Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 11th April, 2020)

Beautiful blossom, but what on earth is that huge red crayon pencil doing there?

Patiently and quietly waiting for the children.

What's the point of the pencil? Is it to draw the eye to something in particular?
Oh! To be in Aspull now that Spring is there,
The heady scent of blossom pervades the air
.....

What's the pencil all about?

With that down pour last night is there any blossom left on the trees? I like the use of the pencils for the crossing. Some places near schools have used inverted bottom halves of the pencil design complete with the rubber end to use has bollards along the foot path

A lovely, heartening photo of the trees "wearing white for Easter-tide". I love those huge pencils that are outside the school. There used to be a model of a cow in the playground of the school in Aspull that made me look twice the first time I saw it, it seemed so real. I don't know if it's still there.

Am I right in saying that these coloured pencils are where the Lollipop man/woman used to see the children across the road - didn't realise they were still in use. Lovely picture Ian, nice to see the blossom on trees at this time of year.

Pink pencil??

Come on you Wiganers, the pencil indicates a school crossing, it isn't the only one in the borough.

The pencils are to signify that the schoolchildren cross the road there. I think they look great.

We don't have giant pencils in the outback where I live...;o))
What a good idea though.

The pencil is showing the school crossings, if I was in charge I would have the same thing but with a ruler, that way the kids could see how they are growing as they walk past.

I'm glad you said a ruler to show how fast they're growing Mick, we had teachers who whacked our hands with rulers....I remember blowing on my hands afterwards. It wasn't very nice, not that it happened a lot in my case!

Veronica I had nuns at my junior school and they used to batter me if my older brother and sister w3ho had left school, had not been seen in the church on Sunday

I have a previously unheard-of pencil that closely resembles this fella. It's called Staedtler Maxi.
It was given to me some years ago and has a broad graphite core which I presume to be a HB.
And after finding no mention of it, online, the lady on the phone said "We don't make it, anymore".
A Collector's Item, I thought - but not now.
I've discovered that it's still available and that its broad core will be ideal for the 'energetic young'.
And perhaps today's energetic young will search for previously unseen treasures of their own; they'll have a good start when standing at the foot of Ian's 'White Blossom' - remembering the 'Code, of course.

I actually think that's a good idea about the rulers, Mick. They could be marked in feet (or metres or whatever they use these days), and the children could see how tall they are. I still have a 12" ruler marked in inches. Veronica got the ruler because she never stopped talking in class (no change there then!). Only joking, Dolly dear! xxx

I have some pencils from the time of the Second World War, Philip G....and even I wasn't around then!

Very true Irene! Also up to mischief!
Mick I just cannot believe the 'good' nuns battered you for not going to church on Sunday! Although they did use to record if you had or not been! Also it was in your favour if you went to Benediction as well as Sunday Mass...

Does anyone remember the pencils that you used to lick ( God forbid!) and they changed colour.... On the paper that is? As well as making your tongue blue ?I am going back to the 50's though.

Are these white hawthorn trees? Beautiful photo Ian - thank you.
First time I've ever seen those pencils.
When I was having piano lessons I used to get the ruler across my knuckles if I didn't hold my hands in the right position - and my music teacher was my Aunt!! Must have been the weapon of choice in those days Veronica.

I remember the day I was asked to extend my arm in front of the class and, after retracting my arm for a second time, the sound of Susan Beardsmore's Aw!, as if to say That's done it!. The Dual in the Lab' was a quite tense affair with rosy cheeks and fair defiance being exchanged in equal measure, thus providing an electrifying end to the said affair.

It didn't do us any harm looking back Pat... But it was sore and humiliating at the time..
Philip you can make poetry about anything .. Even about getting the cane!

Its true Veronica, yes they di give points if you went to church.
On a monday morning they would ask, who went and if you had been to confession. mass, and sunday school you used say all three and get three points.
When it come round to me I use to answer non, and then got sent to the back of the class because they dint want to teach me.
Thing was the school was in standish and I lived in Shevy and there was no buses running on sundays.

I only ever had the ruler once. We used to sit six to a table at Ince Central School for dinners and people were talking. All six of us got the ruler on our hand and I hadn't uttered a word! But you just accepted it back then. However, that was not all! I accompanied my son to Wigan Pier when he was at Abram Primary School and we had a "lesson" in the Victorian Schoolroom and I was hauled up before the class and called a "Jezebel" because I had "paint" on my face and fingernails! Veronica, I remember the Indelible Pencils well.

Veronica - they were peuce, or indelible pencils. Originally used for creating a copy of a document - I think a wet tissue was placed on a document written with the pencil, and a copy was transferred onto the tissue. They were also used when a definitive version of a document was required - the writing couldn't be erased to make unauthorised changes. I think the police had to use them in their notebooks, but Albert will correct me.... The element added to the graphite was poisonous - but no one cared much about such things in The Good Olde Days....

Mick you have made me laugh I can just imagine you getting your ears boxed!
Irene it was awful sometimes all the class suffered because of one person.
Rev. David thanks for the info about the pencil, I don't know how that pencil came to be at our house! I used to draw with it!!!

Veronica - maybe your dad brought it home. Mine was an engineer - I think it was commonplace for engineering drawings to be annotated with indelible pencil - if something went wrong, it couldn't be covered up by erasing an alteration you'd made to a specification.... That's in the days when engineers were more than folk who punched numbers into a computer, of course.

My dad was more in the 'spade brigade' Rev. David. He worked at the Gasworks from leaving the Army in '46 to Retirement. He was always finding interesting things though...I have a feeling the pencil may have belonged to my grandmother though.