Yesterday I recalled swimming lessons which led me to remember another old post from 2013 about tests and certificates…
1965 was the hundredth anniversary of the end of the American Civil War and to celebrate appropriately the United States started a new one in Vietnam. American troops had been there for some time of course but on March 2nd, following an attack on a United States Marine barracks, Operation Flaming Dart and Operation Rolling Thunder commenced and the war was official.
An estimated six hundred and twenty thousand soldiers died in the American Civil War and one million one hundred thousand in Vietnam.
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Tagged AC Cobra, American Civil war, Gentleman Jack Sears, Leaping Wolf, M1 Motorway, Motorway Speed Limit, Vietnam War, Wolf Cubs, Woodbine Cigarettes
1965 was a mixed year for me when it came to passing exams. As predicted by the Headmaster and the entire teaching staff at Hillmorton County Junior School I failed my eleven-plus in Spring and was sent to secondary school in September in the bottom grade at Dunsmore School for Boys but to compensate for that I passed my Elementary Test for swimming a whole length of the swimming baths and that was quite something let me tell you.
The certificate was signed by the examiner, Mrs Dick, who was a fearsome woman, Councillor Pattinson, the Chairman of the Baths Committee and Jim Duffy, the Town Clerk no less!
Who needed the eleven-plus? Not Me!
Have Bag, Will Travel 