Joe Bear
Joe Bear was the funny little viking who appears in the 105 Entry Badge, that you see on the opening page. He was created by Barry Nelson, doodling away during a particularly boring electrical science lesson of Flt Lt NZEGWU, he of the famous "Ziggy" sticks.
After speaking to Barry at the recent reunion, he corrected my memory. Far from being designed in Ziggys class, Joe Bear originated in a small coffee shop in Aylesbury one weekend while Barry was staring out of the window, and doodling on a napkin
In 2016, I received an e-mail from Dave Johnson, who incidentally was my room leader in 3(A)Wing. He pointed out that Barry got the idea for Joe from a toy viking in Dave's room. He was a gift to him from a girlfriend, and was affectionately named Phred
I used to sit next to Barry during those lessons, and well remember everything on the desk being covered in little vikings. I don't really know how he became the entry "mascot", but he did, even to the extent of having a death notice printed in the RAF News, shortly before our 'Passing Out'.
"Ziggy Sticks" has no resemblance to Pooh sticks , but refers to slide rules. Flt Lt NZEGWU (known to us all as Ziggy because his name was quite unpronounceable) was, I think, from Nigeria, and was our Electrical Science teacher. It was a requirement of his that we all have slide rules, not just any slide rule but a specific kind, and he even told us where to go and buy them and how much they would cost. He spent the next year teaching us not only science, but the intricacies of quadratic equation solving (amongst other things) using a slide rule, hence the term Ziggy Sticks.
Back to Joe Bear.... We had entry ties made, with the little viking decorating them, and he also appeared on the Entry Christmas card. Here's the card, but can anyone scan a tie and send it on?
