Just in case it comes in handy (Father Benny Cake ! - pay attention ) One of the funniest stand up routines - I've heard - and I dont even generally like Eddie Izzard
When I was in first year at Wath Grammar we all took Latin and the first few words we had to learn were the likes of "amo amas amat amamus amatis amant" (I love, you love etc) and "poeta" and "nauta" and "villa" (poet, sailor and villa) There were probably other words the ancient Romans used but for us that was the start of our voyage into the past. Armed with these essential words we could rewrite all Roman history so long as it involved sailors, poets, villas and love.
Brought back memories that MrB. I did Latin re- Ubi est Italia, Ubi est Bretange etc. Not much good to me though. Swapped to French from year 2 and enjoyed that a lot more.
Well I never did latin at said same school - only did french and german - you must've been quite clever way back then........ Mind you I did get O Level Maths at the ripe old age of 14
We didn't get a choice in Year 1. It was a Catholic College and we were taught by Christian Brothers. The Catholic Mass was still said in Latin so all pupils in year 1 studied it. What they were looking for were students who probably had a vocation as it was evident that quite a number left and transferred to different Seminaries in the U.K. on their way to eventually becoming either Christian Brothers or Priests. I was a member of a football team in Donny that used a local WMC to raise funds. We had a Tote double and a Bingo night. When it was my turn to call the numbers I used to say I was going to call them out in Latin so only the Catholics could win.! We used to have top comedians on at the Club every Thursday in a " Comedy Special". One bloke called Austin was like some on BBS in that he was critical and totally negative about everything. We had Paul Shane on one night and everybody in the room was in stitches apart from Austin. I asked him in the interval if he was enjoying him. He looked at me without an expression on his face and said " he's orey't if tha' likes laffin." !!!
I went to Holgate and at the speech day in 1971 the head boy who I think was named Barras, delivered the opening address in Latin. Even as an 11 year old, I remember looking around at the parents, the boys and apart from a few of the masters on the stage there was a look of bewilderment. I also remember how smug and pretentious the whole address felt. Needless to say my time at Holgate didn't go swimmingly.
