SHARP KNIVES, INJURIES AND STITCHES!
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Other than having once, many years ago, seen him on a TV advert, as an extra sitting on a bus, I occasionally wonder what happened to him and how his life went.
Tim encouraged me to enrol in what was then a junior paramilitary organisation, but was otherwise known as the cub scouts!
He left soon afterwards, but I stayed, because I obviously enjoyed it more than him.
They taught me how to tie knots, play team games (that lesson forgotten as I now tend to treat myself as something of a loner) and I became a Sixer. Then they took my patrol away from me and made me Senior Sixer with three bright yellow stripes on my dark blue itchy woolly cub scout uniform pullover.
I was loyal to the 61st
One lesson I learnt very early on, in the cubs, was at a cub scout competition held in the Territorial Army Drill Hall in Heaton.
As the youngest Sixer there, with a patrol hand picked to give us the best chance of competing well, a Senior Northumberland cub scout leader told us that if we were going to work hard, we should roll our sleeves up.
Oddly enough, I do that to this day.
Then came the Scouts in those wonderful and safe teenage years of the 1960's, the days when it was safe for 8, 10 and 12 year olds to spend their summers wholly without parental supervision in Jesmond Dene and
One of the problems with a Church affiliated Scout Group was the condition of ongoing membership of that scouting fraternity that you had to attend Church services for an average of three out of every four weeks during the year, with time off for holidays (good behaviour!).
On the positive side, as a scout, you got to carry a knife! Not a little knife, but a bloody great big leather scabbard encased blade, which we were taught to keep sharp!
I have a memorable scar on the back of my head, well hidden by my hair, obtained within milliseconds of being grabbled by a Scout Leader who was separating two of us who were fighting in the back of a furniture van travelling back from scout camp in Hawick.
Why we were fighting, I cannot recall, who I was fighting with has similarly removed itself from my memory, but the pain as my head hid the sharp base rim of perhaps not a particularly well cleaned chemical toilet is remembered.
The furniture van dropped me off at the RVI in
Those, of course, were the days when Health & Safety rules were such that it was considered to be perfectly satisfactory to place a full scout troops camping gear in the cavernous space of a local removal firms van, together with 30 scouts of varying age!
I recall one scout camp where, as a Venture Scout, in the days when the scout uniform had been changed to long trousers and a shirt with epaulettes, both of which were an unfortunate shade of beige, I, and a number of others, were on a train travelling to Portsmouth, for the ferry over to Jersey, after a couple of days in London, wearing what is now classified as an illegal weapon on one hip, but, on the other, a similarly sharpened small axe!
A favourite scout camp game involved two scouts and one knife.
Each scout stood approximately 10ft (3.0m) apart with feet 18"(450mm) apart.
Taking it in turns, the idea was to throw the knife with it intended to stick in the ground as near as it could to the outside of one of the other scouts feet, whereupon that scout had to move his foot up to the blade, pull it from the soil and then it was his turn to throw it to/at the other!
So, the skill involved hurling a vicious and sharp hunting/skinning knife fairly near to another individuals foot!
The aim of the game was to end up with both scouts with their feet as far apart as possible until one overbalanced!
There was no point to it, but it was very entertaining.
My recollection is that it was the Hawick camp which saw an older scout, whose nickname I recall as Monty, practising his skills alone with his knife, trying to get as close as he could to a wooden tent peg.
One of the Senior Scout Leaders was Peter Rowe, who was an excellent sailor who taught us that skill on Windermere sailing trips.
That day, Peter unexpectedly walked around the side of the ridge tent on whose tent peg Monty was practising his knife skills, the blade first piercing his sandshoe, then his foot, from which point followed a trip to the local Hospital for stitches, tetanus shots, etc.
I don't remember Monty getting into trouble for this, the possible explanation being that this was a scout camp with 30 odd individuals, all with knives, and the blame was possibly laid squarely at the feet (!) of Peter Rowe who should have taken more care when walking around the corner of a tent!
Cub Scouts, Scouts and Venture Scouts taught me a great many things, although I have little opportunity to demonstrate my skills of raft making with branches, oil drums and rope to my children, but tie knots, always roll my sleeves up when working and can, "Be Prepared" for most eventualities!
I have a number of interesting scars, one in the middle of my chin, where I have a lump 1cm across (measured by my Secretary) and another, secured at the same time, within the hairline on my right temple.
As an 8 year old, I ran through a pane of glass!
My poor mother heard the scream and was greeted by the sight of me with a piece of flesh from my chin dangling down, but still attached, and also an additional piece of flesh in my hand approximately 1 inch in diameter, which had come from my temple.
These were the good old days, when you could walk around the corner to the local Doctor's Surgery and they would cancel patients' appointments and do the stitching there and then.
Unfortunately, as the Doctor admitted later, the two stitches to put my chin back together should have been four, and the raised scar would not have been present and cause me problems in later life shaving when, on occasions, I have very unsuccessfully tried to level things off by not concentrating when passing a sharp blade over stubble to that area!
I remember getting a couple of lolly's from the Doctors Surgery (Dentists would now no longer approve), the very prominent gauze and tape bandage coverings eliciting a 'wow' at Cragside Junior School the following Monday.
Bearing in mind that this is a Surveyor's website, I suppose that it is time to "get to the point!"
A few years ago, I surveyed an indifferent box style 1960's detached house down at the Coast, my Clients two highly intelligent individuals.
The 1960's staircase safety rail was constructed in such a manner that there were very large gaps between the horizontal bars, this breaching current issue Building Regulations, which say that there should be no more than 100mm between each safety rail.
The idea of there being a narrow gap between rails is to prevent small children from passing through the bars and either becoming trapped by the neck or having some other form of accident.
The safety risk was clearly noted to the Survey Report and the recommendation made that the safety rail was modified.
Also, there was an awful lot of glass in the house, as was common in the 60's, much of it at low level.
Again, the Building Regulations now state that any glass that is within 800mm of floor level must be of toughened or safety type, this to reduce the risk of injury.
Suitable comments were again made in the Report.
Notwithstanding the clear intelligence of the Clients, they moved in with their two daughters, one of which, at the time, attended the same Nursery School as my youngest daughter.
My wife, collecting said daughter from Nursery one day, discovered that one of my Clients children had been playing on the first floor landing, had climbed through the bars and then plummeted, head down, onto the parquet floor which was laid directly onto a solid concrete floor.
The result - a fractured skull.
That Client made note to my wife that they had taken on board what I had told them in my Survey Report, but had chosen not to modify the staircase at an earlier stage, resulting in a somewhat severe injury to one of their children.
The staircase was modified immediately thereafter and the glass panels were also removed.
One of the points of this is that we all tend to live in older houses that were either constructed in accordance with earlier issue Building Regulations or at a time when the Building Regulations did not exist.
Older houses will not, and do not need to, comply with current issue Building Regulations, but a Surveyor's Report will often make recommendations for modifications to be carried out as a general safety issue.
Admittedly, there is probably only a 1 in 10,000 chance of a child falling through a wide landing safety rail gap but, as I have demonstrated, that 1 in 10,000 chance can occur and the risks do need to be considered and any worthwhile Survey Report advice should be accepted and acted upon.
Postscript
Over the last couple of days, my youngest daughter was running on wet timber decking wearing muddy
As I write this, she is still sore and finds it uncomfortable sitting down.
If she was an elderly gentleman or lady, she may well have been living alone and could still be lying outside with a broken hip.
It is not only timber decking that becomes slippery when wet, but also Bathroom ceramic floor tiles.
I imagine that I am not the only person who has slipped in the bath and cracked my head or slipped in the shower.
More accidents occur in the home than we are prepared to acknowledge, some of these serious.
If a Surveyor's Report gives you advice that you think is of minor consequence, relating to a "safety" aspect, take it on board - you never know.