Ode to a very wet walk in May

The LAWS (Ladies Afternoon Wednesdays Society) with Roy as their guide did a repeat of our May 1st walk on Tuesday 15th May but unfortunately didn't have the good weather we did and as a result, two of their group Jill Peacock and Barbara Booth have kindly penned this poem for our amusement.

Our Leader, Roy got soaked, tho Jill had her brolly.
Rain came down and water flowed, but it was very jolly.
Friends together had much fun,
More time in the pub than on the run.

While sheltering beneath some trees,
Christine collapsed (it was her knees).
On we trudged over hill and dale
Spied six deer that left no trail.

Though we were all very wet,
No moment at all did we regret
We vowed to do it all again,
Hopefully next time without the rain.

From then until now by Alan Wood

Born in 1928 makes me one of the two oldest PRATS, Tom Walder being the other although he only beats me by some 5 weeks. (1928 was a good year).
I came south in late 1939 to Lewes where I spent the war years at school, same school as Tom, although we were not aware of each other at the time.
I joined the POED in late 1944 as a Y-in-T, at Seaford before moving to Lewes on various duties. In 1946/47, on Internal Construction, the other youth on the team under a Mr Frank Hulse was no other than Tom.
March 20th 1947 Tom and I travelled to Maidstone to start our 2 years National Service and two years later, on April 1st 1949 I was demobbed.
Our friendship continued after demob (meeting up on Triumph motorbikes). And in 1950 Tom honoured me by being Best Man at my wedding.
After establishment I was a lineman at Lewes then down to Newhaven (CB 10) and Peacehaven (UAX 7) exchanges before moving to Gatwick in 1957, initially to install then maintain the PABX No3 and telegraph switching centre plus a miscellany of other equipment.
Whilst at Gatwick I managed to extend my interest in aviation by obtaining free flights on numerous occasions when aircraft were on training or positioning exercises. On one occasion I finished up in Berlin but the return flight was cancelled and I had to pay for my flight back by Lufthansa. Colleagues at the time never let me forget the incident.
1961 saw my move to THQ where in the next 22 years I served in TG Branch, Accommodation (Radio Stations) Branch and finally in Service Branch.
1983 (April 1st again – no comments please) saw me start my early retirement. I think I was one of the first to be offered this way out in the then newly formed BT.
Early retirement saw me doing Chauffeuring (peak cap and suit), technical documentation work for Teradyne, an American company providing BT with modern remote testing equipment and finally delivering cars the length and breadth of England.
On a final issue where the PRATS are concerned, Roy Peacock contacted me some six years ago to see if I would like to participate. At the time I declined but things changed and after meeting the group for lunch on several occasions I was finally persuaded to join which I did, albeit initially just for the after lunch return. On June 1st 2004 I entered into my first full walk and the rest is history. I wish now that I had started earlier.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every walk even though I have difficulties at times especially over stiles. Fortunately the ‘younger members‘are always helpful either physically or verbally. As you can see, sometimes I can be seventy nine years young, This is one of a series of things I have been persuaded to do including being jammed into a phone box with several others to create a record as well as being one of about twelve to sit on a stile.

Conkers by Dave Page

The name comes from the nineteenth-century dialectal word conker meaning snail-shell (related to French conque meaning a conch), as the game was originally played by children using snail shells or sometimes hazelnuts. Conkers are also known regionally as "obblyonkers", "cheggies" or "cheesers", but the first recorded game of Conkers using horse chestnuts was on the Isle of Wight in 1848.
In 1965 the World Conker Championships were set up in Ashton (near Oundle) Northamptonshire, and still take place on the second Sunday of October every year. In 2004, an audience of 5,000 turned up to watch more than 500 competitors from all over the world slug it out.
In 2000 a survey of British schools showed that many were not allowing children to play Conkers as head teachers were afraid of the legal consequences if children were injured while playing the game. In 2004 a headmaster was reported to be giving kids goggles to play the game. A slightly older teenager can be seen wearing them in the picture below.

To stand a good chance of winning, it is desirable to have as hard a conker as possible. The best way to achieve this is to leave your conker in a drawer for a year and are called "Laggies" in many areas. If you lack time, a similar effect can be gained by briefly baking it in an oven...
It should be pointed out, however, that some would consider any artificial hardening of a conker to be cheating. At the British Junior Conkers Championships on the Isle of Wight in October 2005, contestants were banned from bringing their own conkers due to fears that they might harden them.
Some rules and names
If a player just slices the opponent's conker (i.e. does not get a clean hit, often because wind causes the opponent's conker to sway), then both players quickly shout "tips" and the one who in the opinion of the crowd shouted it first, gets to take the next shot.
A further variation adds that if a player should let go of the string when the hit occurs, which often results in the conker traveling quite some distance, whosoever gets to it first wins it, though don’t try this if it lands in the river as it has on past occasions Mick and Eddie take note.
Another variation states that if a conker should come off the string, but is otherwise undamaged, the 'attacking' player may shout "stampsies" and attempt to stamp on the 'defending' player's conker before they are able to retrieve it.
In some areas, a rule is played whereby if a player takes his shot and the two laces become tangled, the first player who shouts "clinks", "strings" or "jinks", depending on the region, gets to take shots.
May the the horse chestnut tree flourish and the game continue for the children and the recycled teenagers in the future.

More early memories by Tom Walder

As I am one of the oldest Pratswalkers (the oldest actually) I thought I would follow what seems to be the blog trend starting in the distant past.
At the start of my GPO career, political correctness even in those bygone days flourished and because my father was SW1 O I/C Eastbourne Manual Exchange it was decided I couldn't start there!
So at the tender age of 16 in August 1944 I was commanded to report to Bernard Stone O I/C Lewes Manual Exchange.
I couldn't believe my luck all those telephone operators some young some not so young and I was going to work among them changing cords etc. Mind you some of the supervisors seemed to be as old as my mother at the time!
As this was towards the end of the war there was also a female engineer assistant.These ladies were recruited in quite large numbers as a lot of engineers had been called up into the forces.
This was the start of my training and I was known as a Y2YC (more abbreviations- Youth Two Year Course)

Mine and man's best friend by Dave Page

It's now been 436 days since we had to have our lovely dog Moss put to sleep and we still miss him and think about him all the time. He kept me reasonably fit when we did agility and he never went wrong but I sent him the wrong way on too many occasions. He was our constant companion and through him we made many new friends who we keep in touch with now.

A few days after we lost him I was browsing the web as you do and I came across the following poem which I didn't read right through for several months and to all of you who have had to make the heartbreaking decision to have a family pet put to sleep you may derive some comfort from the following words.

The Last Battle
If it should be that I grow frail and weak, and pain should keep me from my sleep
Then will you do what must done, for this—the last battle---can’t be won
You will be sad I understand but don’t let grief then stay your hand
For on this day, more than the rest, your love and friendship must stand the test
We have had so many happy years, you wouldn’t want me to suffer so
When the time comes, please let me go

Take me where to my needs they’ll tend, only stay with me to the end
And hold me firm and speak to me until my eyes no longer see
I know in time you will agree, it is a kindness you do to me
Although my tail it’s last has waved, from pain and suffering I’ve been saved
Don’t grieve that it must be you ,who has to decide this thing to do
We’ve been so close—we two—these years, don’t let your heart hold any tears

Moss 1992-2006

A day to remember by Bob Milton

September 9th 1946

This is another day to remember, it is the day that Bob Milton, aged 16 joined the Post Office Telephones, reporting at ‘Otterburn’, Old Orchard Road, Eastbourne to Mr Veneer, Chief Inspector.
After a brief welcome I signed the Official Secrets Act and felt quite important.
I was then taken downstairs to meet my Inspector, Mr J Smethurst, who seemed a very pleasant fellow.
He told me that I was to address him as Mr Smethurst and I was to be known as Mr Milton. Customers were to be addressed as Sir or Madam. I suppose it was not expected I would meet any Lords or Ladies. So there was my first experience of equality in my new job. Mr Smethurst took out a pack of twenty Players, lit one and asked me if I smoked. When I replied yes he remarked, “Don’t let me catch you smoking on duty”

Another memory, (circa Suez)
I found myself coming in contact with ‘transmission men’ They all seemed to wear corduroy trousers and call each other ‘old boy’. They were also fond of asking people to ‘turn up the wick’ and spoke about funny things called dbs. Another favourite was ‘I’ll change the bottle old chap’. It was a different approach.
You perhaps can see why it is said. ‘You can always tell a transmission man, but you cannot tell him much’
But to be serious there was also Ernie Pike, king of the bees, and concert pianist. You don’t know what you missed.

PRATS one and all from John Watts

When I joined the GPO I found we were called ‘God’s Poor Orphans’ and during my career it changed its name to Post Office (PO) and by the time I retired it was known as British Telecom (BT). Throughout my career I have learned to live with abbreviations so that anyone listening to a conversation between any GPO/PO/BT engineer will think they have gone to another country. Imagine someone listening in and hearing you say “Give me a dis on the IDF because I’ve got an earth on my P wire and it’s causing PETs on my Finals” As we moved into the electronic era it got even worse with MCUs, SPUs & Cyclic Stores. I retired in 1992 and moved to East Sussex in 2000. Having worked in London all my career I was keen to maintain links with my old colleagues and often visit Croydon for an ‘Old Boy’ Meeting once a month’ and YES, we still talk about ‘P’ wires and MCUs etc.
Having moved to this area I was roped in to help ‘Re-launch’ Neighbourhood Watch (NW) in Polegate. It was at a NW meeting held in East Dean that I bumped into a familiar face from the past - it was Roy Peacock. We chatted over past times and the people we had known and then Roy told me about the walks he and other ex BT men did and asked me if I would like to be a PRAT. I recovered my composure quickly because I always remembered Roy as a gentleman and not one prone to giving insult. Well, to cut a long story short, I joined and was delighted to meet an exceedingly good bunch of ex BT blokes. Among the band of happy wanderers are some ‘Honorary PRATS’ who are guest walkers. These chaps who did not work for BT have carved a special place into the group and share in all the good comradeship. Recently one of the guest walkers said to me that he had been in Banking all his working life and he was amazed how we BT types (years after retirement) still talk about ‘the job’. He said that when he meets old colleagues they never talk about Banking. I explained that to have been a GPO etc. engineer means you have become part of a close knit brotherhood. You could go anywhere in the country and two BT men could meet and talk the same language and be good friends. Perhaps that is why we still talk in abbreviations and call ourselves the PRATS. (One has to remember to explain to outsiders that the letters stand for Pensioners Rambling And Trekking Society). I nearly got my face slapped by a lady in a car park who was putting on her walking shoes and I asked her if she was one of the PRATS). That could have resulted in a nasty fault on my ‘P’ wire leaving me with a PG (permanent glow).

Musings on a dull day by Dave Page

I sit here with a smug feeling of satisfaction knowing that we have completed another successful walk around the beautiful county of Sussex. Our group first founded in 1995 has now completed 143 walks and we go from strength to strength.
We still have a few of the original walkers and although our numbers have dipped in the past to one walk when only three turned up, our latest walk had 22 walkers and although this resulted in a few queues at stiles, everybody still enjoyed the day.
In the early days of our walks when we were all fit and healthy we used to walk around 10 miles but now we tend to limit it to nearer 6 miles and try to complete the greater part of the walk before lunch. The meal nowadays plays an important part of our day as it allows us to eat and chat to our hearts content.