A Lad from Featherstone

Fearherstone circa 1960 Hi and welcome back You will recall in Chapter 1: How to write your life story,  I made a reasonable start, but tended to get my 1st and 3rd person - I and Colin- mixed up. A way to go but this blog is in the first person.  Yesterdays history lesson made it pretty clear that most of us Wessie's have Viking DNA somewhere down the line. Add a dose of Celtic and I know understand why my beard was ginger yet all other hair, hang on, amost all other hair brown. My Movember tash of today still has traces. Judge for Yourself. It is therefore important I spend a little more time on my formative years in Featherstone. 28 De Lacy Avenue, North Featherstone, West Yorkshire. Dad has just scored the winning try in the Yorkshire Cup final, and the Yorkshire Post wants to portray him as ‘happy families’ if you know what I mean? Myself, on the left, brothers John, on dad’s head, and Mick. Mum and sister Mandy (still inside mum) comes later, please be patient.  ...

                                     Normanton Grammar School   Colin’s school for six, lonely, yet unbelievable, years . You will recall he wrote a coincidental story about a boat trip from Bridlington to London in the last chapter, for his 11+ resit.   That was early December 1965, and nothing heard by the end of term, all hopes of another life had been lost.   Then, clunk went the letterbox Friday 31st December 1965 and Colin joined the road less travelled with no turning back. Normanton Grammar School. Brick built, slate roof, Dutch gables, stone mullions plus a grand entrance with bell tower. Architectural folly funded by ‘where there’s muck, there’s brass’ built circa 1910. Teachers in gowns, Hamilton, the headmaster often appeared on stage with red bits of loo paper stuck to his chin. He hated the PE department, even though they brought his school nationwide fame. ...

  21 st November 2024. Bridlington East Yorkshire Dad and I (Clifford & Colin Lambert) are snowed in.  My Flex Stretch & Groove (I teach the class) cancelled , day 82 no alcohol and playing with my new shiney white, all in the screen, black friday, new computer -with the money saved from not drinking - and here we go again. I feels lovely. I was born into a Yorkshire mining town, famous for it's giant killing rugby team, Featherstone Rovers. My  dad was captain. I left for London age 19 with my 'Eyes Wide Shut'. I returned to Yorkshire, Bridlington, in 2022 with my eyes wide open. Here I chart my life story in an heartfelt, amusing, open, honest and at times tragic tale of love, life and adventure story sort of way. I also embrace the challenges faced by being a man, especially a Yorshireman, in this fast changing world. I am blessed to share my journey with you. Om Here are the first three chapters 1     Part 1.     https://col...

Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept, first introduced by analytical psychologist Carl Jung, [1920] which holds that events are "meaningful coincidences" if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related. November 2013, I am 60, the proud owner of a Hallberg-Rassey 49 Ocean going yacht and sat with a beer and roll-up outside the Dickens Inn, St Katharine’s docks, London. We have just arrived from Bridlington. One could say heaven except my marriage of 36 years was imploding. My yacht Frangi is the second boat in the photo, blue band, the only visible bit, my cabin and loo. What happens next is scary or just a coincidence?  November 1964. I am eleven years old , have no concept of education, let alone a grammar school one. On the IQ, scale my score was not good. On the emotional intelligence score: sexually abused by the babysitter, beaten up, attacked with a knife, a man asked him to hold his penis, bitten by a dog, to name ...

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’ You will recall, in part 1, daughter Emily gave me a book, 'Write your life story...' by Ann Garthorp in 2010. Chapter 14 covers, how a novel works. She writes about, 'SET-UP' as a way of fictionalising your life story. She provides, by way of the example above, how Jane Austin starts Pride and Prejudice to illustrate the point. It is thus an intriguing sentence, with the hint of a story line.  I came second in the end of year exams, and thus a second chance to enter the grammar school.. OK, here goes. It is a truth universally known that a single man, in possession of a second chance, must be in want of a different life.  Different from what? ‘Like many surrounding areas, Featherstone grew around coal mining. Coal had been mined at Featherstone since the 13th century and remains of bell pits can still be seen to the north of Park Lane at North Feat...

Om, to my daughter Emily.  She said, 'WRITE YOUR LIFE STORY'. and gave me the book  by Ann Garthorp in 2010 Life with Emily was a ball of fun, we laughed, danced, once made a dance routine to a Puff Daddy version of Roxanne by Sting. I loved watching her play rugby, all the way to England U18’s.  She confided in me, even telling me, before her mother, she was in love with a girl. We were close but has since gone wrong in a spectacular way, I have never seen three of my five grandchildren and have no contact. However, back to the good times. Emily nagged me, for many years, to write my life story. My Xmas present in 2010 was the above book. Just by co-incidence, the book was lying on my office floor yesterday.  I picked it up, opened and read. Page 164 ‘…there is only one thing that makes the reader turn the page -curiosity. In other words, they want to know what happens next.’  How about this for a start: I remember running my hand over her thigh and feeling the...