AYTON SCHOOL

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(Page two)

J. Stanley and Edith Carr

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Mr. Carr is a great walker, and if you are lucky, and go on a walk with him you are certain to come back knowing much more of nature than when you set off. His little titbits of information are a great interest.

If you go into Mr. Carr's sitting-room, probably the first thing that strikes you is his collection of books. The books range over many topics. and are most interesting, as we who hear his Meetings know. Mr. Carr is fond of short stories, especially animal stories. He likes plays and is an expert producer. He has a deep understanding of human nature.

John Fothergill (17 years)

Speaking dialects is one of Mr. Carr's great talents, and listening to him has always given me a thrill of fascination. He speaks so fluently and with such realism. In a play he read to us this term it was so easy to imagine so vividly the atmosphere among the party of miners, trapped through a pit fall, with the last drop of water and a flickering lamp, by the sad, disheartening tone in his " broad " Lancastrian voice.

His Meetings and readings, too, are always exceptionally good, most of all when he reads the Irish folk stories. The meaning is professionally brought out by the actions he makes, and the way in which he uses his voice for different parts.

Ann Bell (14 years)

I shall always remember Mr. Carr for those moments when he has thrilled me with his reading of poems and essays. In the lessons which he gave us as "Social Studies " we have learnt politics, literature, history and geography, but it is not the variety which stands out, but the illustrations from his own experience.

Angela Bradbeer (16 years)

How often have we been in trouble and found how truly sympathetic and understanding Mr. Carr is. How often have we met him on a walk and he has asked us to join him, then he has taken us through fields and woods explaining things we saw and making the walk much more interesting than it would otherwise have been. How often have we met Mr. Carr in the School grounds and have walked round with him having a friendly chat. 

Joan Robinson (16 years)

"At 6.50 every morning there will be a quick before-breakfast-dip for those who are keen." This very important. announcement was made by Mr. Carr in assembly last summer. When the enthusiasts (with many a bleary eye) complete with swimming things, were waiting on the bath steps we began to wonder who would be the luckless person who had to drag himself out of bed to take the bathe. The person we least expected was Mr. Carr. But to our great surprise it was Mr. Carr who, very business-like, urged us to take the plunge, and then a few minutes later hurried us out of the baths. He came faithfully every morning for about six weeks, and how we enjoyed those dips, short as they were!

Ruth Jones (14 years)

I shall remember Mr. Carr best as a fisherman, trying to teach some of us budding anglers the more subtle points of fishing. He would show us how to make flies and then let us have a go, and then when we succeeded in tying a creation that faintly resembled the one he himself had made, he would calmly pull it to pieces and tell us where we had gone wrong. At other times, when everybody had made a hash of dressing flies, he would settle down and tell us about his fishing experiences. Everyone knows how well Mr. Carr can tell a story, and we were simply enthralled. Now I shall look back on these happenings and wonder if there are many men gifted in the way that Mr. Carr is.

David Young (14 years)

Whenever I think of Mrs. Carr it is of her paying her regular visits to the San. every morning. Just as you are beginning to be a little tired of your own company, into your room she came, and would greet you with a cheerful smile.            She would sit down at the end of your bed and ask how you felt this morning. Then she would tell you the news from School, which you are always eager to know. Some morning Mrs. Carr would bring you a note or letter, and then give you writing paper on which to, answer them. Often, she would find you a book or game which would occupy you for the day. These visits always cheered me up each day, and everyone in the San. appreciated them.

Anne Wood (14 years)

If there is a memory or a souvenir which I will cherish when I am "forty years on" it will be my first term in 6th Form when I enjoyed the weekly prefects' meeting with Mr. Carr. Sometimes it was biased by an entirely male company, but more often there was Mrs. Carr and Jane to bring subjects " back to life " when they were becoming too immaterially masculine. It was with natural ingenuity that Mr. Carr wove the "business" part of the meeting in with the general conversation. Immediately on entering the room you are put at your ease by the invitation to "pull up your chairs and sit down; Michael, fetch a chair out of my study will you?" Conversation switches from current affairs to football (which, much to Mrs. Carr's disgust, is a subject for wide controversy) to arts and theatre. Embarrassing silences were infrequent, and, after the first week or two they became extinct.

Above all things, I think that Mr. Carr's " I remember's" will stand out for me. He delves, like Saint Nicholas, into his sack of experiences and knowledge, and entertains us with sparkling " jeux d'esprits" and human humour. There seems to be an unlimited supply of these episodes, and my dread of Prefects' Meeting - for I imagined it to be a very serious business was soon dispelled by some typical " J. S. C-ish " joke, which invariably reduced us to heaps of uncontrollable mirth. For an hour we are part of the family, and we are separated from the ordinary humdrum existence of school life by a shield of warm hospitality and friendship, talking of masculine things, which interest all boys between the ages of sixteen and sixty. Then after we have been there for an hour-and-a-quarter-time which has passed far too quickly-our host will say : "Good gracious, boys, look at the time ! you must hurry along."

We say our good-nights and are again separated from the family. Every week, as we walk back over the playground, one or the other invariably says, " Jolly good was that, - Mr. Carr seems quite human after all!"

In this way we pay our respects to a good man,-so very inadequate, but everyone knows that a boy's praise is always given grudgingly and always inadequately : but when given it is sure to be a sincere and gross understatement.