Online becomes off

Here we go after a rough few days, catching up and all of that.

Last week saw an announcement I was rather pleased to read about that covers part of this district which I feel matters and that is concerning the use, some might say misuse, of the Smartphone  by boys and girls at school and beyond.

The first thing was once social media site decided to have special rules and settings for those sixteen and under that include settings only a parent can adjust by default to limit what can be seen  and ensure parents who often are the ones buying the phone and it's mobile connection are aware of what they're up to.

As we weren't allowed in Adult Magazine and Sex shops at fourteen and often our folks were told if we'd been seen up to no good I agree totally even if more could be done.

It's a start.

The other is some local Academy Schools are are on the list to ban phone from being used in school grounds beyond a very narrow exemption list such was where such a phone is used to monitor Blood Sugar levels for a diabetic.

They will be handed in on arrival given some children may need them in the Phonebox free era we are in if they become unwell or need to contact home or school urgently and handed back at the end of school.

That should stop the continous low level distruption in the classroom from phones "going off", sharing content, attempting to film teachers, fellow pupils and the 50+ alerts the modern childs during school time.

Just imagine it a recess where you have to talk or play rather than doing the socially isolated zombie thing staring into the phone not actually getting a break from work!

Where schools have tried this it has transformed things for the good although like any addiction (and sadly it IS) the "cold turkey" period can be bit rough .

As much as I'd of loved to had had the internet at high school for keeping in touch and researching things I'm glad I didn't feel obliged to spend every other minute at home and at school focussed on social media  just having a kick about or playing Chess at the club Andy and I run instead.

Picture taking

Things that started in boyhood included photography mainly driven from seeing how pictures reminded me of times in the past and the need, the desire even to freeze that moment although it took a while to get a camera of my own.

I do have on another blog a bit more around photography mainly around the gear I bought around the early 1990's so tends to take more of technical take rather than practical or uses of approach as gear is a means very much to an end.

While I didn't have a camera like these boys are getting to grips with using - and don't get me started about burying "stuff" in menus you really need - I did borrow Dad's then Olympus Om2sp and a few lenses which usually result a few crash courses on getting the "right" settings - and the importance of focusing as many of the cameras I had as a youngster were either prefixed designed to be sharp enough with a fairly wide set of distances or automatic focus in which instance it set itself (in theory at least).

In the main I was more centred on getting good pictures of places I was at rather than things around composing a picture and achieving certain effects so the ability to quickly set it and take the picture counted for more.

Essentially I wanted higher quality pictures of the sort I'd normally take although later on I did follow a training course in taking more control and learning how to use the camera to take pictures as I wished them to be, learning about getting softer backgrounds, taking better pictures of waterfalls, making better use of flash to deal with wide contrasts and so on.

Photography is a school subject with examinations - I remember seeing 'O' level photography as a subject you could take in your options - although as with mosts arts subjects getting a name, exhibiting and being seen counts for almost as much as your qualifications.

There are badges in Scouts and Guides too you can earn for it.

R.I.P. Brian Trueman

On Tuesday September 3rd, we lost Brian Truman, aged 92, who wrote Dangermouse, Count Duckula its spin off series, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Cockleshell Bay plus Chorlton and the Wheelies all of which were amongst our favourite cartoons growing up.

He also presented Children's Hour, Clitheroe Kid, Scene at 6.30, Granada Reports, Brass Tacks and the much missed Screen Test that mixed quizes on current children's films with features on making your own short films.

Of those shows, Danger Mouse, whose main characters were voiced by Only Fools and Horses star David Jason and Carry On star Terry Scott, was perhaps the most famous.

Jason played the fearless hero, self-titled the "world's greatest secret agent", while Scott starred as his hapless sidekick, Penfold.

Trueman contributed to 79 episodes of the original Danger Mouse series, according to his IMDb page.

The original show ran from 1981 to 1992 and was brought back by the BBC from 2015 to 2019.

He was also credited for writing 11 episodes of the cartoon Count Duckula, tht was a spin off from Danger Mouse which followed the adventures of a vegetarian vampire obsessed with fame and wealth.

Count Duckula aired from 6 September 1988 to 16 February 1993 across four series; in all, 65 episodes were made, each about 22 minutes long.

All have been released on DVD in the UK, while only the first series has been released in North America.

The Magic Ball, Jamie and the Magic Torch  and Chorlton & The Wheelies.

He will be sadly missed by many of us.

Autumn term starts here!

 

When you see this ones Alma Mater will have returned to start the Autumn Term and indeed on Tuesday morning I saw Reception and the First Year infants filing past the front door enroute, the very route I took myself.

One thing I will say for the local boys there is I did see them about during the Summer Hols, just playing, going off on their bicycles having a kick about in groups of five or six being active in the fresh air having fun, staying safe.

When one reads of how some even Junior children don't feel safe in their own communities or where the influence of the Smartphone has crept into even their world in a way beyond what we'd of imagined then that's just fantastic.

It is possible to have the sort of fun we had.

Talking of fun, I will be away at the weekend with a good number of people here that know me so appearence will be toned down a little but it will be little-ish on a seaside resort reconnecting with all the fun I loved doing that as a kid

The mid 80's and moving back in time

From where all of this life came is by no means a bad question to ask when you think about it.

Some clearly was routed in the period of official childhood, the memories of what you did, how things and indeed how you looked plus as I got into into my early teens I did start regressing not that it was a word I knew then.

We've looked at bits from the past on this blog  but the next phase started a few years later and it's that we'll talk about this week.

The mid nineteen eighties were quite an important point in modern British history as institutions changed, and there was much bitter conflict not least here in the North Staffordshire coalfield that has only recently began to heal.

By this period, I was out of school  and its routines and in the world of work after a period of stops and starts getting a job which was difficult back then but it was the first indication that really I was growing apart from my peers who were thinking more about things like savings, getting into things like marriage and they seemed to see each other as adults.

I just didn't feel remotely that way.

While many of my age then went on Club 18-30 holidays, I was still on hols with Mum and Dad looking superficially in my teens visiting places together, spending hours on the beach exploring  and even making sandcastles.

Things like scouting  still had an appeal as much as I knew in my head there was no way I could drop right back to where I felt I belonged and indeed as I found a good decade and a bit later in another context I couldn't stop myself from involuntarily dropping into that child so really it wouldn't of worked out well to had got an adult role either.

At home one brother had got married and left and another was going through a period of girlfriends who needless to say came over from time to time so stuff at home was changing from when I was i my last year of school.

I did start exploring and revisiting the places nearby where I played and met up with as that young boy with a view to at least acknowleging the pull all of that had over me even if they like time itself had moved on.

Given how things turned out in 1980 where some of my old cubs stuff got removed, I knew I had to be careful about how often I'd attempt to dress more as I saw myself as clearly Mum felt then you didn't "need" them and seemed to more into trying to make me look look like a pint sized dad even if what was within was anything but.

I did work on trying to get a more younger look by stealth,  helped by fitting more in bigger teens clothing as my body shape wasn't as well developed as most adults and indeed my arms remain no wider than a child's even now.

I just knew I needed to look more as I saw me even if of necessity the more schoolboyish look had to be hidden.

What I learned over the years

To be honest I've been still mulling over really  the emotional impact of being among people I knew specifically those I knew as either children or adults at school at Mr Cowe's funeral last Tuesday and really what I've learned over all those years.

There are some reflections I do feel the need to talk about about on here one is learning to be grateful for what people freely do for you such as the time seeing I was struggling at one railway station, a couple kindly offered to help carry my luggage and even checked when I got to the end of the stairwell I was all right who I no idea of. I thanked them profusely for caring so much and acting on it.

Then's there is the ability, however difficult I find it with being autistic to go to people I don't know, ask  if I may sit next to them and strike up a conversation about a common person in our lives, which I have got better at.

There's the people who kept an eye on me as I was feeling a little homesick where I stayed away several times, spending time with and the friend who knowing the sort of fiction I like, gave me a cherished book from their collection which they sure didn't have to and to which I didn't expect at all after giving them a action figure I thought they'd love.

You also recall how it was your friends dreamed of being things like racing drivers, football players and train drivers but settled later in life for something more mundane but worthwhile while, you just wanting to be around doing a "Good turn" got the role to do just that, caring for your community.

Then there is a friend of mine who kindly put me up, offering a cooked meal and a lift to the train coming back completely out of the blue, seeing I was on the right platform for my train to come in. Even when I found I simply could not eat the whole of their home made and cooked meal rather than just saying it was very nice-and it was was absolutely lovely- from nowhere I found myself apologizing to them for not finishing my meal clearly feeling contrite.

These acts of kindness really moved me but whereas in the past I'd of blocked out my emotions I thanked them properly for all those things they did not have to do,that I have no right to expect nor demand expressing my gratitude, revealing my sense of being humbled openly.

It also reminded me of the distance I had travelled from that young boy in reception class being cared for both in class and with being played with by older children at breaktimes, trying to make sense of it all to being able to play a big part in the wider community because they cared to help you that over time understand more of what and how this community thing worked and what caring really means.

There was time several years back when I was away with friends that while a few people needed a reminder to tidy up and put their plates in the dishwasher, I did not and indeed that I had was held up as an example for others to follow.

I think the one thing I can take away from this period is while I may still have some distance to go and the potential to relapse, the event did show I had moved on over the years, being responsible and how I'm being helped to change is really helping me.  

A loss from the past

 Things that happen while you're away can include the latest goings on in your immediate area or some item you ordered having arrived but for me including reading in the local newspaper of the death of a former junior classmates parent, aged 91.

Now ordinarily that is bad news and I had aged parents but having "lost" mum early last year brings that rather forward but Alison lost her mum some five years back in 2019 and mum did attend that rather packed funeral service.

Thus she's at the point if having lost both her parents which I would imagine brings things back for her and for me reminds me the clock is ticking away too with dad.

So at a stroke two prominent community members, one being a stewart of local Girl Guides, the in the Royal British Legion are now gone.

Yesterday I attended the funeral service here to both remember what George did and to support her and her brother as we all looked out for and helped each other back then in the playground the best we could.

This included his role in starting the youth brass band, his personal life on an Estate Lodge in Aberdeenshire where an interest in agriculture engineering was formed at an early age and his time in National Service spent in Japan, Korea and Egypt.

I met with Stephen who joined when I did but took a couple of years out as he moved to a nearby town and attended school for period there before returning, talking about those days

Those bonds while added to by high school and employment, remain and for me the promise then is one you keep now.