School days  St Sebastian's Primary School 1958 -1966.

1. Nursery. I don't remember a great deal from my Nursery Days but when I was 21 my Mum gave me a memory pack which had a School Concert Programme listing me as the Conductor of The Nursery Orchestra. I do remember waving my arms around in front of the rattles and shakers. I'm not sure if I got the job because I couldn't play anything in time or because they thought I looked cute with a bow tie on. Ironic that I became a Music Teacher and ended up conducting School Orchestras and Bands for many years.

The Garden in the Nursery was adjacent to the Dominican Monks Friary which may have given me a start in religious leanings. I took a message over one day and I remember being given a custard cream. Thinking back that was a sign of the times as I'm sure children of nursery age don't go on errands anymore. I even remember going to buy my Dad's Woodbines when I was probably only six or seven or even younger.

I also remember the afternoon sleep although I rarely opted for that as I liked playing and when I did go to the little wooden framed beds I tended to look round at everyone else rather than snooze.

2. Infants.One memory of being in the Infants was the big jar of Dolly Mixtures that was kept in the Headteachers Office.It was used for bribery to get goods for the Christmas Fair and other deeds seemed fit to earn rewards. Nice as it was it would be seen as appalling now with Healthy Eating campaigns. 

In May there was a procession in Church culminating in the Crowning of the May Queen. I found out years later that the hat full of names was full of duplicates of a select few.. Every year a Cutie came out of the hat, quite a scandal looking back. Of course back then conspiracy theories and mistrust if our elders wasn't in our vocabulary.

St.Charles' Hall was a local venue on Whit Lane where the annual Fancy Dress party was held. My Mum was very resourceful and pulled off a good one. I was dressed in a Nappy and carried a bar of Fairy Soap. Another time I did a double act with my Brother where he was given a bucket of fish.and they dressed me as a Penguin. 

The Venue was also used for school concerts and one year I sang Adeste Fidelis in Latin dressed as an angel. I opened the show another year singing 76 Trombones from The Music Man. Another Irony as years later I became known as The Music Man in several circles.

3. Juniors - Moving up to Juniors was exciting but filled with trepidation.My brother was a School Football star so there was an expectation for me and I was asked to train with the school team who were three years older. I got my first game aged 8 but if I'm being honest was not ready for that. The following year I got a regular place and scored two goals in one game. The following year I was top scorer with five which doesn't say a lot about how good we were. 

The team sheet was normally posted on a Friday which meant going to the toilets in lessons was designed to see the team. One day I went out and the team had 10 players on it and a ? Mine was missing and it turned out I was the question mark as we had an outstanding 8 year old who was being considered to replace me. Fortunately he couldn't play that day and I learnt a lot from that shock. Never take anything for granted, look at yourself, bounce back and prove them wrong. I tried really hard and was complimented for my performance and ended up playing alongside the rising star .

Although the Football team was not the best in the area we did win a trophy with our Road Safety team. We were knocked out in the Semi Final in year 5 but got to the Final in 1966. Our speciality was the new continental road signs introduced in 1965. The Final against St.Thomas of Canterbury was very exciting. The quiz run by The Police in conjunction with Salford Education Committee involved two rounds, the first on The Highway Code and the second on the road signs. 

After round one St.Thomas had a big lead so with only limited points to go we had to pull out all the stops.The final had buzzers on the open questions and we were red hot. At one point we had got every question and St Thomas asked for a buzzer check but there was no issue. We went on to win by one point. The next morning in assembly the Headteacher, Mr Blackely presented us with a trophy as he had been at the school for many years without ever winning anything.The Official trophy went back after a year but we got engraved trophies to keep. When I reached the age of 65 I was looking throught my trophies and decided to donate it to the school where hopefully it resides in a prominent place.

Back in 1966 the 11 plus was the order of the day and I passed which gave me the opportunity to go to De la Salle. That involved an entrance exam which would have put me into a posh uniformed and Rugby playing School. I had to miss a school football game to sit the entrance exam on a Saturday morning. The night before I woke up and heard my Mum crying downstairs. I sneaked down and she was worried about the cost of the uniform which has a monopolised supplier along with other costs. I was brought up in a house with love and never really saw ourselves as poor. The next day I went to the entrance exam and answered all the questions with stupid answers such as the square root of 9 was an elephant. When the results came out Mr.Blakely was clearly shocked that I'd not passed and asked me what went wrong. " I don't know " was my response. God looked after me as a few months later it was announced that a new Grammar School was opening and I would be given a place there. It turned out to be a great move and helped me to be a bigger fish in the smaller pool.

In my Junior schools days I was caned once for running out into the road on the way back from Pendleton Swimming Baths by Mr.Sheeran.Not good from a Road Safety Winner. Years later at my Mother's Funeral the teacher who caned me was present. I asked him why he was there and he said with four children coming through the school he got to know the family well and my Sister Rose returned to the School as a teacher. I reminded him that he caned me and he said he caned as an "act of love".I do get that and it helped me take care henceforth. In the 60s corporal punishment was accepted and in my opinion was purely for corrective purposes. That said, some teachers were not wacking us for the right reasons and they should have been held to account. 

Incidentally, I went to St Sebastian's instead of the local St.Bonifaces because my Grandfather, Thomas Adamson, was the Headmaster there 40+ years earlier and my Mum was Church organist. It was a family connection.

Secondary School St.Peter's Grammar Technical School 1966 -1974

The opening day at St.Peters was no different in emotion to moving up to the Primary School Juniors although I was dropped off on the first day as the only pupil from my Primary School. Fortunately a few of the St.Bonifaces pupils were there who I'd met through being an altar server so quickly got to know a few people. The school in 1966 was still being built and in the pre start was offered Ice Skating, Swimming and Russia. For some reason they changed the plans and the Swimming pool was replaced with a Sports Hall as well as a separate gym, I never went Ice Skating or had Russian lessons and those who did were short lived as the Russian teacher left and couldn't be replaced. I was left with French, which had a profound effect on my future for the wrong reasons. It always baffled me that the School Holiday was in Germany rather than France.

On the opening day we had to line up outside in our Forms to meet our form teachers and Mr.Hermolle welcomed us. He said he wanted the school to start as we mean to go on and told us the two school rules. 1. Show respect for people and property. 2. Use your Common sense. That impressed me but after Mr.Hermolle moved on we were subjected to The Corridor Code and about two pages of school rules under Mr.Maguire.

His first day was hilarious as he announced he would like to see 1S, 2S, and 3S after assembly. Another member of staff rushed forward to quietly speak to him and he said "after assembly I'd like to see the 1's, 2's and 3's."

Our Form teacher was Mr Levaggi. He was one for Insulting the Clientele with phrases like Moston Guttersnipe's or Squatters. He was not one to mess around with and spared us the cane many times by just clouting you round the head. He was even known to call the less Chemically Educated 'Bloody Fools'. As many pupils were entrance exam failures or got in because of the extra places of a new school he probably thought it was beneath him and was expecting De la Salle , Xvarian or St.Bedes. I was hopeless at Chemistry but survived his insults because every Monday Morningy Mum gave me 6d ( a tanner in those days) for the chapel fund. I met Mr.Levsggi in Tesco's when he must have been in his 80s and when I told him my name the first thing he said was you were one of the good boys who brought me six pence every Monday. That must haved saved me from several clips round the ear. It pays to be good even if I was bad at Science things.

My main priority at St.Peter' s was to get on the School Football team and I remember intercepting a pass at the first trial and firing a shot just wide. Impressed by my interception but not the shot Mr. Pounder suggested to Mr B. Hopkins that I be moved to full back. I was selected for the second trial on the probables against possibles . A few switches took place in that game but I remained at right back for the trial and eventually became Vice Captain right through until 5th year after which I became first Xl Captain for two years in sixth form.

Our first match was against Poundswick winning  17-0 followed by an away game in which we won 7-1 with a goal from me lobbed in from the right back position. My only goal until 5th year .

One day Mr.Hopkins walked in with a new kit. Previously we played in our own reversible shirts, Black on one side and a yellow band on the other. The new kit was white with a black and yellow band across the chest. To my knowledge no other team at any level had such a design although two years later another school had a blue and yellow band across there. Such was the kits uniqueness it was featured in a boys comic prompting the school at the same time. I got mine first , put it on and claimed to be the first person to wear the school kit. Tommy McLune put his in, ran out into the pitch and claimed to be the first person to wear the kit on the pitch.( Field of Play to be precise) Someone else claimed to have took the first throw in and do it went on. 

When the school opened there were only five first year classes and we were joined by a small group of second and third year pupils from grammar streams of secondary schools such as St.Alberts, St.Anthony's and several other schools. As the school expanded more teachers came in such as Mr Healey the Music teacher. The original staff were Mr's Pounder, B.Hopkins, P Hopkins, Duffy, Levaggi. Cummings, Mulligan,Slade, Walker (Deputy Head. not the PE teacher who was at the  successor school St.Monicas) and many more as the school grew. The gym and tech blocks were finished by Easter so our curriculum also expanded as buildings were completed and new staff came in. It took about seven years before the school was at its full potential .

One innovative feature was the Language Lab consisting of a master recorder and 24 attached recorders. Each pupil could record their own work at their own pace. As a language teaching tool I thought it was poor as Mr.Walker , a superb languages teacher from day one said we would just speak French and towards the end of the first year gelt I was getting the hang of it. The Language Lab took over and my French went down for two reasons. 1. The teaching system was full of repetition which did nothing compared to the just speak French method. 2. The tape recorders were good for singing for fun. One day the teachers voice came into my cans and said Adamson gets on with your work. I think at that point I realised I wanted a Music career and the language lab was the way forward in Music teaching. Give the children a pre recorded backing track and let them improvise over the top, read a melody or whatever task was set. This was revolutionary around 1967 but all to no avail. In 1979 I was appointed to Breeze Hill but the Language Lab there was beyond repair so my plan never materialised but the use of backing tracks back then was innovative in my opinion for Music teaching. By the mid 80 s Silver Burdett developed a system of play along tapes / records and was given the opportunity to develop and use that system but not in a language lab.

In the third year Our school team got to the cup final which was a disaster losing to Blessed John Southworth  8-0. I cleared one shot off the line but the referee said it was over. He was thirty yards away but it was certainly not the whole of the ball.   Several of their shots were hit from about yards over the head of our stand in keeper who was inexperienced in goal. We also reached the final in 5th year and lost to St. Augustine's 5-2 despite taking an early lead. In the sixth form we won both the league with the first Xl and also the Knights of St.Columban 5 a side tournament with resounding victories over all challenges. It was held in our Sports Hall which probably helped but we still had to be accurate with our shots which were really good on the day. 

In 2nd year the Cricket team won their Knock out Cup and got to the final in 3rd year. I was in the team in third year and on one ocassion got 8 for 8 against Cheetham Hill and could have taken all 10 wickets had I have not dropped two caught and bowled opportunities . In the final we were chasing to win and I put on a 30 partnership with Vinny Graffy. With I e over remaining and 8 wickets down we were told we needed 7 to win. I swung the bat and hit it clean towards the boundary but was out by a great catch going over the head if the fielder. The next and last wicket went down after 5 more runs and we lost by two. The trophy was awarded and we got runners up medals. The following day and error was found in the score book which suggested we only needed 4 to win. Me and Vinny would have achieved that by going for quick singles but alas there is no point in crying over it. I went in to become first Xl cricket Captain but most of the good players had left by then so no major events for discussion.

Sports day was always a popular event. I regularly came 2nd in the Mile to John Tickle who seemed to be the David Watts of the School (Kinks Song if you've not heard the phrase). In our final year John missed the announcement and my chance to win the mile was on after 6 years of falling short. As we passed the second bend John jumped up from lounging around and said is this the mile. He was gutted and would have won. He did say we'll done tagged with anyway which said it all. The daft thing was that year the school went metric so as the first winner of the 1500 metres I now held the school record. Of course in those days there was a tradition of the sixth form doing silly things before the mile. We started the Okey cokey until Mr.Mallalieu told us to get running so my 5.15 record could have been a bit better . That year John Tickle did win the 800 metres with me finishing third . John Tickle and Stan Kucharski were very fast finishers and it was a photo finish with me fighting my way past the crowd who spilled onto the track to get a good view of the finale. 

Woodwork and Metalwork was not a strength of mine to the point of being called Frank Spencer ( Some Mothers Do Have' em BBC comedy programme) by my Wife to be several years later. We were told to use a 3/8.ths chisel and I couldn't find one so used a 3/4 one instead. My piece of wood split and I called Mr.Ramsden over and said I had a faulty piece of wood. When he saw the chisel he said "God doesn't make faulty wood" and questioned my use of a 3/4;chisel. I said I couldn't find one so used that one as it had a 3 in it. It was not meant to be funny but he thought I was being cheeky so he put the two pieces of wood together  and hit me across the backside placed over the bench. I was able to opt out a year later. My only success in those lessons was making a matchbox holder which was on our mantle piece for many years as my Dad used it for striking his matches on. Years later I put a wall coat hanger in the cubby hole under the stairs of my first matrimonial home. I was so proud of myself and I asked my young bride to test it out and we both hung on the pegs. I could finally do a woodwork job. After I d got my praise I closed the door and it bounced back as I'd positioned it too high. Coupled with standing on a paint tin lid when painting the bathroom then walking all over the carpet I was saddled with the famous phrase , " Next time we'll get a man in". Forty years later after a bad professional painting job we got a woman in and she was the best person we ever employed for decorating.

Drama. Was not a big issue in the early days at St.Peter's with music being the main source of performing arts. However in our sixth form days we did do a Passion Play. I got a non speaking part as an apostle and the show was to run for three nights. I couldn't do the second night so asked Paul Tomko to stand in. On the third night I returned to my role as did Paul having enjoyed it so much. Only the Maths teacher noticed we had 13 apostles. Paul went to Padgate College as did I. On his Birthday students had a habit of waking people up in the middle of the night. On the night of Paul's Birthday and incident happened in Warrington and Police were looking for a criminal who had been seen running into Padgate College. My room was checked and they knocked on Paul's door. Thinking it was a prank he told the Police where to go in no uncertain terms. I had to tell him it was the Police and he sheepishly Let them check his room. Not sure they found the offender.

Art  Not my strong point as I had a drawing age of about four. I managed blowing Indian ink quite well when we did trees but in 1st and 2nd year was well down the bottom of the class. In year 3:(9 in modern language) I came a creditable 9th having drawn a football match. The art teacher Mr.Mullugan said it was an excellent abstract. It was only later I found out what an abstract was. I think he was having a laugh or trying to encourage me as I was a struggler in the subject. 

Music By far my favourite subject. It took awhile to get the subject of the ground as we had no music teacher  until later in the year when Mr Healey joined the staff. Prior to his arrival Music was basically singing Gelineau Psalms with the Head Teacher Mr.Hermolle and Mr.Walker. Mr Healey was a superb Music teacher and a cool dude. When we sang Georgie Fames Bonny and Clyde the class erupted into mock gunfire and things flying across the room. Mr.Hraley just sat there until the riot had finished then played the coda. I owe a lot to Mr.Hralry for his encouragement in my formative years of songwriting and telling my parents he saw no reason why I couldn't become Music teacher even though I had failed Music O' Level first time round..