A life in Sixteen Pieces (More essays from the "Baker")

By John Holmes

These sixteen short articles are mostly autobiographical and include one short story and even some verse. They comprise a follow-up to my "Baker's Dozen" (originally published under a nom-de-plume, John Doble). New items include memories of happy experiences in the writer's much youn

• Language: English
• Publisher: American Book Publisher Inc
• Release date: Jun 6, 2024
• ISBN: 9781917317078

Book preview

A life in Sixteen Pieces

(More essays from the Baker)

By

John Holmes

Copyrights © John Holmes

All Rights Reserved

PREFACE

These sixteen short articles are mostly autobiographical and include one short story and even some verse. They comprise a follow-up to my Baker’s Dozen (originally published under a nom-de-plume, John Doble). New items include memories of happy experiences in the writer’s much younger life, mostly from before ca.1960, but extending also into my career in science. I apologize for the repetitions where some articles have inevitably overlapped, and also for any inaccuracies. The characters in the short story are wholly fictitious and are not modeled on anyone known to the author. The tale is intended only to reflect the times.

​No new European cycling adventures are described here (see the Baker’s Dozen for some of them) because, after about 1956, sailing had displaced the open road for adventure. I note that my cycling, with commuting in home counties around London, weekends away in England and Wales, and the big continental tours with my friend Ken Pearce, covered some 80-90,000 miles, in the 1940’s and up to 1957.

There is also some science presented here, perhaps too detailed in parts. Apologies again

Table of Content

Essay 1:  British Radio in WW2 and Children’s Hour

Essay 2: My Childhood, Eighty-Plus Years Ago. From Infancy to High School. (2023/4 version).

Essay 3. Schooldays; London Childhood and Reminiscences;

1939-1949

Essay 4. Chemistry with Johnny Knight.  A not too Technical Account, and Ending with a Smile!

Essay 5. Alternatives. Two Short Fictional Tales About

Peter and Mary.

Part 2. And Now Here is Mary’s Tale. The Tender Trap.

Essay 6. The Norfolk Broads in 1948; My very First Sailing.

Essay 7. To the Norfolk Broads again, in 1949. A Most Welcome Post-War Initiative of My School.

Essay 8. Aslaug, Tortilla and Roeboat. Three Sailing Charters from the late 1950s.

Essay 9. A very Short Sailing Story: Wind and Water.

Essay 10. National Service and The National Coal Board. Another Small Slice of Life.

Essay 11. The National Research Council in Ottawa. Canadian Science in the 1950’s and beyond.

Essay 12. Making a Life in Science. Beginnings and Beyond.

Essay 13. Early Science at Ottawa University.

Essay 14. Edinburgh. Athens of The North.

Essay 15. Northcape Camper Van in 2013.  (A Nostalgia Trip).

Essay 16. Some Verse, Just for Fun.

Essay 1: 

British Radio in WW2 and

Children’s Hour

There was (of course) no television in the UK during those difficult wartime years, 1939-1945. BBC TV had only just begun, (for the very few folks with a set) in 1936, but the service was discontinued throughout the war and it was not re- introduced until late in 1946, arriving in ample time for the 1948 London Olympic Games. Even then, a TV set was still definitely a luxury item; and only in black-and-white. During the War, official (and trustworthy) information was obtainable only from the regular BBC radio news bulletins and (most of) the daily newspapers. Both of the BBC’s radio channels, the Home and Forces programs, were no doubt carefully censored. 

​ My own particular radio memories of those years (I was nearly eight when the war began) must most certainly include Children’s Hour, which was broadcast daily by the BBC Home Service from 5.00 to 6.00 p.m. (For details of this splendid resource, see the recent book by Wallace Grevatt). The regional and national weather reports used to fill the five-minute gap before the important daily news bulletin at 6.00 p.m., but they were discontinued, being considered to be information of possible value to the enemy. The other BBC station was the Forces Program (1940-1944); later became the Light Program in 1945, consisting mainly of popular music and comedy shows.

​ (An aside--- years later, the BBC’s regular daily midnight shipping weather forecast, often heard by me and my friends when sailing at sea somewhere off the British Isles, is an important memory---- it was always concluded with the comforting final six-word salutation "Good night and good sailing, Gentlemen". A fine way to end a long day-----gale warnings notwithstanding).

​ The broadcast team for Children’s Hour included Uncle Mac, (Derek McCulloch), David Davies, May Jenkin (Elizabeth), and a band of familiar helpers who filled character roles in many of the continuing series of stories, well exemplified by Toytown. This latter was a great favorite of mine because of its sharply defined, amusing characters. Larry the Lamb (nervous quavering voice, full of doubts and insecurity), but well supported by his close friend Dennis the Dachshund, (spoken with a gruff, confident, heavily accented Germano-English voice). There was also Mr. Mayor (pompous, confused, and fussy), Ernest the policeman ’ Allo. ‘Allo. What’s all this then? I'll have to take your name and address. Mr. Grouser---It’s disgrrrrrraceful!! It ought not to be allowed! The plots were simple, amusing and quite realistic. Other people of my generation recognize these characters at once, especially when/if one (still) uses any of these expressions as appropriate catch-phrases during a current conversation.

​ In 1943 there was also a splendid rendition/dramatization of the John Masefield epic The Box of Delights. Masefield was poet laureate at that time----(recall sea fever? I must go down to the seas again to the lonely sea and the sky. And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. With the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sails shaking, and a gray mist on the sea’s face, and a gray dawn breaking).                    This tale involves a small boy with a magic box, who inter alia, saves the Christmas celebrations at the great cathedral of Tatchester and the foiling of wicked efforts to spoil and upset the event. Well-chosen musical accompaniment and a fine cast of characters brought this story to vivid life; the wolves are running!"

​To ensure the authenticity of all the important news broadcasts the reader always identified himself as each bulletin began: e.g. Here is the nine-o’clock news and this is -----Bruce Belfrage, or Alvar Lidell, or Stuart Hibberd, or Stewart McPherson (the latter, a well- known Canadian broadcaster also specialized in sports reporting), or who-ever----reading it. It was always a familiar and easily recognizable announcer’s voice. The speaker’s voice coupled with the right name ensured the listener that reliable/trustworthy news about the war would undoubtedly follow, unlikely to have been subjected to any enemy interference. I also recall Lord Haw Haw, who broadcast German propaganda in English, not very convincingly. It is not an apocryphal tale, that at least well into the 1940s the news readers were required to wear very formal suits or even evening dresses, especially while reading the important 6.00 and 9.00 p.m. news bulletins. This regular, reliable source of daily information was good for morale too. By that later time of day in my suburban London home, the supper dishes would be long washed and dried and tomorrow’s breakfast things would already be laid on the kitchen table, (or, later in the War, on the top of the Morrison shelter, the steel in-house shelter, capable of withstanding the house collapsing upon it) all prepared before the evening news and (hopefully) at least before the nightly sirens sounded during the London Blitz. (See the Land Mine essay in the Baker’s dozen).

​Radio plays were important too, with serially dramatized classic novels on most Sunday evenings. Grandpa was devoted to Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga, which seemed to go on for months, as did the Trollope novels. Comedy was also an essential part of the days’ evening programs, providing relief from the darker Blitz days and nights. The wit was somewhat simplistic with clear story lines and an abundance of catch phrases, and some have even crept back into vogue. For example, TTFN is, apparently, a current email sign-off. It means Ta-ta for now and comes in this initialized form, from Tommy Handley’s war-time show ITMA (It’s that man again). Other comedy catch phrases are easily recalled----from Much Binding in the Marsh '' (an RAF station comedy) — Er, Murdoch? Can you cash a cheque? The speaker was always short of ready cash and also wanted knowledge of the loan to be kept from his wife---Not a word to Bessie about this'' and also These sets take a long time to warm up accompanied by beeps and whistles as with any poorly tuned and unreliable radio. Fair enough---the common, battery-powered sets in WW2 were often slow and irregular to work after switching on. They were intended to provide quick, easy listening for busy folk.

​ Also, for many years there was a fifteen-minute daily serial, broadcast at 6:45 p.m. that included Dick Barton; special agent a cops-and-robbers serial, Dan Dare, space-flier adventures, and Shadow of Sumuru an exotic Chinese lady master-criminal whose activities were introduced by the chant A lady of wisdom, a lady of beauty---SUMURU!!

​ My special children’s hour favorites included David Davis’s (or was he Uncle Mac?) reading of the Arthur Ransome stories, The Big Six and Winter Holiday. These came in turn, and I especially enjoyed We didn’t mean to go to sea obtained as a Christmas present book. This resulted in my determination that one day I would have a sailing vessel of my own and so have similar adventures on inland as well as maritime waters. And, of course, all this came to pass!

​Another sharp memory of those years was the fine Sunday morning BBC symphony concerts; they coincided with the long preparations for and the eating of Sunday’s lunch, that important weekly domestic wartime feast, and as a result, many classical composers’ works can arouse my memories of that very significant time of day.

​ After the USA had joined the European war, and certainly after D-day, we became accustomed to the American Forces Network (AFN), with its big bands, Harry James, Glenn Miller, and later, Stan Kenton et al with their wholly relaxed and exciting musical style, so unlike their staid (and rather stodgy) UK counterparts, such as Victor Sylvester and Henry Hall. These American entertainments could especially be heard late at night, or in the wee hours, on shortwave radio, when it was also possible to hear on the AFN live commentaries on such sports as Ice Hockey and American Football.

​ Thus, the BBC radio broadcasts provided a very important link to much of the outside world, especially in the early, darker periods of the war, in 1940 and 1941, when things were not going at all well and England stood alone to face the Nazi war machine. The familiar British voices and their clear, wholly unflappable presentation of poor or even bad news, certainly helped to maintain morale. The war-time BBC was, of course, wholly commercial-free ---and so its partial demise was another great loss, as we nowadays try to take in the snippets of significant news on many TV stations, surrounded by silly sales pitches and international gossip in the place of valuable reports.

​Nevertheless, in spite of some occasional lower standards, the UK still produces wonderful TV programs, covering much serious entertainment, all the way from comedy to tragedy and they are distributed world-wide. Not just once either; Morse '', Downton Abbey '' and All creatures great and small etc. have appeared in Canada several times already. Also, from the UK commercial TV there is, of course, the never-ending "Coronation Street ''. It too, tries hard to keep up with the times, introducing colored folk from all walks of life, plus a belated assortment of very nasty criminals and considerable violence, unthinkable in its early days; murder even! Keeping up with the present sad/bad times?

Essay 2:

My Childhood, Eighty-Plus Years Ago.

From Infancy to High School.

(2023/4 version).

To begin, I was born on 29th November 1931 and so I am now 92. What should I write about the happy early years of my life? This section ends with my first year in secondary school, in 1941, and so here I revisit some memories from only my first ten years.

​ My very earliest clear memory is of being outside my home at #19, Anson Road, Cricklewood, in my pram, warm and comfortable, as my mother raised the front of the hood to keep out the just starting, cold winter rain. The nearby plane trees had, as usual, been ruthlessly pollarded back in the autumn, exposing their patchy gray/brown damp trunks that somehow emphasized the chill of the day.

​Most of these childhood years were spent in Cricklewood. This suburb of north-west London lies about four miles north of the Marble Arch, straight up the Edgware Road (alias Watling Street, to give it its Anglo-Saxon name) past Kilburn and Shoot-up Hill, and the next section is locally known as Cricklewood Broadway. Our house was #19, Anson Road; it leads west from Broadway to Gladstone Park. This road used to be entered from Broadway passing by the fine Jubilee clock tower, (see it in Wikipedia) but it was demolished, to widen the road’s entry, in 1936.

​Cricklewood then had several parades of shops, that included two chain stores, Boots (the chemists and lending library) and Woolworths (The three-pence to sixpence store), and also Parkers the tobacconist and (very important) sweetshop that also provided cigarette cards, those collectible and swap-able things. There were some more small family stores, such as the "Watsons'', run by a mother and daughter partnership and which was the source for all preserved foods (weighed out by hand and placed in small blue or brown paper bags), and very well known for the large family of cats that patrolled the shop and also provided us with several long-lived pets. Nearby was Sainsbury's, where perishable foodstuffs (eggs, ham, bacon, joints of lamb or beef, butter, cheeses, etc.) were selected by the shopper and then cut, weighed, and wrapped by the obliging staff, and