Wooden legs
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- Tydd St Giles
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Wooden legs
Did CH have more than it's fair share of monoped employees? In my time there was Kit Aitken (from whom I learnt the correct spelling of that immensely useful word Eschscholtzia), the school barber (who at the speed he worked must have been paid per head), and the bokker in the wardrobe.
Since leaving I don't recall ever having met anyone with a wooden leg.
Since leaving I don't recall ever having met anyone with a wooden leg.
Jim Rayner
LHA, ThA 1967-1974
LHA, ThA 1967-1974
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Re: Wooden legs
Did the barber have a wooden leg? I thought it was just some form of leg irons (Polio?)Tydd St Giles wrote:Did CH have more than it's fair share of monoped employees? In my time there was Kit Aitken (from whom I learnt the correct spelling of that immensely useful word Eschscholtzia), the school barber (who at the speed he worked must have been paid per head), and the bokker in the wardrobe.
Since leaving I don't recall ever having met anyone with a wooden leg.
Andrew Harrison
Maine A 1970-73
Lamb A 1973-77
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Lamb A 1973-77
- Richard Ruck
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Re: Wooden legs
Oh no, you've just made me think of Dudley Moore playing Mr.Spiggott, the Tarzan-wannabe......Tydd St Giles wrote:Did CH have more than it's fair share of monoped employees?
Ba.A / Mid. B 1972 - 1978
Thee's got'n where thee cassn't back'n, hassn't?
Thee's got'n where thee cassn't back'n, hassn't?
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Re: Wooden legs
The barber was known as "Peg leg" if I remember rightly. So presumably it was a wooden leg.AndrewH wrote:Did the barber have a wooden leg? I thought it was just some form of leg irons (Polio?)Tydd St Giles wrote:Did CH have more than it's fair share of monoped employees? In my time there was Kit Aitken (from whom I learnt the correct spelling of that immensely useful word Eschscholtzia), the school barber (who at the speed he worked must have been paid per head), and the bokker in the wardrobe.
Since leaving I don't recall ever having met anyone with a wooden leg.
Ma A, Mid A 65 -72
- Tydd St Giles
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Re: Wooden legs
You could be right. Either way he never struck me as a very happy soul, but I don't suppose there was much job satisfaction in carrying out 100 hair cuts every Tuesday.AndrewH wrote: Did the barber have a wooden leg? I thought it was just some form of leg irons (Polio?)
Jim Rayner
LHA, ThA 1967-1974
LHA, ThA 1967-1974
- Richard Ruck
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Re: Wooden legs
Wasn't all the lopping carried out amid a smog of fag smoke?Tydd St Giles wrote:You could be right. Either way he never struck me as a very happy soul, but I don't suppose there was much job satisfaction in carrying out 100 hair cuts every Tuesday.AndrewH wrote: Did the barber have a wooden leg? I thought it was just some form of leg irons (Polio?)
Ba.A / Mid. B 1972 - 1978
Thee's got'n where thee cassn't back'n, hassn't?
Thee's got'n where thee cassn't back'n, hassn't?
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Pegleg the barber used to drop ash onto your hair so if it wasn't cut off, it was burnt off.
Kit Aitken had a terrifyingly loud creak as he churned along swinging from side to side like a galleon under full sail and apparently once took the leg off and threw it at some child who irked him.
I think this may be one of those CH myths that abound like the ghosts, but a wonderful image none the less.
Kit Aitken had a terrifyingly loud creak as he churned along swinging from side to side like a galleon under full sail and apparently once took the leg off and threw it at some child who irked him.
I think this may be one of those CH myths that abound like the ghosts, but a wonderful image none the less.
- englishangel
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I think nowadays it is sometimes difficult to tell if someone has a lower limb prosthesis. There is even a paratrooper with two. Lady McCartney has one, well several for different occasions I understand.
As a nurse, when you prepare someone for an operation you have to remove all prostheses, "false teeth, glass eyes, wooden legs" just about covers it.
I have been surprised several times by legs being handed to me.
Very few false teeth nowadays, the odd bridge from rugby players.
Glass eyes are my nightmare. I have only fainted once, when a glass eye was plopped into my hand after asking a patient if he had any "false teeth, glass eyes......etc". Most embarrassing.
As a nurse, when you prepare someone for an operation you have to remove all prostheses, "false teeth, glass eyes, wooden legs" just about covers it.
I have been surprised several times by legs being handed to me.
Very few false teeth nowadays, the odd bridge from rugby players.
Glass eyes are my nightmare. I have only fainted once, when a glass eye was plopped into my hand after asking a patient if he had any "false teeth, glass eyes......etc". Most embarrassing.
Last edited by englishangel on Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wooden legs
Kit had what was closer to a peg lug (though he had a shoe on the end) and depended on his stick. Long before he lost his Douglas Bader had 2 legs fitted and walked without a stick (through guts and determination). AFAIR that was the early 1930's - he was a fighter pilot in WW2.Tydd St Giles wrote:Did CH have more than it's fair share of monoped employees? In my time there was Kit Aitken (from whom I learnt the correct spelling of that immensely useful word Eschscholtzia), the school barber (who at the speed he worked must have been paid per head), and the bokker in the wardrobe.
Since leaving I don't recall ever having met anyone with a wooden leg.
Since then the science has improved almost out of recognition so it is very possible that one such could be walking down the street ahead of you without you knowing. (A friend has lost all the bone between just below the elbow to just below the shoulder - they have given him a new bone and elbow inside his own skin, tendon and muscles). Of course bicycles are far less used these days.
I saw film of experiments where they connected an amputee's nerves to motors inside the artificial leg to help him walk; that is still very early stages
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What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
- Richard Ruck
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Re: Wooden legs
A wooden ear????sejintenej wrote: Kit had what was closer to a peg lug .....
Ba.A / Mid. B 1972 - 1978
Thee's got'n where thee cassn't back'n, hassn't?
Thee's got'n where thee cassn't back'n, hassn't?
- J.R.
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Re: Wooden legs
OH DEAR !!!!!!Richard Ruck wrote:A wooden ear????sejintenej wrote: Kit had what was closer to a peg lug .....
I fear another crop of 'funnies' on the way.
Sounds like a fair DEAL to me !
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
- englishangel
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