Mr. Mason (Art)


Mr. Mason - Mike Rutherford- Genesis 

Mr. Mason came to Tulketh in the same year I started which was 1975. He taught Art and Technical Drawing and seemed to me to look like a lot of young teachers at the time with longish hair and a beard. He reminded me of Genesis the Prog - Rock bands guitarist Mike Rutherford.
In the first week that the new first years took residence in the school it was a new experience especially when the other years arrived on the second day. After having the school all to ourselves on day one suddenly another 700 kids invade our space, and the school became a little scary at times.

I decided at breaktime to put my brand-new duffle coat and Liverpool Football club sports bag in the boy’s cloakroom opposite the room 31, which is situated next to the staffroom. Reason for this because it was particularly hot day.  After the break I went to the peg in the cloakroom to find the duffle coat and sports bag missing to my horror. My heart sank!!

I had images in my head of going home to tell my mum that I had lost the coat and bag. The bag contained my pencil case, a dictionary and atlas of the world. Compared with the attire of different things the schoolkids of today carry it was laughable. As it happens Mr. Mason was passing on his way to the staffroom and could see my distress. He asked what the problem was, and he seemed genuinely concerned and calmed things down a little. We did a tour of the other cloakrooms even going down to the Maths block and checked the cloakrooms there. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find either the coat or bag. Mr. Mason said we needed to inform the secretary of the school who would send out a notice to all the registration groups in the school.

When we got to the office which was the first office you came to near the main entrance to the school. Mr. Gibbons the Deputy Head was talking to the school secretary as we arrived. Mr. Mason told him what had happened, he was very sympathetic with my plight and said he hoped id find it. The secretary said nothing had been handed in, but she took my details. Mr. Mason said he would meet me at the end of school to check if anything had been handed in. For the rest of the day, I could hardly concentrate on anything in the lessons. In the final lesson I was literally watching the clock much too History teacher Miss Langer distaste. Just before the end of the lesson there was a knock on the door and in walked Mr. Mason with my coat and bag much to my relief. Miss Langer had all the class clap Mr. Mason for finding the coat and bag which had been handed in by a Third-year drama student called Phillip McCandlish, who sister Dawn was in my class at the time.. Apparently, they were found behind the stage in the hall along with other items.

I think I never put my coat and bag in the cloakroom ever again. I believe the culprits who were responsible for the heist of goods hidden behind the stage were caught by Geography teacher Mr. Brown and were summarily caned by the Head Mr. Jones.  As for Mr. Mason are paths crossed in the second and third years when he taught me Technical Drawing in the Second  and third year. He also taught me Art in the Third year. In the 5th year Mr. Mason by that time had become Head of the Art department, spared me from being entered in to the Art CSE exam. Probably saving the school some money? I was not entered for the exam alongside  Alison Danby and Mel Holland.  The three of us were to spend many a Tuesday afternoon allegedly revising in the school library but to be fair we did nothing of the sort only chat.

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