People   (Re-unions, trace old friends and relatives.)

Hi Dave
Brian has just told me to have a look at the message board. I was there when Joseph Oxley first came to greenfield. sister Mary Clair was carrying him into the boys rec room, there was oviously something wrong with him, at that time we only had one rec room for all the boys. He did have very big ears and eyes like an owl, wavy brown hair, and a moon type of face also you would never see him without his thumb in his mouth. Poor Joey, he did cause me a bit of grief. One day, sister Mary Clair told me that Joey was having problems sleeping and that Joey would be sleeping with me, i did'nt mind too much as i thought it would only be for a few days. Mary Clair also told me to wake him up in the night to take him to the toilet, as he wet the bed, i told Mary Clair i would be happy to look after little Joey, looking back on it i was grovelling, but a little bit of the grovel worked wonders. Every night i took little Joey for a pee, every morning the bed was soaked. Joey never went to school, it was like he was on permanent holidays. To stop Joey from peeing i told him the devil was going to come in the night and take him to hell as all the people that wet the bed go to hell. Coming home from school one day sister mary clair was standing by the rec room with little joey in her arms with his thumb in his mouth. She looked at me with a scowl and told me to get to my bed. I knew that I was going to get hit for something and I couldn't for the life of me think what! She followed me up to the dormatory with little joey and sat him on the bed. She went into her own cubilcle to get the strap out with the throngs on the end. She called me the hangman's noose and that I had petrified poor little joey. It took seconds for me to think about jumping out of the window which was about a 20 foot drop onto concrete or make a run for it. I was shouting to joey how sorry I was and that Jesus did want him in heaven. But all I could see on joey's face was a twisted smile as he knew what was going to happen to me. I turned to sister mary clair and tried to knock the strap out of her hand and bust the crucifix that hung around her neck. She went back into the cubicle then went away with little joey and nothing was ever said about that again. So you see Dave, you remember Joey's name to this day and so do I but for different reasons. Poor Joey, I didn't mean to frighten him but I didn't like having to walk to school with the girls smelling of pee, and as you know bathtime was only once a week. I'd be about 11yrs old then about 1955/6. P.S. Some of the names that havn't been mentioned above, Andrew Hankin, he took a lot of stick over his name, but never mind. A little lad called Adrian, who always used to sing a song called i'm a tin soldier. Two twins with fair hair and crossed eyes who were always getting battered. A fella called Sammy Rostrum. There was Nicky Cunningham, oh sorry, that's me! Anyway if I think of anymore names i'll get back to you. I know Brian will be reading this so hello Brian, I'll speak to you soon.