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Email from Basil Riccomini to Flora Jenner, "The Elms as I knew It.", 11 December 2006. (S546)

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Actual Text:	From: "Basil Riccomini" <briccomini@satx.rr.com> To: "Flora Jenner" <florajenner@hotmail.com> Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 2:16 PM Subject: The Elms as I knew It. I first attended the Elms sometime late in 1944 at No 8 London Road. Charlie Howard was the school master, and to me he was 'one of a kind'. He was born in India of missionary parents and had spent some time in Canada where he taught school and was a Lay Preacher. Mr. Howard had a serious stomach disorder which caused him to have a permanent yellowish pallor and which also probably resulted in his rather quick temper. There were two 'bombed' houses on the school grounds, adjacent to the London Road where some American soldiers were conducting some sort of training. In their spare time they used to play baseball and when they left they gave the sports equipment to the school. Mr. Howard taught some of us how to play baseball, and we were probably one of the few schools in the country to play that game. We had, in my opinion, some very fine masters at the Elms. 'Wally' Walsh was a dear old soul with a delightful Irish brogue. I do not remember what transgressions that I had committed but he seated me at one time directly in front of his desk. One day one of the students dipped a large wad of blotting paper in his ink well and launched it with his ruler resulting in it hitting me behind my left ear, ink splattered in several directions, unfortunately for the culprit, Wally had witnessed the dirty deed. Retribution was swift and painful. Another master whose name I have forgotten was "christened" Horace by Peter Robinson, and the name stuck, he was a rather serious, but a very fair man. Val Dawson was the one that I named 'Klondyke', he was also a very fair and dedicated master. He later became a good friend of mine and I still maintain contact by telephone with his brother John. The master that I remember most of all is Bill Shannon. He truly impressed me as no other adult of my acquaintance at that time ever did. He was quite strict but very, very, fair. I do not ever remember anyone being punished by him that did not truly deserve it. Also on occasion he related to us some of his experiences, and cautioned us, to the effect, that what we did not learn at the Elms, we would later be obliged to learn, "whilst burning the midnight oil". He also observed that "when you leave here, you had better have your education complete". I have very often reflected over the years regarding that advice because I was a very poor student in my youth. I never really understood geometry or algebra, and I only excelled in subjects that interested me, anything else I merely muddled through. 'Piggy' Lurcock and I sat together, and we would stay behind after school was over and do our home work. We would both complete the subjects that we were good at, and then we would swap papers. Hence later; as Bill Shannon had warned in the 'Halls of higher learning', I did indeed burn the midnight oil. Henry Isaac Piper our beloved and esteemed Headmaster will always be remembered by me with great affection. "There's not much goes on around here that we don't know about" were not merely idle words, they were indeed a fact of life! On several occasions when confronted with some of my misdeeds I was astounded by the accuracy of his awareness of the facts of the matter. On the few occasions that corporal punishment was administered he never raised the cane above his shoulders, he went by the book. That was a typical example of the man he was, fair to a fault. A very dear colleague of mine and I used to pump the organ at Saint Peter's church during the services at the beginning and at the end of the Term. During the sermon we used to help ourselves to the conformation wine which was a quite respectable port, sadly an electronic device was installed later which deprived us of this larcenous recreation. On another occasion the same acquaintance brought to school an explosive substance, which we placed on the ground a few feet front the London Road wall, we then placed some house bricks on top, inserted a fuse and detonator, lit the fuse, and scuttled off to a safe distance. The explosion was loud and impressive. Inspection of the site revealed a fairly deep depression, but no trace of the bricks. The following day at 'Assembly' before our school day began, Old 'Sickly' requested that he would very much appreciate it if we students would refrain from popping off fireworks on the school premises. This was one occasion when at least two students were truly glad that "Not Much Goes On That We Don't Know About" did not apply regarding this incident, needless to say we did not repeat it. One should never 'push one's luck'. The Elms was an old mansion and had a copper voice pipe that extended from the former kitchen and scullery, up the stair ways to all the rooms in the building. This system was initiated formally by blowing a whistle from a room to summon a servant to perform some service. This system had been partly dismantled, but some of us discovered that on the stairs the copper tubing was open, and one could place one's lips over the hole and blow 'bugle fashion', so to speak, and down in the bowels of the building there would be heard a high pitched strident squeal resembling that of an elephant experiencing extreme pain. Sadly, later someone hammered the tubing flat in various places and it no longer functioned as a noise maker. This concludes that which I remember of my days at the Elms. Undoubtedly time has erased that which was unpleasant, because I look back on those days with true nostalgia. I would not have missed my school days there for anything that I can think of, my fellow students, those that I remember, were fun to be around. If there was any serious quarrelling I do not remember it. On my last day at school I walked through every room in the building because I realized that I was 'closing a door behind me', that I would never be able to re-enter again. Bill Shannon's caution echoed through my mind, "do you consider your education complete?"
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