When I was about nine, a nice man in a British Rail uniform came to my primary school to talk to us about railway safety and how it was a pretty bad idea to trespass. He told us a few scary stories and showed us a few unpleasant pictures (not the seriously gruesome stuff, but plenty of stitches and broken bones), and then, just so we weren’t too traumatised, he put on a recording of ‘The Runaway Train’ and we all sang along.
A year later, or thereabouts, I was at secondary school, and the very same man came to talk to us. He gave us exactly the same talk, with exactly the same pictures. But he didn’t play ‘The Runaway Train’. He just warned us all to be careful, and left.
I think that’s the moment I realised this growing-up lark wasn’t so great after all.
2 comments:
Were you ever shown the gruesome public information film about children having hideous accidents on the railway - about 1975ish. It was horrific. I can't remember if I saw it at school, or if it was shown on Nationwide. I lived next to a railway line so I guess it was pertinent.
Sx
Should have played "Casey Jones", innit?
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