[BITList] Memories

[HUGH]

It kind of snowed twice here today, but the flakes were too big and wet and it soon vanished.  Our guests having departed, we were left to our own devices, Janet to the TV, and me to anything but.  However, thinking to be sociable, I poured a glass of Glenmorangie and sat me down on the settee to watch Dancing on Ice with Janet.  She declined a drink. The lack of protest surprised me, for usually I am required to vacate the living room when such as that programme is on - I gather my comments don't add to her enjoyment.  So I watched and held my tongue, which is fortunate, for I heard some  music that took me way back in a flash - Dream a Little Dream of Me.

>From about June to September 1958 I spent weekday afternoons, 2 till 6, sitting on my bed studying for Part B of my second's ticket.  My brothers were both in the Army, so I had the room to myself.  Nothing was allowed to interfere with my hard won routine, not even HM & Co driving past within 100 yards of the window after the one and only night she ever spent in Port Glasgow - curiousity allowed me to see the tail end of the line of cars disappearing towards Kilmacolm. My routine was hard won, because I didn't attend classes as such. I was signed on at the Watt College under Mr Craig, but he didn't give formal lectures, feeling that, if we didn't already know, there was little point in going up to Glasgow for the exams.  What he did was instruct us in how to study, how to read technical books, how to tell a good book from a crap book - and now and again a candidate would come back in and be questioned by the class about the written exams and/or the Orals.  Many discussions took place in the pub along the road, or in the tearoom of the British Sailors Society building across the road.  It worked for me - on mornings I attended college, on the way home I used to give an imaginary lecture, and when I got stuck I'd bone up on that point alone.  The actual studying took place while sitting sideways on my bed, and I played music on my sister's turntable continuously - two records only, a Nat King Cole LP, and a 12" 78rpm of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir, quite a mix (I still have both).  One of the tunes on the former is Dream a Little Dream of Me, played by his Trio.  Finding the LP wasn't easy, but I played it over a few minutes ago - sitting on the side of the bed, but that was coincidence. I had to weight the cartridge with a 20p piece, so I'll have to clean the needle and the record. I heard once that a spinning disc is an aid to memory - the second thing that worked for me.

Hugh.

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