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MANNERS FOR BOYS

Hat lifted in saying ‘good-bye’ or ‘how do you do?’ Hat lifted when offering a seat in a car or in acknowledging a favour. Keep step with anyone you walk with. Always precede a lady upstairs, and ask her if you may precede her in passing through a crowd or public place. Hat off the moment you enter a street door, and when you step into a private hall or office. Let a lady pass first always, unless she asks you to precede her. In the parlour stand till every lady in the room is seated, also older people. Rise if a lady comes in after you are seated, and stand till she takes a seat. Look people straight in the face when speaking or being spoken to. Let ladies pass through a door first, standing aside for them. In the dining-room take your seat after ladies and elders. Never play with knife, fork, or spoon. Do not take your napkin in a bunch in your hand. Eat as fast or as slow as others, and finish the course when they do. Rise when ladies leave the room, and stand still till they are out. If all go out together, gentlemen stand by the door till ladies pass. Special rules for the month are that all noise in eating and smacking of the lips should be avoided. Cover the mouth with hand or napkin when obliged to remove anything from it. Use your handkerchief unobtrusively always. Always knock at any private room door.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO — 14 MAY 1915

LEAVING CARS UNATTENDED

On Saturday evening a motor car was left unattended in the street at Andover, and when the owner returned in order to resume his journey he found it had vanished. On Sunday the same car was found near Dunbridge Station with a burst tyre. It is surmised that somebody who had a long way to go borrowed the car to save their tired feet, and on the gravelly road in the Romsey district the tyre came to grief. Persons visiting the town in motor cars would be well advised if they put them into garage while they are attending to business if they have nobody with them to leave in charge.

LUSITANIA DISASTER

An Andover lad, Fred Reeves, of H.M.S.Colleen, son of Mrs.Reeves, of Vigo Road, Andover, helped in the rescue work of the victims of the German outrage at Queenstown. He says some of the sights were ghastly, and among the dead were mothers with their children (some of them babes) strapped to their breasts. It was an experience Fred Reeves will never forget, while at the same time he felt proud that he was able to do his bit in rendering assistance to some of the saved, who were in a pitiable plight.

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 17 MAY 1940

PARK HOUSE CROSS — THIS YEAR’S CONTRAST IN TRAFFIC

In peace-time holiday periods Park House crossroads have witnessed the passage of hundreds of vehicles hourly to the West of England. What a contrast this Whitsuntide.

Our reporter who visited the spot during the holiday, writes: It was the same old crossing; nothing had been altered, even the occasional motorist forgot the halt sign. The stream over the crossing not only from the Andover direction but from the Shipton direction, too, was very thin and spasmodic, and tiny cars seemed almost entirely absent. True. there were almost as many motor cyclists as usual, but instead of having gay young maidens adorning their flapper brackets, they were occupied by fellow workers carrying haversacks used for tools and lunch.

The number of cars that passed in peak hours could almost be totted up on the fingers of both hands. It was proof that petrol rationing, plus the Government’s request that the Bank Holiday should not be kept, had had its effect. Instead of the constant whir electric petrol pumps , crunch, crunch as car tyres rolled on to the gravelled driveway in front of them, the garage itself and its drive-in seemed almost deserted.

The proprietor was ready and waiting to serve any demand. He need no help for in these days when petrol coupons are so hard to come by, the trade is not a fraction of what it was, and, like many another garage mechanic, the proprietor’s principal assistant is now in the blue of the R.A.F. helping to put the pep into engines that will knock the pep out of the enemy.

FIFTY YEARS AGO — 14 MAY 1965

TWO NEW SCHOOLS IN VIGO RD. NOW IN USE

The first new primary school to be built in Andover for over 13 years opened its doors for the first time last week. The Vigo Road Junior and Infant School, built at a cost of over £130,000, is ideally situated on about seven acres of an attractive 11-acre site, purchased for £44,000, adjacent to the girls’ secondary school.

It is of contemporary design and was built by the Scola system which incorporates the use of standardised component parts. There is no brick building and panelling is fixed on to wooden frames.

There are, in fact, two separate schools, both completely independent of each other. Mr.R.J.Diamond is Headmaster of the junior school and Miss M.Young, Headmistress of the infant school.

The schools are, however, joined by the kitchen which, when completed sometime next week, will serve the adjoining dining rooms on either side of it.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 18 MAY 1990

UNION DENIES MILITANT LINK

Leader of the Andover Anti-Poll Tax Union, Stuart Knox, has confirmed the union belongs to the National Anti-Poll Tax Federation but denies Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s declaration that the federation is a front for the Militant tendency.

“The Andover Anti-Poll Tax Union is divorced from people’s political colours,” he said. The union unites people of all political persuasions, he added, In the light of the leadership statement at Labour’s National Executive council meeting, chairman of the Andover branch of the Labour Party, Dave Watson told the ‘Andover Advertiser’: “There are no links between the local party and any campaign of non-payment, although the Andover branch’s opposition to this iniquitous tax is unequivocal.

And the Andover branch has publically disassociated itself from the Militant tendency, he added.

Mr Knox, who openly sdvocates non-payment of the poll tsx readily admitted that he is a supporter of Militant, the expelled extreme wing of the Labour party: I’ve been a supporter of Militant for some time and remain so and I am happy to say so, it’s my democratic right,” he said.

“In Andover there are well over 100 households in the union and I’ve no idea what most of their political views are,” he maintained.