Welcome to the Goldings Guest Book ** We APPROVE all messages before they are posted ** Add a message : back to Goldings.org : Search There are now 5764 messages in our guestbook. <<< 1 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 1153 >>> Viewing messages 1786 to 1790. Dave Happy birthday to Bobby Macnamara. Have a good one Bob from all of us. 28 May 2014 Email recieved today from Ray Hillier Hi Dave Thank you for passing on my e.mail to Pop, he has been in touch and it was brilliant to hear from him. I did not realise that he was in his 80's years of life. Once again I can't believe how time goes so quickly. Dave just to say I read your story leading up to and joining Goldings. it made me laugh so much and could relate to all of it especially when the senior boys kindly lifted their legs for you to ronuk and polish the floor. ( Brilliant ) One of the things I remember was I used to miss meal after meal to avoid that bloody hair inspection, especially when I had got my hair looking perfect ( or I thought it was ) and when finally I got caught as we all did I would sit in that chair demanding that I only needed a slight trim and not too much off the fringe only to look in the mirror 10 mins later and find that my brilliant hair style was now lying on the floor in bits and about to be brushed up and thrown away. I am sure the gardener come hair dresser (I think his name was Mr. Greenall not sure) was hard of hearing as he never ever listened to any of my hairstyle requests. Dave if you come into contact with Glynn Parry at anytime please can you forward to me his contact details with his permission. This following story makes me laugh every time I think about it. Goldings were invited to supply about a dozen boys to act as beaters for a local farmer on his pheasant shoot. As I was really into wild life and the countryside I volunteered to be a beater. Our leader was a boy named Gordon Hughes who was a big lad and very strong and if you were to upset him you would surely know about it, at the same time he was a brilliant lad and I liked him a lot. Continued below 20 May 2014 Continued So one Saturday we are in the woods making as much noise as possible in order to get the pheasants to fly up when suddenly a shot rang out missing good old Gordon by about 10 inches, with that Gordon totally went mad as it was against the rules of the shoot to fire backwards and below head height and Gordon felt strongly that, his life had been put in danger by this foolish gunman, who was subsequently banned there and then, never to be seen again. However the best part of this story is as follows: Every Saturday when the shoot had finished all the pheasants were collected up and a cock and hen were tied together creating a brace of pheasants. They were then hung up in the back of a open backed vehicle that also had bench seating for us boys as this was our transport back home where we were always dropped off at the main entrance of Goldings. Dave please believe me the next part of this story I had nothing to do with it other than some minor assistance later on. As the vehicle gradually slowed down on its approach to the entrance to Goldings some of the lads took this as the signal to suddenly stand up and grab half a dozen brace of pheasants where they were literally launched over the Goldings wall and into the woods. The vehicle finally came to a halt and we all got out with the driver and his passenger thanking us so much for all our efforts and how much we were appreciated and could we please be there next Saturday at the same time, little did he know what was lying in the undergrowth of Goldings wood. The vehicle then departed in the direction of Waterford village and we all departed into the direction of Goldings wood where including me Dave, carried out a search and rescue for the prized pheasants. However after they were finally traced and collected up I never ever saw them again not even one feather and often wonder what happened to them as I do not remember ever sitting down in the Dining hall to a feast of freshly prepared and cooked pheasant. I suspect certain members of staff had that privilege or perhaps the lads had a private barbecue up on the top field. Please take care Dave Ray Hillier 20 May 2014 Dave Ray,thats a brilliant recollection of our time spent at Goldings, quiet a unique school when we now look back, not only was it our school but also our "house" with a large family! As for Norman,if you remember he never stopped singing, and it was him that made me aware of a new group...The Beatles! and I thought at the time they have spelt "beatles" wrong. Norman, I have since found out via Bobby Mac that he had a middle name "Washington" which must have been a reference to his backround. I have been unable to find Norman, but I do know he at the time lived in Leeds as I borrowed his flashy coat to go on leave and his mother insisted that it was returned, so Walall Social Service's made a special trip to my house to collect the coat and return it to Leeds. Lets have more stories from you all? Many thanks Ray...keep in touch. 18 May 2014 Email recieved today from Ray Hillier Hi Dave Firstly to say I have been in touch with John Allen for the first time in 40 years and it's thanks to you and your family for working so hard on the website that it was possible, it is so much appreciated. I will tell you that I have one brilliant daughter named Emma and two brilliant grandchildren named Josh and Lily and I have told them on so many occasions that all 13 year old boys and girls should have to do at least 2 years at Goldings and let them have a dose of as you say Dave, blanket sheet. blanket sheet, woken up by that bloody bugle, Capt Culver demanding hands off our ....s and on with our socks, (Not sure about the girls) having to wear other boys underwear and socks, our hair cut by a gardener and finally force fed porridge until we looked like it. My daughter finds it so hard to believe the stories I tell her how it really was at Goldings. As for stories about my time at Goldings there are so many and must say at that time they seemed so serious but now looking back I laugh so much especially at the characters involved and some of the situations we got ourselves into. As for Norman Brown I remember him as a really great friend and so funny but if it was him that caused us to lose the football match and league title due to his lack of skill in catching the ball, may I suggest Dave he is banned for life from contributing on this Goldings website especially as he let all his team mates down ( What do you think ? ) ( Ha ! Ha ! ) Continued 18 May 2014 <<< 1 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 1153 >>> You can search this guestbook by: Message : - Name : - All : Please type some text: - Guest book sponsored by PC Home Help (01922) 626 366 - http://www.pchomehelp.net -