Shortstown heritage

Historical places, airship, Bedfordshire local history, airships, national heritage sites, historic preservation, attractions in the UK, heritage sites in the UK, historical monuments, historical landmarks, tourist attractions in the UK, places in UK to visit, tourist in England, historical tourism, R101 and R100 airships.

Shortstown Heritage

Some Interesting People Passing Through......

As can be seen Shortstown and the Camp have seen many changes since 1917 and in modern speak both have been 'reinvented' several times. Each change has attracted experts in their own fields - people who have contributed to society in many ways - and whilst these people never lived in Shortstown they all worked across the road at some point and would have known many of the residents. Let's celebrate their talents....

 

Sir Alfred Pugsley OBE - a gifted engineer. As a young man he was part of the RAW Design Team working on the R101 airship alongside Harold Roxbee Cox (later Lord Kings Norton) - he was particularly interested in structural safety. He had a very accomplished career and in 1945 was appointed Chair of Civil Engineering at Bristol University. He was awarded an OBE in 1944 and a Knighthood in 1956. Whilst working with the Design Team he lived in Willow Road off London Road in Bedford.

 

Sir John Fleetwood Baker - For a while John Baker worked as a Technical Officer at the RAW. Later using his structural engineering skills he went on to invent the

indoor Morrison Air Raid Shelter used during WW2 named after the then Minister of Home Security Herbert Morrison. By 1941 500,000 shelters were in use up and down the country with a further 100,000 distributed by 1943.

Neville Shute - more widely remembered today as a successful author with novels such as A Town Like Alice (later made into a film) Neville Shute Norway worked as Chief Calculator (Stress Engineer) on the R100 alongside Barnes Wallis and described his airship experiences in his autobiography Slide Rule (generally acknowledged as anti R101).

From 1939 onwards thousands of young men and women were called up or volunteered to join the Armed Forces - many of the RAF recruits were sent to Cardington to be 'processed' - a procedure taking about five days before being sent on to other units. Others stayed on for further training. Immediately after the war in 1945 the camp then became a 'Demob' unit and processed thousands of RAF personnel leaving the Force. In later years the Camp then registered and prepared young men who were called up for National Service. During these years of the thousands of individuals who passed through the gates some went on to become household names - here are a selection of some of them. Do you know of any others?

Max Bygraves - well known entertainer in the 50's through to the 90's Walter William Bygraves volunteered to join the RAF in 1940. At Cardington Aircraftman Second Class number 1212094 Bygraves quickly showed off his entertainer skills with an impersonation on stage of Max Miller leading to everyone calling him Max which he used ever since. Incidentally it is said that he met his future wife Blossom at the camp at this time when she was serving in the WAAFS as a sergeant. They were married in Sept 1942.

Thomas Dobney - the youngest person to qualify as a RAF Pilot in 1941 at just 15 years and six months old. When he was 14 years and 3 months old Thomas tricked his way into enlisting by lying about his age and pretending his birth certificate was 'lost in the post'. Assuring his mother that he would be training to be part of the ground crew only he left home in April 1940 with her reluctant blessing and half a crown for sweets and arrived at Cardington to be enrolled.

Bill Wyman - member of the Rolling Stones. Highly unlikely as it seems a young Bill was called to the Camp in Jan 1955 for the start of National Service in the RAF - Bill stayed on in the RAF until January 1958. The rest as they say is history......

Donald Campbell CBE - World land and water speed record holder - Donald joined the RAF in 1939 and was actually posted to RAF Cardington in 1940 - sadly his time at Cardington was limited as he had failed to disclose a history of rheumatic fever and was discharged the same year. Like his father (Sir Malcolm) his exploits with the speedboat Bluebird were legendary.

Sir Alan Ayckbourn playwright - Not a willing participant of National Service young Alan was able to side step the two years required by citing a 'leg injury' on his arrival at Cardington in 1959 and was dismissed by a sympathetic medical officer after only two days. At this time in his life (aged just 19) he was already a published playwright and later recounts that on his first attempt at evading national service he failed the intelligence test by scoring two - which was disappointing because he was aiming for zero! Of course his plan failed as the officers quickly saw through him....

(Photograph and story shown here with kind permission from Sir Alan Ayckbourns office - thank you!)

10 Things You Didn't Know About Barack Obama

Barack Obama is the 44 President of the United States of America. He is also the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. He made history in 2008 when he won the U.S. presidential election. He is the first African American to be President. Obama's charisma, intelligence, and powerful speeches have made him extremely popular with many Americans. He has been very successful with his message for change.

Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a black Kenyan father and white American mother. His parents divorced and his mother married an Indonesian man. Barack's family moved to Indonesia in 1967. He attended schools in Jakarta until he was ten years old, when he returned to Hawaii. Obama majored in political science and international relations at Columbia University in New York.

After four years in New York, Obama moved to Chicago. There, he worked as the director of a community project from 1985 to 1988. He entered Harvard Law School and became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama taught law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years. He became an Illinois Senator in 1996.

In 2004, Obama was elected as a U.S. Senator. He supported legislation on conservation, energy, immigration and honest leadership. Obama is currently battling with serious issues such as the economy. He beat Mitt Romney to win a second term in office, despite a poor economy and high unemployment. He thanked voters by promising to spend his second term honoring their support, saying: "There's a lot more work to do."

1. Barack Hussein Obama II was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu. His first name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili. While Obama’s father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., was from Kenya, his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was from Kansas.

2. From age 6 to 10, Obama lived in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather. In 1971, he moved back to Hawaii and lived with his maternal grandparents.

3. He hasn't liked ice cream since his first job: working at Baskin-Robbins as a teenager growing up in Hawaii.

4. After attending Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years, he transferred to Columbia University in New York where he graduated with a degree in political science. He also attended Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he graduated magna cum laude. He was the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.

5. In 1992, he married the former Michelle Robinson, also a Harvard Law School graduate, whom he met at a Chicago law firm. They have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

6. Before becoming a Illinois state senator, Obama worked as a civil rights attorney, community organizer, lecturer and professor.

7. As a state senator, he sponsored and led the passage of Illinois’ first racial-profiling law, which requires the police to videotape homicide interrogations.

8. A school in his father's hometown of Kogelo, Kenya, has been renamed the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School.

9. In 2008 and again in 2012, he was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

10. In 2007, Obama formally announced his campaign to run for president. He was elected president in November 2008 and served as the 44th president of the United States for two terms. 

Don't you hate boring people? The one thing I fear most when going out to socialize or network is running into someone who is boring. Not because I personally won't be entertained by what they have to say — although that may very well be the case — but because the conversation that ensues is excruciating.

I feel like a dentist pulling teeth, searching for something interesting about them or their lives. Nevertheless, I have had no choice but to arrive at one conclusion: boring people are boring — plain and simple; no matter how many teeth you pull, they will still sound boring, but with a lisp.

Being boring, in actuality, is not only about who you are as a person, but also how you present yourself. For those of you in need of some sprucing up, I have compiled a list of the 10 differences between boring people and interesting people. Use them to your advantage, young grasshoppers.

1. Interesting people like to have conversations; boring people like to avoid them.

Human beings primarily communicate through words — this is how our species interacts. If you are the person that goes to a party and picks a quiet corner to sit in, then shame on you. You are missing out on a ton of networking opportunities. You may not like anyone at the party because they are all scumbags, but you never know when having a scumbag around could come in handy.

He could be a potential client or investor for the future — or be able to connect you with someone that will be. Or maybe he has a hot sister you can bang. Boring people usually aren't boring at their core; they are simply introverted. Don't be shy; talking to someone new won't kill you.

2. Boring people are those that enjoy too much comfort.

We all have a comfort zone, but we don't all decide to stay within its bounds. In my opinion, a comfort zone is good for one thing and one thing only: knowing what needs to be done to leave it in order to start living. You already know what makes for a complacent, lethargic, comfortable life. Now do the exact opposite of that and you won't be so boring — or so bored.

3. Interesting people have several hobbies; boring people have a hobby.

Being interesting involves more than having something that you enjoy doing and enjoy talking about. If you have one hobby — especially if it is one that most people don't share — then people will find you boring. It's great if you have that one thing that you are passionate about, but if you are worried about being too boring, try to diversify and find yourself two more hobbies that spark your interest.

4. Interesting people are well-informed.

Being perceived as interesting revolves around holding conversations. The more that you have to talk about, the better. This of course does not mean that you ought to be starting a conversation with someone and running through a handful of topics one after another, but the more knowledgeable you are of different things, the better the chances are that you and your conversation partner will have something to talk about. Be up-to-date on the news and on the most popular pop culture.

5. Boring people stay put; interesting people like to explore.

It's one thing to be perceived as being boring and it's another to actually be boring. This goes back to leaving your comfort zone. If you want to be interesting, then you need to be interested in doing things. You need to explore the world, both around you and the world that requires a 16-hour flight. Go out and explore.

6. Interesting people have a hunger for life; boring people are content with frozen dinner.

Variety, variety, variety — life has such a smorgasbord to offer us, that sticking to that which you know is, well, boring. Stop eating the same food, stop hanging out with the same people at the same places. Doing the same boring things guarantee a boring life because it avoids change.

7. Change makes for an exciting life.

If you want an interesting, exciting life, then embrace change. It is the fear of change that causes stagnancy and that causes people with much potential to be labeled as boring people. If you do not learn to enjoy change then you will not only lack success, you will lack joy in your life.

8. Interesting people are driven people. Boring people are push-overs.

Figure out what it is that you want and then plan a way to get it. Letting others decide your destiny, being complacent and accepting whatever leftovers others throw you is pathetic and boring. Do not let people push you around; stand your ground!

9. Interesting people are dreamers. Boring people are posers.

If you don't dream, then you can't possibly make your dreams a reality. Our minds can be our most interesting playground as long as we spend enough time focusing on that which presents itself among the swing sets and sandboxes. Picture what you want and what you want to do in your future. Imagine your life the way you wish you could live it and focus on it every waking moment of your life. Then work on making your dreams your reality.

10. Leading an interesting life is easy if you want it.

More importantly than anything else is truly and completely wanting to live an interesting and exciting life. You must want to do things you are not comfortable doing. You must want to experience new experiences and you must want to get a fuller, more in-depth understanding of the way other people see the world. You must want to have an open mind. The world is an exciting place, so get excited!

A quick Google search makes it easy to dismiss Savannah James as just another basketball wife, a beautiful woman in designer clothes who poses in front of one step-and-repeat after another as she arrives at marquee events with her NBA superstar husband, LeBron James, and documents their fabulous life together on Instagram.

Perhaps the greatest irony of the 31-year-old Akron native’s life is that basking in the spotlight is really not her thing. Interviews, along with the accompanying photo shoots, are rare. And the pictures she posts on Instagram are, more often than not, shots of routine domestic moments: sons LeBron Jr. “Bronny,” 13, and Bryce, 10, before they head out the door for their first day of school; a couch cuddle with 3-year-old daughter Zhuri; birthday parties and glasses of wine poured for evenings at home.

“When you want me to be on a TV show or walk the red carpet or something, I definitely get a little bit clammy,” Savannah divulges during a recent telephone conversation, her genuine warmth radiating through the handset. “That’s a bit out of my comfort zone.”

Yet Savannah is willing to venture out of that zone for a cause. In the 3 1/2 years since LeBron announced his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, she has become an increasingly active philanthropist and fundraising draw, one focused on encouraging and empowering girls and young women. She sold out the Akron Community Foundation’s For Women, Forever endowment dinner in March as its keynote speaker and made opening remarks as honorary chair of YWCA Greater Cleveland’s Circle fundraiser in October. Her latest personal endeavor: launching Women of Our Future, a program that provides one-on-one counseling and support from screened volunteer mentors for ninth- and 10th-grade girls at Buchtel High School.

“I’m still a very private person,” she explains. “But these things reflect the passion that I have as far as giving back, the philanthropic part of me. So with those things, I don’t mind stepping out.”

Charity began at home for the youngest of five children born to JK Brinson, who retired from Akron Paint & Varnish Engineered Coatings, and his wife Jennifer, a nurse. The Brinsons occasionally took in youngsters in unfortunate circumstances, some of whom were their older kids’ friends. “If they had something going on at home, or they just needed a safe haven, my mom and dad always opened up their doors,” Savannah recalls. Her position as LeBron’s significant other, then wife, provided the resources, visibility and drive to make a difference on a larger scale.

“He’s super, super passionate about his philanthropic endeavors. He’s super, super passionate about his athletic abilities, doing everything he needs to do to stay in tip-top shape to make sure that he can help his team do what they need to do on the court,” she says. “I just try to mirror that drive in everything that I do.”

The couple met while she was a 16-year-old sophomore at Buchtel and he was a 17-year-old junior at rival St. Vincent-St. Mary. A mutual friend who’d transferred from SVSM to Buchtel told her that LeBron had asked for her phone number.

“I’m like, ‘Um, nope. I’ll take his number,’ ” remembers Savannah, who didn’t know much about the basketball phenom at the time. “One day I’m sitting around — I was probably bored or something — and I’m like, ‘Oh, I forgot! I have this number for this guy that I can call. He seemed interested, so let’s see.’ ”

LeBron invited her to one of his basketball games, then to a local Applebee’s with a group of friends afterward. A one-on-one date at an Outback Steakhouse quickly followed. She’s been with him ever since.

“He is truly a king to his queen, if you will,” she says of the attraction. “He treats me with so much respect — I mean, it’s hard to not love him, with the way that he is with me and the kids and his mom and just everyone who’s around him. He’s a really, really humble guy for everything that he has and everything that he’s done.”

Savannah shares that humility. She began her foray into philanthropy in 2004 as a volunteer at the then-fledgling LeBron James Family Foundation, handling tasks such as checking in participating students and their families at the organization’s annual bike-a-thon. 

In 2013 she hosted her first I PROMise Makeover, a yearly event in which economically challenged girls recommended by Akron’s public high school guidance counselors choose free senior-prom dresses from hundreds of new gowns, accessorize them at a jewelry table, and pick up gift cards to purchase shoes. 

The event was inspired by the memory of friends who didn’t go to prom because their families couldn’t afford to dress them for it. Similarly, the idea for Women of Our Future came from her own teenage lack of self-esteem and the struggles many women face. While she had a strong support system in her mother, she searched for other mentors.

“I could have used someone in my life to just kind of guide me and help me through certain situations,” she reflects.

Savannah not only helps plan I PROMise shopping sprees, but meets with guidance counselors and other school liaisons so she can learn about each girl’s challenges. For the April 2017 affair at the Fairlawn Hilton ballroom, she offered personalized encouragement as she helped the 38 girls pick out their dresses. 

“I think what’s important to her is to elevate their self-esteem and their confidence in themselves,” says Michele Campbell, executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation. “To do that, she has to learn what they’re going through so she can connect with them on a real level. And that’s what she takes the time to do.”

Savannah also attends biweekly meetings with the 50 current Women of Our Future participants and their mentors. “In the times that we’re in right now, I think that love and showing a bit of empathy for people in just a positive light can go a long way,” Savannah says.

The most important young people in Savannah’s life, of course, are her own children. Her parenting style is “realist” rather than strict. 

She strives to provide an accurate view of the world, one in which “people aren’t always going to be on your side or going to support you,” and stresses the importance of responsibility, honesty, trustworthiness and academic excellence. “They’re not rewarded for mediocrity,” she says. “I believe that my kids can do anything they put their minds to.” While they enjoy opportunities their parents never had — trying out snowboarding, for instance — every wish is not granted. Savannah gives her no-cell-phone-until-you’re-13 rule as an example.

“We are just normal people from Northeast Ohio,” she insists. “You can look at it as a very good thing, because maybe we don’t understand what we could be. But to me, that’s much more stressful — it takes much more energy rather than just being yourself. And I feel like that’s definitely rubbed off on our kids.”

In fact, Savannah derives great comfort from being in her hometown. Regardless of where her husband’s career may take him after he enters free agency at the end of this NBA season, Northeast Ohio will remain home. She offers their efforts to help the region and its residents as proof. “I think that that alone reflects where our heart is,” she says. 

5 Ways to be Way More Interesting

This morning I logged on to do my monthly check of our website analytics. As I settled in with my coffee to peruse our latest numbers, search hits and demographics I stumbled upon an interesting little finding.

While scrolling through our top search terms (what people search to get to the Science of People website) I found this phrase was at the top of the list:

“How to be Interesting”

This intrigued me. Why? Because it is not a word I often hear people use. I hear people say:

• I want to be more memorable
• I want to me more charismatic
• I want to be more impressive
• I want to be more powerful
• I want to be more attractive
• I want to be more successful

But, I almost never hear ‘I want to be more interesting’—at least not in person. Interesting it seems is a secret wish, just reserved for search engines. Well, worry no more!

Here’s the good news:

You are interesting.

We just have to activate it. First, you are having a crisis of interestingness. Yes. A full blown crisis:

A Crisis of Interesting happens when you begin to doubt yourself, your likeability and what people think of you.

Here’s the problem:

Your fear of being uninteresting, makes you uninteresting.

If you are worried you are not interesting, your fear prevents you from trying interesting things, talking about interesting topics and engaging with interesting people. It’s like this:

Basically, your fear is cockblocking you from being interesting. Unfortunately your fear makes you:

• Less memorable
• Less charismatic
• Less impressive
• Less powerful
• Less attractive
• Less successful

But guess what? You are in direct control of how interesting you are. Interestingness and laziness are inversely proportional. In other words:

The Lazy Law

The lazier you are, the less interesting you will be.

The less lazy you are, the more interesting you will be.

Here’s what it’s like talking to an uninteresting person:

Uninteresting people are lazy.

• They don’t do interesting things.
• They don’t think interesting thoughts.
• They expect you to do all the talking.
• They want to be entertained by the people around them.

But it doesn’t have to be this way! All you have to do is:

FIGHT THE LAZY!

Here’s how you can fight the lazy and bring on the interesting.

How to Be More Interesting:

Step #1: Stop Doing Stupid Uninteresting Things

Oh wow, you watch Netflix? How interesting! Do you watch it on your iPad or computer? NO! This is not interesting. If you come home every day after work and watch the same shows everyone else is watching and do the lowest common denominator of activities, then you have no chance of being interesting. Here’s what lazy people do:

• They watch TV every day
• They eat at the same restaurants over and over again
• They go to the same vacation spot every year
• They read the books that were assigned in high school
• They spend hours checking their social media feeds
• They talk about the weather
• They expect other people to do all the talking

Don’t stick with the default settings. Don’t do what everyone else is doing. Don’t watch what everyone else is watching.

If you want to be interesting you have to do interesting things.

Here’s how you can level up your life and dial down your laziness:

• Go to a restaurant you have walked or driven by a million times but never tried
• Create a bucket list and pledge to do one activity every month.
• Go to the movie theater and go to a movie that you would never normally choose
• Sign up for a workout class that you have never done before
• Start a learning bucket list and learn one new skill
• Say yes to one new thing each day
• Start a Quest to accomplish a big goal

Step #2: Stop Asking About Stupid Uninteresting Things

Being interesting is about doing interesting things, but the flip side is being interested in other people’s interesting things. Lazy people bring out the uninteresting side in other people. They:

• Ask boring questions like ‘what do you do?’
• Ask ‘how are you?’ and don’t really mean it
• Talk about the weather
• Ask what TV shows people are watching

Why? What’s the point of asking boring questions? You don’t learn anything and you make the person you are with even less interesting to you. Here’s how you can level up your life and dial down your laziness:

• Ask someone about the weirdest thing they have ever eaten.
• Ask someone what’s on their bucket list and if you can help them accomplish any of it.
• Ask someone about the movie that most changed their life.
• Ask someone about a new skill they are learning.
• Ask someone about their personal passion project.
• Ask someone what their New Year’s Resolutions were and if they accomplished them.

Step #3: Consume Interesting Things

We consume all day long. We consume food and drink, we consume media, we consume information.

What you consume makes up who you are.

Lazy people are uninteresting because they consume uninteresting things:

• They read news from the default browser home page
• They get updates from friends from their social feeds instead of talking to them.
• They eat fake food from vending machines or freezers.
• They consume media and don’t question the source.
• They read from sources that already confirm their beliefs.
• They only watch blockbuster movies.
• They only read bestsellers.

Yes, it’s easier to stick with the default. It’s easier to eat what’s given to you. It’s easier to read and watch what everyone else is doing.

But who said easy was fun? It certainly isn’t interesting.

Try this:

• Go to the library (yes, really) and ask the librarian for book recommendations.
• Ask your role model for a movie that changed his or her life and go watch it.
• Read a news source that is known for being the opposite of your political views and see what you learn.
• Find a new favorite news columnist.
• Read books that stimulate fascinating conversations.

Step #4: Ask People About the Interesting Things They Are Consuming

It’s hard to network, make memorable conversation and build connection. But you can do it! You just have to fight the laziness. One of the easiest ways to stimulate interesting conversation is to ask people about:

• What they think
• How they think
• What intrigues them
• What they are learning
• How they learn

Decide to become an interesting detective.

Decide that you are going to uncover every interesting tidbit about every person you meet.

If you expect people to be interesting, they often rise to your expectations.

Step #5: Hang Out with Interesting People

The final step to being interesting is to find interesting people to hang out with. Typically, interesting people hang out together—and now that’s you! Interesting people encourage the people around them to do interesting things, to talk about interesting topics and engage with interesting ideas. Let’s quickly take stock:

Who is the most interesting person you know?

_______________________

Who is the funniest person you know?

_______________________

Who is the most well-read person you know?

_______________________

Who is the most well-traveled person you know?

_______________________

Who is the strangest person you know?

______________________

Thought of someone for each prompt? Good! Now go hang out with them. They are your interesting tribe.

Even doing one of the things in this blog post will help you be more interesting.

Being interesting is about living a life that’s worth talking about.

Bottom Line: If you want to be interesting, put some work into it! Remember, laziness is the enemy of interesting.

You are interesting! Now go get it!