Peter Makes Rotary Laugh and Laugh and ...

Our speaker last Tuesday was one of our own members, Peter Tracy whose theme for the night was ‘Alternative Heroes’ or ‘The Fun of Life’.

Peter had a varied career as a geography teacher but started his working life living in Paris, where he learnt to speak French. When he returned to the North East, he was initially given the job as a temporary French teacher in Walker, where he discovered that French was not a second language!

Later he moved on to other schools in the locality, but it was his teaching experiences in the Czech Republic, where his job title was ‘The Professor of English Conversation’ that had us all enthralled.
He went for a year but stayed for five and during that time he recalled many humorous stories of his students and a chap called Jara Cimrman (pronounced Djarra Zimmerman), a fun fictional character in Czechoslovakian history who apparently was at the start of all discoveries and inventions throughout history!!!

From Zimmerman he developed his tales onto a chap named Marriott Edgar, a poet, scriptwriter and comedian best known for his monologues with Stanley Holloway including The Lion and Albert, Runcorn Ferry, The Battle of Hastings, Marksman Sam, The ‘Ole in the Ark etc. Peter gave us many examples of these stories recalled in a broad humorous Lancastrian accent.

In short it was a collection of witty and amusing stories that had us all laughing in our seats. A great night enjoyed by all.

If you would like to know more about our Rotary Club please do not hesitate to contact us through or Website, Facebook or telephone – 07419 736989.