a bit hairy). Anyway, more grist for the mill.
Cheers, Neale.

Sun 20-Feb-2022 01:15 - Victoria BC

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Since "Sandancer" is mentioned on Wikipedia as being associated with South Shields that must be the case. Wikipedia can't be incorrect, can it?!!

"Why yer b*****r man" as they used to say. Whatever connection there may have been with a music-hall act (how tenuous can you get) I join the club of those who are totally unfamiliar with the term and have difficulty associating it with the Laygate area.

Sat 19-Feb-2022 16:21 - ruskington lincolnshie

alan wightman | aconlan111~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Good Morning, Mike & Everyone,

The origin as a `Wild-Goose Chase´ but can confirm watching their performance at the Sunderland Empire.

God says to Gabriel, " I´m going to create a wonderful land called Canada. Its people will be renowned all over the world and particularly in `Geordieland´.
Gabriel says to God, "Wow"! "If it´s going to be so great won´t it make all the other countries in the world jealous"? God smiled and said "Norway"!
"Wait until you hear the accent I give them"!

`Sandancer´ `Geordieland´.

Mon 14-Feb-2022 10:30 - south Shields

Mike Todd

Just to add my 2p to the story ...

I commented on Facebook a couple of days
ago that, despite looking into it on and off over the past 30 years, I can't find any evidence that Wilson Keppel and Betty performed in South Shields.

As my grandfather was musical director at the Queens Theatre, but there's nothing in his papers with any reference to them at all.

However, they definitely appeared in Sunderland on a couple of occasions.

They didn't even have any connection with Shields - one from the midlands, one from Ireland and one from the USA if I remember rightly.

"Sanddancer" acts were very popular in the 19th and early 20th century all over the UK - and some of these did appear in Shields.

The earliest reference I can find to a "Sand Dancer" act was an American act called "Cobb & Chapman" in 1862

How people from South Shields got this nickname is a total mystery - nobody really knows.

Sun 13-Feb-2022 09:22 - Rothbury

Neale Backhouse

First things first.
Happy birthday Alex. Eighty seven today and hell bent on a hundred and five! Go for it old boy. I wonder how many of our 1951 VUA are still around. Any idea anyone?
OK, now back to Sanddancer. I'm surprised that after living 26 years in Sanddancer territory you are unfamiliar with the expression Alex. Nevertheless I feel obliged to revisit what I said earlier.
I have heard the term used in a derogatory fashion but now methinks by outsiders to describe residents of South Shields in general.The obvious reference is to people of Arabian descent.Who else dances in the sand.I will rest my case there.
Finally to Alan. Way to go old chap. I sense sixth form stuff here. We have a linguist in the camp!
Cheers, Neale.

Sat 12-Feb-2022 15:28 - Victoria BC

alan wightman

Buenos Diás, Neale

Creo que ya estás enterado que el Himno Español no tiene letras ¡Ha sido un `chiste´de mí parte!

`PartiSandancer´, ^Geordieland´.

Fri 11-Feb-2022 09:33

<<< 1 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 50 >>>