Mr. Smith (Geography and Remedial Studies)

 

Mr. Smith, otherwise known as (Geography) Smith, this came about from teaching Geography in the early days after the school had opened in 1964.

Originally Mr. Smith had taught at Roebuck Street County Primary School and started at Tulketh on day one with fellow teachers from Roebuck, Mr Griffiths and Miss Smalley plus the new starters, and kids who between 12 and 14/15 years old who were to make up the 2nd,3rd, and 4th years in the new school. They opened the school on a Tuesday with the year one pupils, with the rest of the pupils starting on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Mr. Smith was a very well-built, smart looking man who wore horn rimmed glasses and was a regular in the Preston Grasshoppers Rugby Union side. He would sometimes have a selection of bruises from the previous Saturday’s match much to the bewilderment of the class of pupils he was teaching. He was the coach of the 2nd year School Football team which had reached the Preston Schools Football Final in 1974 at Preston North End’s Deepdale stadium, which they won. So Mr. Smith, enjoyed the notoriety that brought him with pupils and his fellow peers at school.

When I arrived at the school in 1975, he no longer taught Geography instead he looked after the 2M form which was the lowest of the six or sometimes seven forms based on the ability of the pupils in their subjects. In the non- politically correct 1970’s the kids in 2M form would be nicknamed, all kinds of nasty things which would no doubt be politically incorrect in todays world, some of the kids though did go on to improve and some were selected for CSE exams in year 4 and 5.

One of the pupils in 2M was Chris Turner who lived in Inkerman Street which is the next street to Delacy Street where I and my family lived. His family seem to have a bit of money. His father was a chauffeur for the Lord Mayor of Preston, his elder brother ran a car spraying business. In the Easter holidays of 1977, we decided to go into to town together with the help of £5 from Chris’s mother. Now back in 1977, £ 5 for a couple 13 years olds was not too bad, almost a King’s ransom.

As we made our way round the numerous shops in Preston Town centre window shopping, we managed eat our way through copious amounts of crisps, chocolate bars, ice creams and cans of Tizer. We heard some music and dancing in the square in front of the Harris Museum and Library.

We stood opposite a group of Morris dancers dressed in predominantly white clothing with braces and clogs for shoes as they clapped their sticks, swords, and handkerchiefs together in unison. Chris seemed transfixed for a few moments then he said to me, “Hey that’s Smith” who was on the left of two rows of dancers when I took a closer look it was Mr. Smith.  For next five minutes Chris and I could not control our laughter at seeing such a big guy with a reputation as tough man at school who wielded out discipline without any compunction, dancing along to the Folk Music. After a while I said to Chris that maybe we should make our way to Ames records to look at the top ten of the music charts, followed by a trip to Woolworths were Chris went round most of the pic and mix sweets filling the large plastic bag provided with eagerness of two sugar addicted teenagers watched over in the corner by a female member of staff with a Punk rocker hairstyle chewing furiously on bubble gum , blowing a pink like bubbles every so often from her lipstick smeared mouth listening to the latest Stranglers record..

On the bus home in between scoffing on the pic and mix sweets, we laughed about Mr. Smith, of course hoping that he did not spot either of us.  On the following Monday after the Easter Holidays, we went back to school. At lunchtime Chris Turner came over to me in the schoolyard looking rather pensive. “You know Smith he recognised me from Saturday”, and he grabbed me by the lapels on my uniform and he marched me to the front of the class with sniggers from the rest of the kids. He made me stand in the corner for the rest of the lesson. He was not one bit amused of us laughing at him and the other Morris dancers. He told the whole class that Chris Turner will do a full week of detentions after school in which he will help the caretaker with some of the odious tasks he has to do around the school. “By the way Chris said I didn’t grass you up to Mr. Smith” “he did ask who the other boy was? Fortunately, I thought for me I was not wearing my glasses on the day in question and had recently had a haircut. But for next few weeks I tried my best to keep out of Mr. Smith’s way.

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