Things you'd put in Room 101

It was a Chinese.

It was good though.


Used to be Hatfield's which sold unbelievable potted meat.


Or Walter Pybus' the gents outfitters.

Which didn't.

 

Likewise.

Snooker either there or get me old man to sign me in to the Memorial Club.

Saw some good bands at Hilltop anarl.



I spent a lot of time in De la Pole as a kid. Not invited, it was just a great place to play.

Bloody good conker trees as I recall. Spent hours climbing trees, hiding from orderlies and generally running amock.

And taking the piss out of people whose life experiences I couldn't then hope to have understood.


The past is a foreign country innit; we did things differently there.

 

Have you ever thought of writing a book Ernest? I'd buy it

 

Yep did you call your mates Dellas? As in pass the ball you ****ing Della, meaning person with mental health problems. Just ahull thing?

 

Della was a great insult! We referenced De la Pole constantly as a pejorative term when we were kids.

Bender, Spazz, Jigger, Della. This was once practically the limit of my vocabulary. It's language that I'm now not comfortable using and it sounds alien to me but growing up in the eighties we didn't question that they might have been terms that particularly offended. They were just words.

Della is very much a Hull (and East Riding) thing. In Newcastle it would render people totally bemused. They'd probably say 'What type of a word's Della? You'd have to have escaped from St. Nick's to use a word like that.'

 

I will Kemps. Once the toad work has stopped squatting on my life.

 

It's shocking isn't it. We just didn't know. Like kids getting the yellow bus with square wheels to school. We as a society treat them like lepers back then.
I remember years ago doing a bit of work, diggingand tarmacing, at dulverton school. It had changed to a special needs school in the nineties and just the sheer joy of the kids getting off the bus or out of taxis everyday was a joy to behold.

 

We used to call people Joey Deacon. Which in hindsight was pretty bloody mean.

 

I do.

 

****in' Della. We used that all the time. Biggest laugh was my mates mams name was Della. We never let it lie.

 

The word 'spazz' was short for Spastic. Horrible term, but not so long ago accepted as a medical term and even used by the charity group 'Spastic Society' .
Similar path in progression from the N word?

 

Before spastic, there was cripple.
Another cold factual word that turned into a term of abuse.

 

Is it different in America? I'm sure I've seen it said in fairly recent and otherwise non-edgy American TV show.

 

Ian Dury put the word to good use.

But no radio DJ would play it.

 

Cock, it was Chinese. The dishes I had in my head were all Chinese too. My head is clearly ****ed with age.

If I'd remembered it changed to the Mandarin I may have twigged and not looked like an arse. Well, maybe. Or not.

It was ace though. Best er... curries or something ever.

 

I used to attend the PHAB Club (Physically Handicapped and Able Bodied) before I joined up, I had an Aunt who was handicapped. I think those who attended had quite a phlegmatic approach to how folk innocently expressed themselves; in fact in most cases they did it themselves, as it wasn't seen as hurtful or wrong. Society has certainly changed.

 

For my crimes I still can't quite suppress a smile at the term "window licker".

 

I like 'Mouth breather'.

 

'Slightly' less derogatory, I had a mate for years that I only ever knew as Fatty Rawlings, never considered that it wasn't his real name until I called round for him one day and asked his Mum, quite innocently, if Fatty was in! She made it quite apparent that she wasn't amused!!