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ORIGINAL MESSAGE
NAME: Roger Nolan
DATE: 01 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1960 to 1967
They say that everyone can remember where they were when Kennedy was assassinated. Well I and my parents were at the school's annual hobbies exhibition when the father of two fellow pupils, Laurence and Paul Newman came over to my father (they were friends and colleagues) and told him Kennedy had been shot. I wonder if anyone else was at that hobbies exhibition on 22nd November 1963.
NAME: Nick Dean 
.JPG "Nick Dean gallery")
DATE: 03 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71
Just before my time, of course, but Roger's post does suggest that, in either 1964 or 65, the Hobbies Exhibition was moved from the late autumn to March (when I think it always took place when I was at the school). For a while there was a sort of mini-Hobbies Exhibition on Founders Day, in the course of which, one year, someone patrolled the school corridor in a very lifelike model of a Dalek. This caused a degree of mayhem when spotted by visiting younger siblings. I was watching Take Your Pick when I heard at the end of part one that JFK had been shot; his actual death was announced when the programme was over. 17 years later I visited the Kennedy graves at Arlington and recalled that evening very well. I remember also staying up on the Saturday evening for a special edition of TW3 (the same day, I believe, as the first ever episode of Dr Who).
DATE: 03 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71
Just before my time, of course, but Roger's post does suggest that, in either 1964 or 65, the Hobbies Exhibition was moved from the late autumn to March (when I think it always took place when I was at the school). For a while there was a sort of mini-Hobbies Exhibition on Founders Day, in the course of which, one year, someone patrolled the school corridor in a very lifelike model of a Dalek. This caused a degree of mayhem when spotted by visiting younger siblings. I was watching Take Your Pick when I heard at the end of part one that JFK had been shot; his actual death was announced when the programme was over. 17 years later I visited the Kennedy graves at Arlington and recalled that evening very well. I remember also staying up on the Saturday evening for a special edition of TW3 (the same day, I believe, as the first ever episode of Dr Who).
2nd REPLY
NAME: Vic Coughtrey
Then & NowDATE: 03 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1954-59
I was upstairs on a 34 bus (in the days when it used to go from Chesterfield Rd, Barnet to Leyton Green), on my way to my labouring job at Maw's in New Barnet. I saw the Daily Mirror headline over the shoulder of the man sitting in front of me. I therefore associate the news with the smoke-filled, sullen atmosphere of the top decks of buses at 7.30am in those days, where the low-spirited silence was broken only by coughing and the rustling of the Mirror and Herald. Even on that morning, no-one had anything to say.
3rd REPLY
NAME: Paul NewmanDATE: 03 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1962 - 1968
Interesting that Roger Nolan should remember that it was my late father who informed him and his family about Kennedy's death in 1963 - there is a picture of my brother Laurence in the cast photo of St Joan. He's second in, lower right, next to Michael Marks. Hope to catch up with some ancient alumni on June 15th Founders Day.
4th REPLY
NAME: Roger NolanDATE: 05 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1960 to 1967
Nick Dean's reply [1] got me thinking and I believe I may have made a mistake. I am pretty sure on reflection that the event at the school on 22nd November 1963 wasn't the Hobbies Exhibition but was in fact a careers evening at which a number of OEs had come along so that we boys could talk to them in turn about their different jobs. It was certainly at an evening event at the school on that day that I heard the momentous news. Sorry about the confusion, but the brain gets a bit addled when we get into our dotage!
NAME: Mike Cottrell .jpg "Richard Dilley & Mike Cottrell")
DATE: 07 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1957-64
I too was at school that Friday evening, 22nd November 1963, when I heard about the assassination of JFK. I was not at the hobbies exhibition but attending a careers convention with my father. From memory this was held in the refectory.
DATE: 07 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1957-64
I too was at school that Friday evening, 22nd November 1963, when I heard about the assassination of JFK. I was not at the hobbies exhibition but attending a careers convention with my father. From memory this was held in the refectory.
NAME: Stephen Giles 
DATE: 07 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1957-64
I can remember that it was definitely a careers evening on the day of JFK's assassination.
DATE: 07 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1957-64
I can remember that it was definitely a careers evening on the day of JFK's assassination.
NAME: James (Jas) Cowen 
.jpg "James Cowen gallery")
Then & Now
DATE: 13 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
The days of JFK and Nikita Kruschev and the Cuban missile crisis were of course quite alarming to those of us who were alive in the '60's and memories of those days have not completely faded. I personally heard the news at home in Borehamwood. I suppose the equivalent in recent times is the case of the planes crashing in to the twin Towers in the USA. I was working as an auditor at Learn Direct in Fareham at the time and someone called me over to a screen when the first plane hit the first tower. It was felt to be a crazy plane accident at first until it all unfolded after. All absolutely amazing, just like an action disaster movie! Do others of younger generations think other events have the same degree of memorability?
Then & NowDATE: 13 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
The days of JFK and Nikita Kruschev and the Cuban missile crisis were of course quite alarming to those of us who were alive in the '60's and memories of those days have not completely faded. I personally heard the news at home in Borehamwood. I suppose the equivalent in recent times is the case of the planes crashing in to the twin Towers in the USA. I was working as an auditor at Learn Direct in Fareham at the time and someone called me over to a screen when the first plane hit the first tower. It was felt to be a crazy plane accident at first until it all unfolded after. All absolutely amazing, just like an action disaster movie! Do others of younger generations think other events have the same degree of memorability?
8th REPLY
NAME: Vic Coughtrey Then & NowDATE: 13 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1954-59
At my age, you start to map your life out by these 'what-were-you-doing-when ...?' events - a bit like consulting those little arrows on road maps, which handily divide up the routes into mileages between points. Death of King/Coronation of Queen, JFK, John Lennon, the Great Storm, Kings Cross, Diana, Twin Towers (for the record, I was on my way home from my allotment in Barnes, wondering why people were stopping and staring nervously up at the usual one-a-minute planes coming over low on their final approach to Heathrow). These, of course, are apart from the personal events. Then there are those events lasting weeks or months, where the question is more like "how were you living during that period?": Suez, the missile crisis, the Summer of Love, the '74 & '79 bouts of industrial unrest, the Great Drought of '76, the miners' strike '84-'85, the two Gulf wars. Oh dear, Roger - what have you started?
NAME: Stephen Giles
DATE: 16 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1957-64
Ah, the summer of love - I remember being at the Windsor Blues Festival in August 1967 on the last day, what a line up: Cream, Jeff Beck, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and the debut of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac! A recording of the Fleetwood Mac set is on the tela.sugarmegs site. After selecting 'Fleetwood Mac 1967-08-13'. When you get as far as being asked if you really want to download it, you need to click 'yes' twice and sound will play in Windows Media Player - complete with hiss!
Note from Vic: I'm not responsible for any problems arising from downloading streaming from other sites!
DATE: 16 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1957-64
Ah, the summer of love - I remember being at the Windsor Blues Festival in August 1967 on the last day, what a line up: Cream, Jeff Beck, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and the debut of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac! A recording of the Fleetwood Mac set is on the tela.sugarmegs site. After selecting 'Fleetwood Mac 1967-08-13'. When you get as far as being asked if you really want to download it, you need to click 'yes' twice and sound will play in Windows Media Player - complete with hiss!
Note from Vic: I'm not responsible for any problems arising from downloading streaming from other sites!
NAME: Roger Nolan
DATE: 16 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1960 to 1967
Whoops, have I opened a Pandora's Box of reminiscences here? - although I assume all memories should have a QE link to qualify for inclusion on the Stapylton Field site. Having said that though, I will offer my 9/11 reminiscence [replies 7,8]. I had been in Maidstone Crown Court all day, not as a defendant thankfully, but serving on a jury and therefore I knew nothing of what was happening in the outside world. As I was driving home, I phoned my son (hands free kit of course!) and he told me about the twin towers.
Note from Vic: for my policy on relevance to the site, see entry on Webmaster's Board
DATE: 16 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1960 to 1967
Whoops, have I opened a Pandora's Box of reminiscences here? - although I assume all memories should have a QE link to qualify for inclusion on the Stapylton Field site. Having said that though, I will offer my 9/11 reminiscence [replies 7,8]. I had been in Maidstone Crown Court all day, not as a defendant thankfully, but serving on a jury and therefore I knew nothing of what was happening in the outside world. As I was driving home, I phoned my son (hands free kit of course!) and he told me about the twin towers.
Note from Vic: for my policy on relevance to the site, see entry on Webmaster's Board
NAME: James (Jas) Cowen Then & Now
DATE: 17 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
Yes, Vic [reply 8], all those events well remembered, many tragic like the assassinations and others rejoiced over such as the 1953 Coronation despite the rain, and still more enjoyed Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees as I was there in London rather than watching the small TV along with other kids in a nearby house. I do enjoy watching TV about past times, especially the 50s and 60s. It is an era where I still enjoy singing the old pop songs just like when listening to Sound of the 60s CDs. Any questions on 70s, 80s and 90s pop songs on quizzes I haven't a clue. Happily however I don't dwell all the time in the past as some old guys sadly do. I have some little porcelaine china by the kitchen sink that reads "Today is the best day to be happy." in the range with girls in petticoats and boys in pantaloons (made in Japan exclusively for Delgado Mansell.) I happily enjoy so many things today like JB Priestley's essays in Delight.
Then & NowDATE: 17 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
Yes, Vic [reply 8], all those events well remembered, many tragic like the assassinations and others rejoiced over such as the 1953 Coronation despite the rain, and still more enjoyed Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees as I was there in London rather than watching the small TV along with other kids in a nearby house. I do enjoy watching TV about past times, especially the 50s and 60s. It is an era where I still enjoy singing the old pop songs just like when listening to Sound of the 60s CDs. Any questions on 70s, 80s and 90s pop songs on quizzes I haven't a clue. Happily however I don't dwell all the time in the past as some old guys sadly do. I have some little porcelaine china by the kitchen sink that reads "Today is the best day to be happy." in the range with girls in petticoats and boys in pantaloons (made in Japan exclusively for Delgado Mansell.) I happily enjoy so many things today like JB Priestley's essays in Delight.
NAME: Stephen Giles
DATE: 19 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1957-64
I have a great deal of generally useless information sitting in my memory about the 60s, and can often quote the record label of various pop records from that time with the name of the B side! I lost interest in pop music from around 1980, but now listen to a lot of live recordings available through file sharing.
DATE: 19 June 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1957-64
I have a great deal of generally useless information sitting in my memory about the 60s, and can often quote the record label of various pop records from that time with the name of the B side! I lost interest in pop music from around 1980, but now listen to a lot of live recordings available through file sharing.
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