That man was a teacher, absolutely the most influential man I have had the pleasure of coming across in my life. I had a questionable upbringing and my own father could have held this accolade, however he failed in most aspects of both mine and his life. He was a nasty, jealous and dangerous man.
Mr Twelftree however stepped up to the plate and was the polar opposite of my father. He was an exceptional teacher and mentor.
This man has, and will forever be the most influential person I have met in my life. The teaching profession has such an effect on young lives, and here I am 45yrs later still holding a torch for this man and his profession. He is an exceptional man, I would love to shake his hand and simply say, “Thank you”.
There are a few historical events that have featured throughout my life so far, there are some such as the Apollo 11 landing, I guess I must have watched it if we had a tv then, however I’d have only been a few years old so I don’t quite remember it.
I remember the first shuttle launch in April 1981, I was at work and bunked off for about 30 mins with half the workers there to watch it on the company TV.
I’ve witnessed many high profile weddings and funerals, prison releases and successful / non successful legal cases. The one thing that really sticks out is the 9/11 attack in September 2001. We had only been there 9 months earlier and we had even seen the remnants of the last attempt when someone had attempted to detonate a car or lorry bomb at the foot of one of the buildings.
Of course for all of these memorable and historical occasions you did one thing, you collected the headline news papers of the day and I still have a number of these stored away in my home. I used to even have a copy of a paper that was issued the day the Titanic was sunk, this was my fathers and I used to take it to school for show and tell, this however disappeared when he passed away. I suspect it was foolishly recycled or disposed of.
Buying the newspaper today just doesn’t really occur as the news in its majority is now online. We’ve kind of lost a traditional way to pass on these nuggets of history as we used to do in the past.
In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled?
I’m of a generation that in general was a working generation where hard work was the norm if you wanted to get by. The computer only started to appear in its most basic form when I was in my last year of schooling, the mobile phone didn’t appear until a good few years later.
I think I’ve mentioned this before but I’m an individual who always has to be occupied with something, as I hate wasted time. My work involves a raft of different capabilities, I’m a classic “Jack of all trades and master of none” if that makes sense. My job is to get things moving on the rail network, that means calling in different skills and abilities to ensure the goal of getting things moving is achieved.
At home I’m always switched on and have to be doing something even if that’s a hobby activity to keep the mind busy. I have days off from work and the wife will openly tell you that if I don’t do something that I class it as a wasted day, I have to be busy.
However it’s become apparent over the last couple of years that this type of attitude can’t continue, if I’m tired the body is telling me something and I must rest. I had a little episode about 18 months back when I awoke one morning with horrendous double vision and then lost my sight for a few hours, now that was scary. It appears I had a type of mini stroke where a small bubble entered the fine blood vessels behind my eye causing the issue. That day my whole outlook changed and though I still like to keep busy, I have changed my ways somewhat and rest is now incorporated into my down time. Nothing is more important than your health.
So I’m still fulfilled by keeping busy, but now that has had to change to being fulfilled by keeping happy and healthy.
Too many people before me have worked themselves into an early grave. I don’t want to be another number in that statistic.
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
See this is what I’m getting at, the prompt from yesterday was not much different from this one for today. The guy that does the prompts at WordPress must be getting right bored.
Cockleshell heroes
Anyway, just as well I read a lot as a youngster. One of my favourite books I read as a youngster was the Cockleshell Heroes by C.E Lucas Philips. This book was published in 1956 about 9 years before I arrived on the scene.
I was a bi product of that period post wartime when the big rebuild of the country and the economy was starting to kick start. As a kid it was all war films and war comics so it was only natural to read war book’s wasn’t it?
It’s another book that I’ve read more than once and as a youngster it’s sheer excitement and intrigue kept me engrossed from cover to cover.
I hope tomorrow’s prompt is another subject, I quite fancy “What did you eat yesterday?”, for a change. (Only joking 🙃)
Anyway have a darned nice day and enjoy the sun if you are fortunate enough to see it.
I believe I may have mentioned him before, but I’d like to speak to my old primary school teacher who took over a troubled individual’s downward spiral and moulded him into a half decent person.
That individual was me, the teacher was Mr. Twelftree, the school was Little Reddings in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
I’d love to meet him and talk to him, I’d love to say just two words – “Thank you”.
He was and has been the most influential man I have met in my life, even overshadowing my own father as he saw something in me that even my own father couldn’t see.
Thank you sir, the debt I owe you cannot be repaid, I only hope that what I have learned from you has been passed forward to help others.
Senior school for us in the Uk lasts 5 yrs as standard unless you decided to stay on in sixth form to take further studies. Back in my day you were pretty much pumped out of the system into the working world at the end of the fifth year, as university wasn’t really an option open to everyone as it is now.
Courtesy of t’internet
I enjoyed my years at senior school but boy did I learn a few things beside the prescribed curriculum.
It was an all boys school
Bullying was rife. I was the victim of it and I’m embarrassed to say I was party to dishing some out myself and I sincerely regret ever taking part in that.
I witnessed homosexuality, and the awful bullying that attracted, again an individual was sexually assaulted by a member of staff, both just seemed to disappear overnight and nothing was ever mentioned again.
Assault from members of staff was at epidemic proportions, in those days it was corporal punishment but nowadays would be downright full on assault. I took my fair share of this as well.
The first three years of schooling at this level were fine for me, and then I turned. The last two years when I should have got my head down just went to pot, i rebelled, probably a mixture of what had gone on above but I scraped through. It taught me a lot about people and their behaviours, it taught me that respect is a trait that is earned not just given out freely. I learned to protect myself, I have absolutely nothing good to say about any tutor I had dealings with in this period of my life.
My tutor in my last two years of junior school though has my full respect, he shaped me and my fellow students at a very early age and taught us about respect and what we needed to do to gain it. He was the most influential man I have met in my life, he did more for me than my own father, and that is true and not just written fodder for you to digest.
Teachers have this amazing ability to shape and put students on a course to navigate life and to become a valid member of society. Thankfully I have done ok, I’ve tripped and made mistakes along the way but I’ve learned and had to take some hard knocks along the way.
Unfortunately the teachers I met in my senior years did not have those abilities and I believe failed not just me but my fellow students.
This was probably the toughest lesson learned. They were inadequately prepared to do their job in a time where strictness, bullying and harassment was seen to be the way to forcefully teach subjects. They failed my generation in that particular school.
Not just teacher but probably the most influential person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in my life was Mr.Michael Twelftree my Junior school tutor in the two years prior to moving up to secondary school.
I was at Little Reddings Junior school in Bushey Hertfordshire circa 1976/7 our class was in free fall as previous teachers had lost control of us, Mr.Twelftree stepped in for our final two years and boy was he strict. Strict but fair, he had a stack of canes in the corner that he gave you the choice of when it was your turn to receive a wack for some reason. Very rarely administered however just the thought of it made you stay in line.
He taught me and others to sail, something I still try to do to this day, we learnt so much from him, he taught the lot English, Maths, Geography, Science and all sports and made us competitors and despite his strict ethic he taught us respect and he brought out the best in everyone he taught.
We learnt all about different knots as part of our sailing training, this resulted in us having a noose hanging from the classroom ceiling as a demonstration of a knot, you wouldn’t find that in a modern day classroom.
He taught me to be a better person, shaped me up well for my future and prepared me and my fellow students well for the next move in our academic advancement.
I respected this man better than my own father, I know this sounds terrible but he shaped my life and I like to think I didn’t turn out too bad as a result. My own father unfortunately didn’t step up to his role in my life but the less said about that the better.
I would have loved to meet Mr.Twelftree again and shake his hand and say just two small words
Foxes Den 
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