Story Search Results

Midnight Pool Parties # 59

Following on with the summer theme my mind drifted back to those halcyon days of summer when we were all young <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> lively <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> hanging out with a large group of friends.  By now Kev <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> I had left college <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> were both working but weekends were for fun <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> parties! Kev <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> the b<Span class='highlight'>andSpan> were also getting a few gigs around the area <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> after singing with them for a little while I gave it up <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> let a more professional singer take over – I needed to work on my confidence first!   We still went to the local '76 Club' though to see live music – it was the start of the punk era <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> we saw the Sex Pistols there when they were just starting out – I have to say they...

Becoming A Rock Chick! #17

BECOMING A ROCK CHICK:  My schooldays were coming to an end now <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> I absolutely couldn’t wait to leave.  The school itself was an old Victorian grammar school which still had wooden desks with inkwells in them!  Even the teachers wore their mortar boards <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> gowns, not like the ones at Eton <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> Harrow – mine were more like the ones in the Beano!  However, in the last two years there I had made a few good friends <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> we would go into Uttoxeter every lunch time to meet up with a group of guys that worked at the local JCB firm.  They were all into motor bikes <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> one of the first films I watched was ‘Easy Rider’.  They also went to a lot of concerts...

Christmas High Jinks! #29

CHRISTMAS HIGH JINKS:       The sounds of La Golondrina floated through the air as Viv sat at the gr<Span class='highlight'>andSpan> piano. How pleased she was that someone had asked them to look after this fine musical instrument for a few months. Having learned to play when she was younger, this gave Viv the opportunity to brush up on her skills as a pianist <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> she was thoroughly enjoying it. The piano was in the Library <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> suited the room perfectly. She could hear her father <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> an antique dealer talking in the Long Gallery as they haggled over the price of a painting that he was selling. Viv gazed out of the window as she played <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> thought back to the Midsummer’s Eve Ball that...

Mediaeval Mayhem! #13

It was the end of the summer season at Hoar Cross Hall in 1973 <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> rehearsals had started for the new venture of Mediaeval Banquets. All the cast would come round to the house each week for rehearsals <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> my mum <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> one or two other ladies were busy making the skirts <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> blouses for the wenches. My mum also made about 200 bibs which the guests were going to be wearing as eating five courses with a dagger can be quite messy! We had a King, a Jester, a Fire-eater, a Halberdier, an organist <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> various wenches <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> serving ladies. To launch the banquets my parents decided to hold a Press Reception about a month before <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> so we all gathered at the Hall one day in ea...

Skools out for Summer #16

When Hugo <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> Emily Meynell built Hoar Cross Hall it included a whole estate with it, namely kitchen gardens, greenhouses, stables, a farm <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> cottages. Old Hall (their original home) was also on the estate <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> was accessed via a private road, which ran from the main road. By the time the seventies came along the stable block <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> Old Hall were private houses <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> another part of Old Hall had been made into a children’s home. Emily Meynell had started this home in the Victorian days, calling it ‘The Home of the Good Shepherd’ but it was for boys only at that time. When we were at the Hall it was a mixed home <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> run by a husb<Span class='highlight'>andSpan> <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> wife couple. They used to...

Midnight Pool Parties #20

MIDNIGHT POOL PARTIES:      After leaving school I spent a year at Burton-on-Trent Technical College studying to be a secretary but my year at college had come to an end - now to find a job! It didn’t take too long as there was plenty of employment around in those days <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> I was soon offered a position with a small engineering firm in Burton. As I didn’t drive there was still the problem of me getting to work <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> dad managed to talk the residents of the apartments into taking me, as they were going to Burton every day as well, <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> it would save him coming out twice a day (no doubt he was thinking about the petrol he would save too!) Kev <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> the b<Span class='highlight'>andSpan> were...