The Poolie Bunker

I once told me mam that we had a new kid in our class who was from Bangladesh.

Where's said then? asked me mam.

I replied 'I'm not sure but it can't be that far, he goes home for his dinner'

Aye, at Lister Street we had a Korean kid called Lam For Thai.

We also had Maurice Mudd. He's out there somewhere.

We had a lad from Hungary too - Istvan Hajdu (Istvan How d'you do). Also Rory from Zimbabwe, Owen the convict from Australia, and I'm sure there was someone from Jamaica in the year below. I tended to steer clear of the boarders though, unless I wanted something nicked.

The weirdest place anyone came from was Sark. Not remarkable in itself, only being 9 miles away, but Sark is just truly weird.

Really?? I lost contact when I went off to Rossy. Never saw him again.

We had a yank called Caroline something

Is it the same Lam family that ran Silver Star chinese that you lot are on about, I went to school with a Bobby Lam I am fairly sure that his family ran that.

me and our kid went to elly road ...

We had Mr Joseph who tried to get us jocks to do french..... IN HARTLEPOOL... no chance

early 80s seniors so most kids were naturalised by then
usual indian lad and a gay aussie in my year that was it
oh yeah and some one from dalton

Wayne Sleep

and David (I think) Ho Hong, whose parents had a Chinese laundry, in Town

None in mine; couple of asian kids who were born in england and that was it.
Had a lass called Carol Moyle and everyone used to sing her name to the tune of "Harold Lloyd", a lass called Rachel Townsend people used to call Turnip Townsend after some historical character and a lass called Sian Jones Small Bones
Not very exotic, though I did find the French teacher Miss Bully rather sexy

I was at school with Mai Lin Lam - pretty sure it was the chinese at the far end of musgrave street that her folks ran.

Also Satish Danial - think he was Sri Lankan.

But didnt run the chinese.

Or a Sri Lankan come to that.

Not an exotic kid but teacher!

He was French and funnily enough that's what he taught, his name was Claude Balls.

Oh aye, he carried his pens etc around in a handbag, he only lasted 1 term!

Alan Wong=aka roundhead or wongy his mam and dad had a chinese in sedgefield, alan now has a retro games shop there. he was a class lad ah alan wong

Brenda Lee=more chinese people you wouldnt mess with them one was harder than the other all the way.

Wendall= an african lad in the comprehensive school think his parents were doctors and worked at winterton.

Oh and the frogs on foreign exchange trips thats another story

At Kingsley there was an American of oriental extraction called Eric who was a child prodigy player at the age of 6.

Brierton a lad called Tamsir who was mixed race black/white. There was also a lass whose family were missionaries from possibly an African country, who lived in Browning Avenue near the Catcote.

It's weird really, these kids stuck out like sore thumbs, yet where I live now I don't think twice when I see non-white people. Also, every time I'm back in Hartlepool there seems to be more of an ethnic mix.

Did you go to Martyrs and/or Sacred Heart?
I'm sure when I was at Martyrs there was a girl called Heidi Hunt who was a couple of years above me and at Sacred Heart one of my mates was an Italian who came to Hartlepool when his English Mother and Italian father split up. His name when he lived in Italy was Carlo Chilo. When he came to England he used the translation of his christian name i.e Charles, and his mothers maiden name which was 'Garbutt'. Combine the two and you've got 'Charles Chilo'. Got to be the same bloke. He never went up to Martyrs as he went back to Italy in 1979 when his parents got back together. We used to imaginatively call him 'Spaghetti Legs', and when we played footy he insisted on being Paolo Rossi or Roberto Bettega. He's been back over here a couple of times and me and one of the lads went to visit him in 1989 and 1990. My other mate visited him again about 3 years ago. Charlie's had a bit of an 'interesting' life since Sacred Heart, the details of which I won't go into, but he's a good bloke and hope I get chance to see him again at some point.

A lad called Mustapha Ali, either Indian or Pakistani, can't remember which. Came to the school part way through the year, was gobsmacked when it snowed just after he started, he had never seen it before.

During the following summer, our PE teacher Johnny Dee was trying to teach us how to play Cricket in the school yard at Henrys. He was showing young Mr Ali how to hold the bat, and time his swing at the ball. Then he bowled a ball at him, and he smashed it out of the yard over the fence, and the ball was only stopped by hitting the upper floor of St Hildas hospital. Of course he hadn't let on that he had been playing the game since he was a little kid.

Army Dalek??

We had a couple of kids at Henry's who came from West Hartlepool.

We had a French gadgie teacher, Mr Ferrer I think, he liked to throw chalk at just about everyone.