And today we are back to School, Mine that is!

And the Stars of today’s Extravaganza are ( fanfare and drum roll please ) Messrs Cawdron and Jowett, my Woodwork Teachers.

Mr.Cawdron was a small stocky man, who at first appeared to be stern, but once you knew him better you realised he had a slightly off beat sense of humour. He was bald headed with just a few wisps of hair at the sides and the back of his head, at the top of his head was a pronounced dent. And so, he was christened Billy Dent by his pupils, who referred to him affectionately this way, but never to his face naturally. Mr. Cawdron was a good Teacher he encouraged us to make things.

Mr.Jowett on the other hand was totally bland. He had his own Mantra, Keep your wood, as long as you can, as long as you can! This Mantra was on all four walls of the workplace and he repeated it almost everytime he opened his mouth. Today he would more than likely be diagnosed as having some weird form of O.C.D. And any fool knows that you don’t cut your wood until you have marked it out then double- checked it for accuracy, there was absolutely no need for his brain washing tactics.

Under his tuition, if you could call it that we made a miniature chair, the exercise was to make a perfect mortise and tenon joint. Fair enough but surely we could have made something more useful and aesthetically pleasing than this pathetic looking little chair.

We turned from a class that enjoyed and looked forward to their Woodwork period, to a class that loathed Woodwork and their Teacher in equal amounts. And as for his Mantra, i’m sure you can all make suggestions as to where to stick that, ( answers on a Postcard please )