Over the past week, C8 has been discussing cases and travel – extra points now to Ruth Saunders of Dulwich Hill, for combining them. Take it away, Ruth: “50 years ago, I arrived in Australia from the UK via plane and ship. I had to fill in a form for customs clearance and one box noted that ‘All ports must be declared’, so I dutifully wrote ‘Singapore and Brisbane’. My husband had a good laugh at my expense.”
Meanwhile, emails have been backing up detailing school punishments, following Monday’s mention of a thrashing.
Jim Dewar of Davistown says, “At Bathgate Academy, in Scotland, in the early ’60s, I was given ‘the belt’ (the tawse) many times, for mostly minor offences. We ran a boys’ comp to see who could rack up the most beltings over a year. I was always in the leading bunch.” Hmm, knowing as we do your sense of humour, Jim, is this a great surprise to Col8ers?
Graham Mostyn of Castle Hill remembers, “In the 1950s, I attended a country school run by the Sisters of Mercy. The nun who taught me piano had a special technique. She would hit my outstretched hand on the knuckles with the edge of a ruler. On a cold winter’s morning, this was especially painful. I quit after 18 months.”
Jeff Stewart of Huskisson reports, “At one kindergarten lunchtime, supervised by the large and matronly figure of Mrs (name withheld), I applied a pin forcefully to the backside of the boy in front. He yelped, leaped and dropped his large piece of cream-covered cake! Retribution came swiftly as Mrs X picked up the debris and smeared it all over my face, then paraded me up and down the seated throng.”
Then comes a tale from the almost mythical George Manojlovic of Mangerton. “My wife informs me that, back in Year 1, she had her lips sticky-taped together for being overly talkative. And that’s all I’m going to say.”
Nola Scott of Wagga Wagga tells us that, “At my little bush school in the ’30s, the lady teacher gave me the cane twice when I was about eight. Another girl my age ‘told on me’, first for hitting her with a clod (she always missed me) and another time for swearing. I survived.” This is starting to sound a bit Four Yorkshiremen again, isn’t it? Perhaps that’s enough for today.
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