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About John Peel
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'Sharky'Last week Peter Gibson's unnerving experience of teaching his former teacher encouraged Karl Lek from Beaumaris to tell a touching story about his old art teacher... Karl had always wanted to be an artist. At school in early 40s, it was one teacher, a Mr ER Williams, who accidentally helped him on the way to realising his ambition. Mr Williams was better known to the boys as 'Sharky'. Karl thought Sharky had gained his nickname because of his protruding teeth, which caused him to spit as he spoke (his name actually came from a famous boxer in the 1920s and 30s). Be that as it may, it was Sharky who taught Karl to draw trees. Whilst drawing, he would explain to the boys that, "The roots extend as far out under the soil as the branches do above the soil. Trees are like umbrellas with their clusters of leaves." The image is with Karl even now, "I immediately began to look at trees in that way." Moving on a few years, and Karl, then in his mid thirties, had become a lecturer known for his ability to draw whilst he talked. 
Karl Lek |
One evening Karl gave a talk to the WI; husbands were allowed along too. Audience and lecturer got on well together. Question time came, and one lady asked what Karl's approach was to drawing trees. "Suddenly I remembered Sharky," says Karl. As he explained about trees as umbrellas, Karl gave in to the actor in him, "I did an impersonation of Sharky, with facial expressions, voice and movements!" It went down a storm with the audience, especially some of the husbands who'd also been taught by Sharky. But as Karl left the lecture hall a stooped figure of an old man loomed up out of the dark, "Hello Mr Lek," he greeted Karl. Karl was startled by the voice which seemed familiar to him. "Do you recognise me?" the man continued. "Mr Williams!" replied Karl, mortified. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to offend you!" "My dear boy," said Sharkey, "You've honoured me and made me a very proud man. I shed a few tears as I listened to you. I shall always remember this evening! But," he continued, "I never meant you to see trees as umbrellas! It was just something I said. I thought of them only as flat diagrams. You've taught me something! I shall remember this for the rest of my life, my dear boy." What great pearls of spoken wisdom
have you remembered and acted upon,
only to find you've completely
misinterpreted the intended meaning?
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