Who were YOUR role models

[Serial_Apologist]

... more likely circumscribed

[eighthobstruction]

I didn't know you were Jewish S-A....

[Serial_Apologist]

It's been quite a while since I had my end away...

[Lateralthinking1]

umslopogaas - Brilliant. I enjoyed that very much. I had five actual uncles but probably another ten in the road. I think every neighbour was called Auntie and Uncle except for the elderly who were always Mr and Mrs. In fact, I remember reaching the age when to start referring to those older by their first names seemed almost embarrassing. How times change.

[Lateralthinking1]

To pick up on Calum's point, I think as a student I liked the idea of being Alan Sillitoe. I had a mate who was a part time writer. I imagined that he and I, and maybe one or two others, would be in different parts of the country but in contact. We would perhaps be a part of a new movement. Sillitoe's chaps who went alone into the English hills with a tent and compass, partially to get over the war, were almost certainly influential on subsequent activity although generally that took place in groups.

I had some romantic notions about the North when I arrived there. A feeling as if I was stepping back into the sixties as it had been in London when I was very young. I liked the fact that it lacked the new fluorescence. Galton and Simpson were also in my mind. I must have been in a timewarp. The only future I wanted to see was one that had a cultural element of going backwards.

Joe Strummer certainly, not that he really has a place on this platform. He seemed to be able to express the feelings I had and kept to myself about tower block London. There was a pride to it and a defiance - "I am pleased that through family I understand the ordinary but they should never have been placed there". "Something About England" spoke to me loudly and it still does - http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/clash/...utengland.html. Weller to a lesser extent. Vaughan Williams became a figure - "A London Symphony", which always sounded strangely pastoral, and his political views. Lloyd George and Attlee. Brandt.

[Serial_Apologist]

Vaughan Williams became a figure - "A London Symphony", which always sounded strangely pastoral, and his political views. Lloyd George and Attlee. Brandt.

There was always a lot of Morris in Vaughan Williams; was it in "Notes from Nowhere" that Morris depicted a cleaned up London that could have been as much post- as pre-industrial? Ideas on "greening the cities" brought forward by the Green Party always attracted me: London is one of the few places in this country where biodiversity thrives to some degree, and bees survive. I guess the Greens are nearest to my own political thinking these days.

[Stillhomewardbound]

I was at a wedding a while ago - I'm 49 by the way - and my former deputy headmistress approached me unawares. Well, I was sat talking at the time but immediately as soon as I heard my name called in those uforgotten tones, I shot up and and answered, 'Yes, Miss Villa'. I knew her first name well, but it just seemed wholly inappropriate to use it.

For the record, LT, I've always considered myself a low achiever. Truly a late developer with a most mediocre Tutu from a thoroughly inconsequential university. I had two very intellgent parents (my mother had been at the Sorbonne in Paris) but the full IT quotient didn't quite come down the line fully. I would describe myself as volubly intellectual more than cerebrally so. Possibly the hardest part of growing up were dinner table conversations and Joycean disputes led by my father where as the youngest of four boys my attempted interventions were constanly dismissed and disregarded. Effectively, one of my brothers plays that game to this day.

In truth, I suspect we all struggle to outrun the shadows of our childhood. In time though, I learned to stand up for myself and realise that my altenative take on subjects was no less valid than theirs. There was the bonus also that I had to spend a lot of time listening and that's when one is best placed to spot the flaws and the inconsistencies in others arguments.

Adding to my list of role models, I would certainly have to cite both my parents. They were very friendly, warm and decent people to all they knew but they also seemed to be very good on analysis of different characters. Both from merchant stock, their parents had premises through which many different people passed and it made them quite worldly.

For my part, although there were disadvantages to being so junior in the family, it was a terrific vantage point from which to watch with that some analytical eye my older siblings grow up and embark on their adult lives, to watch their mistakes and slipups, even, and how my parents would respond. One learned to recognise the different dynamics and patterns which tend to be replicated in the outside world.

I was told once by a rather distinguished figure that I make a very good arbiter and if that's correct I think it may be down to all that time I had to spend observing. I keep with my insider's eye an outside view, if that makes any sense.

SHB

[Donnie Essen]

Optimus Prime and Jim Morrison. I ain't gonna name every family member and teacher and other real persons who I happened to cross paths with. Either I didn't respect and want to consciously emulate them (which is what a role model should be), or I just didn't meet anyone of sufficient quality. Ol' Donnie grew up in a vacuum in that respect. Never met a teacher who didn't need a slap. My parents looked after me good, but my mother a role model? Perhaps she should be, 'cause she has enough fine qualities and I'm sure appreciative of that, but we're too different in nature and outlook for her to influence me in such ways. Nice stories by people, though.

[antongould]

Another fascinating thread - I have enjoyed all the contributions - but dare I ask if Eighthobstruction actually meant John Snow of Sussex and England rather than Jon Snow of C4 and the world - its the proximity to Geoff Arnold .......anyway there is a point to this as one of my major role models is exactly the same age to the day as John the pace bowler namely Paul Simon.
Certainly not the most straightforward or benign of individuals but as a creative force for well over 50 years - he ( and JS ) will be 70 in October - I find him a constant inspiration. A man who can produce a line on his latest CD
"Buddha and Moses and all of the noses from narrow to flat...." has at least to make you smile.

[Serial_Apologist]

Another fascinating thread - I have enjoyed all the contributions - but dare I ask if Eighthobstruction actually meant John Snow of Sussex and England rather than Jon Snow of C4 and the world - its the proximity to Geoff Arnold .......anyway there is a point to this as one of my major role models is exactly the same age to the day as John the pace bowler namely Paul Simon.
Certainly not the most straightforward or benign of individuals but as a creative force for well over 50 years - he ( and JS ) will be 70 in October - I find him a constant inspiration. A man who can produce a line on his latest CD
"Buddha and Moses and all of the noses from narrow to flat...." has at least to make you smile.

Reminds me of that poem we learned as kids, If this is considered antisemitic, which I hope not, I'll remove this post:

And The Lord said unto Moses
All jews shall have long noses
All except for Aaron
And he shall have a square 'un

[eighthobstruction]

John Snow pace bowler....I'd of had Barrington and Edrich too, but I though that was going too far....I add to my list Carl Sagan as well....

Yes, Paul Simon, he did get it in neck for going to SAfrica. I always defended him tho' [2-3 times]....

[Serial_Apologist]

I shall be retiring to bed shortly, as I have a busy day ahead. I just wanted to thank people for their contributions, making for such an interesting thread, one in which some of us have got to know and understand some of the others a little bit better.

Please do keep them coming!

Until tomorrow

S-A