Learn proper like wot I did

General Chat
21

I feel cheated

22

Caecilius in foro ambulabat. Etc.

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My school had an after hours chemistry club where we once tried to electrolyse molten sodium chloride using carbon electrodes. Briefly quite exciting. The same branch that had the firearms also had a radio section, with valves and high-voltage power supplies. It spawned a teenage pirate radio network long before the days of cellular telephony.

VB

24

Is that something about fubaring a forum badly enough to need an ambulance?

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Caecilius est pater. Metella est mater.

Don’t ask about Grumio.

VB

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26

Me too. I sometimes think of places they built like the Sholver 2 estate and them going for things like ITA and it strikes me that Oldham council were the inspiration for Scarfolk.

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27

Grumio est in ancillae

28

We were lucky to have sawn off pea shooters. What kind of schools have guns.

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And of course the most windy shopping centre in the UK, St Peter’s precinct.

St Peters Shopping Centre Oldham by p.j.f.chad, on Flickr

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31

Feel robbed.

We did have a shitty school car which was used in mvt, you could drive round the playing field whilst 20 kids would clamber inside and in the boot.

Can’t imagine the life expectancy of a secondary teacher in the 70s was much over 40.

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32

I’d forgotten about that.

I was actually thinking back to the Lee Enfield 303s that belonged more in somewhere like Ypres than a school.

33

I think language skills are very important, I am constantly embarrased by how crap we are at them. I think it puts Britain at a serious disadvantage sitting in our smug ivory tower and expecting the rest of the world to use English

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34

Some posh schools had/have a Combined Cadet Force attached, to train up the Officer Class. They would have had SMLEs and maybe FN L1A1 SLRs by the 80’s. They’ll have the cadet version of the SA80 these days.

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Mine had 303s while I was there, and was just introducing SA80s when I left the cadets in 87.

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36

Something about caecilians in a Chinese “wet-market”?

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37

To speak like Yoda, we must teach the kids. :roll_eyes:

I’m pretty much against all forms of pompous wankery (see Adam et al. :grinning: )

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38

Yes, this was the CCF in the 80s. It was mostly WW1 era Lee Enfields.

They did let us loose with SLRs (live rounds again obvs), but only on camps rather than the weekly thing.

There was a Bren gun as well, but no ammunition for that IIRC.

And I have half a memory of an accident with a fully automatic weapon (can’t remember what flavour) where several people were lucky not to get cut in two.

Pretty bizarre to look back on.

39

My kids did C.C.F. before the lockdowns etc. FoL V1.0 was in the Navy version. FoL V2.0 is in charge of the Corps of Drums. There are live firing opportunities as the school has a range. The kids wanted to mess about in boats/bang drums not shoot guns so they’ve never been to the firing range as we wouldn’t sign off on it.

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40

I was CCF end of the 90s, we had the cadet GP a manually operated version of the SA80. When I became an officer I got an LSW a long barrel SA80. That was good fun.

I remember us also having bolt action .22 for target practice and air rifles for the smallest kids.

Yeah pretty mad, I would not have trusted 16 year old me with a full auto rifle