A LIITLE BIT OF ENGLAND

In my senior year of high school, my Dad got transferred to England. As you can imagine, I was not real happy, seeing as I had gone to school with some of my classmates since kindergarden! However, I soon learned to love living in England, and was glad we went. After spending the first few days in a hotel, we moved to a flat (apartment) just off Sloane Square on a street called Sloane Gardens. It was at the top of Kings Road, which had all sorts of neat stores and clubs. It was also the location of the 'Chelsea Drugstore' from the Rolling Stones' song, which was not a drugstore, but sold records (and I believe you could buy illegal drugs there). Actually bought Spirit's "The Twelve Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus' there. From Sloane Square, it was a short walk to where I went to school at the American Community School in Knightsbridge, which is no longer there. Across the street from the school was a house where Eva Braun (Hitler's mistress) once lived.

Anyway, the place we lived in looked like the pic below, which was actually taken at Sloane Gardens. Our flat actually was on 3 or 4 floors, with lots of stairs. I believe these buildings were once large homes of wealthy people that were eventually divided up into smaller houses & flats.
Eventually, we moved out into the country, in a town called Esher, where George Harrison once owned a house. On the map below, we lived on Lakeside Drive, just above the 'S' in Lakeside. The property was once part of a manor house, which you could see up the hill. Now, I've seen photos of the area, and there's a lot more housing than when we lived there. Our house was right on the lake, and we had a little boat to paddle around in. I used to go across the lake before there were any houses there, and pick wild black raspberries. Mmmmmm...good!
The house we lived in looked like this one, except the glass wall faced onto the lake; this house was built across the lake from ours, and recently sold for over $500,000. Too bad Mom & Dad still didn't live there, eh?
In the lake lived a swan, and let me tell you, they're very greedy eaters. We used to feed the swan, named Henrietta (originally Henry until someone discovered it was a girl), and she would go through a loaf of bread and still want more! She would hiss at you when she got pissed off, and swans have nasty little teeth, so I imagine it would hurt if she bit you. She almost bit me once, I was reading in the back yard, and she came up out of the water and almost bit my toe before I noticed. I had to chase her with a lawn chair to get her back in the water.
When I was in school, we used to go to lunch at a pub just around the corner (or up the street a bit). It was called 'The Australian', and I remember they used to have good bangers & mash (sausage & mashed potato), which went very well with a pint of bitter. I used to drink Watney's Red Barrel, which I don't think is made anymore. It was my introduction to beer served at cellar temperature rather than refrigerated, and was tasty once you got used to it.

Apparently, they're still there, since this picture and the sign above I got from a listing of London pubs off the internet.
If I ever win the lotto (L&LOL), I'd love to go back to England, and visit the places I used to go to, among them the pub.

And many other pubs I visited when I lived there of course...

CREEPY PHOTO

Is this cool or what! A photo of a creepy fire spirit from a ghost website.
Is it real...who knows? But I sure wouldn't want to see that in my fireplace
on a cold winter's night (If I had a fireplace and lived somewhere cold)

SCIENCE & ART ARE HISTORY; OH YEAH - SO'S HISTORY

And `No Child Left Behind' is rapidly becoming `Most Children Left Behind'.

Soon, the children of the U.S.A. will become the dumbest children not living
in a third world country. Now schools are dropping other curriculum in
order to teach more Math & English in order for the students to pass
FCAT and other tests like it in other States. Why??? Haven't the politicians
figured out that if they let the teachers do their jobs, and hold back children
who don't deserve to pass to the next grade, that the ones who finally
graduate will have a good education? Why force children who don't want
to learn stay in school. The world will always need ditch diggers, fruit
pickers, and McDonalds employees. Why force teachers to spend their
valuable time teaching the unteachable? Isn't it better to graduate 65% of
all children, and have most of them go on to college, than graduate 95%
of the children, and not have them know enough to get into college?

It's a damn shame that the ones who really want to learn have to be dragged
down to the level of the ones who don't. And someday, if we don't wake up
to that fact, we'll wake up to find that we are a cultural & scientific third world
country.
And cutting edge breakthroughs in science & medicine
may be coming from the Czech Republic...

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER...

...before I get old & senile (my wife says I already am)...
I was born in the town shown above, Offenbach Germany, a suburb of Frankfurt am Main in 1953. At birth I was named Robert Helmut Siebert; Siebert being my mother's last name.

Then I was put in an orphanage in Frankfurt. Interesting picture below of zeppelin flying over Frankfurt, apparently there were quite a few of them back in the 30s (way before my time). Perhaps that's why one of my favorite bands is Led Zeppelin - hahaha.
Photo below of an old (late 1800s) orphanage in Frankfurt. Mine? Don't know, really; I remember nothing about being there.
However, my very first memory - and Mom & Dad back me up that this is true - involves a flock of geese. When they were working on adopting me (at the age of 3), they used to come to the orphanage to spend time with me. Apparently, we used to take a walk down a dirt road near the orphanage, and one time, there was a flock of geese coming the other way. I distinctly remember being frightened of the geese (who can act quite hostile if they feel like it), and cowering behind Mom & Dad until they had passed by. And I'm guessing we really bonded right about then.
And the funny thing is, even as I grew older, I always remembered the geese, but not that I had been adopted...

LORD STANLEY'S CUP

A little bit of info for those who may no know:This is what the original Stanley Cup looked like.

On this date in 1894 the Montreal AAA beat the Ottawa Generals
3-1 in the first Stanley Cup playoff game. This is a photo of an actual 1894 hockey team - the whole team!!

This is Dave Andreychuck of Tampa Bay after winning the cup in 2004.

Too bad it doesn't look like they're going to win it this year...

POCAHONTAS...THE REAL ONE

On today's date in 1617 she died in England at the age of (about) 22. At the age of
19 she had converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe in
England. Her name had been changed to Rebecca at that time.

But did you know...

At the time she saved John Smith (a legend apparently started by John Smith) and had
the love affair (as in the Disney movie) she would have been about 12 years old, a fact
that Disney conveniently changed...

And the villain from the Disney movie, Sir John Ratliffe?
In real life he was nailed to a tree and skinned alive...

LAST 6 BOOKS READ

1) Goldmine Classic Rock Digest (25 Years Of Rock & Roll): Interviews, collecting articles, and
other stuff from the pages of Goldmine Magazine with the likes of Ringo,John Fogerty,Ray Davies,& Chuck Berry. Always interesting.

2) Knight Of Shadows by Roger Zelazny: The continuing adventures of Merlin,son of Corwin, from the original Amber series. Interesting, but not as good as the original.

3) Mary Mary by James Patterson: The latest Alex Cross mystery, and more confusion in
his personal life. Interesting twist to the killer in this one.

4) Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz: Another thriller/chiller - this one stands out for the
'seeing the world through a dog's eyes(and nose) sequences.

5) Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jim Derogatis: The subtitle says it all - 'Psychedelic Music
From the 1960s to the 1990s'

6) Horrible Beginnings by Steven Silver & Martin H Greenberg, ed.: First stories by
horror writers, hence the title. Best one is about Dracula on the Titanic.

So, a good selection this time around. No disappointments in this lot, though the 'Amber'
concepts are wearing thin for me.

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY

Did you know...The first St Patrick's Day parade was held in
New York City in 1762. The marchers were Irish soldiers
in the British Army. Betcha they didn't have green beer, though.

And, an Irish toast for St Paddy's Day:
"May the leprechauns be near you to spread luck along
you way. And may all the Irish angels smile upon you
on St Patrick's Day"

Now go out and get shit-faced!!!

RIP:BERNIE 'BOOM BOOM' GEOFFRION

3/11/06...And another one bites the dust...

But, who is he, you may ask??
He, my friends, for you not of the hockey persuasion,
was the originator of the slap shot. When he played with
the Montreal Canadiens in the 50s & 60s, he would bring
his stick back over his head and let fly, bringing more
speed and power to the puck than the standard wrist shot.
And the 'Boom Boom'
That was the sound of the stick hitting the puck
and then puck hitting the boards.

So welcome to the All-Star team of the great hockey rink
in the sky,Bernie.

THAT'LL LARN `EM

80 years ago…
March 11, 1926 – The Hillsborough County Board of Public Instruction unanimously votes to exonerate the principal of George Washington Junior High for whipping a 15-year old boy with undue severity, criticizing only that he waited too long in administering the punishment.
Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

Found this on Tommy's Sticks Of Fire blog...thought it was pretty funny...

On the other hand...maybe we need to go back there...