It was the end of the Falklands war when I first went to school in Trowbridge. I was a scared little kid surrounded by a few dozen others, all looking at each other and wondering who we could talk to without getting into trouble. I had been a little trouble maker since I was young, and my parents had warned me not to make friends with someone who would get me into more trouble as I would get a spanking from the teacher my Mum told me.
This really scared me, I had only had been spanked by my parents, or had mine and my sisters heads bashed together for doing something we shouldn't have, it was a different age and corporal punishment was still legal, however thinking back I doubt any teacher would have caned a five year old unless they had some sort of perverted urge. However at the time I didn't really want to get a spanking from an unknown teacher in front of other unknown people, so the 1st day was very frightening for me.
The class, at Grove Infants was full of little boys in smart woolly blue jumpers, and the girls all wore pleated grey skirts and had bunches in their hair. I remember that one of our first assignments was to write a little bit about ourselves so we could all tell each other and make friends.
I had been taught to write at an early age by my parents and my teacher Mrs Wilkens was very impressed that I had managed to write about the HMS Invincible that my Dad had worked on, which was coming home today from the Falklands War, I think I had drawn a little picture of a ship next to it as well. Compared to the other students she told my mum at the end of the day it was outstanding that I could write that much.
I seem to have been able to carry on that ability to later life, whether writing stories or articles or even just coding a lot at work. I guess the teacher thought I was bright and she must have put me into another class with other kids of the same ability or maybe just at the front of the class, I can't really remember but I certainly wasn't next to the naughty kid that was shown up that day for sure.
He was a boy that had been caught spitting. Mrs Wilkins had got a glass out from the kitchen and man handled the kid to the back of the room and slammed it down in front of him on those old wooden desks with round holes in the corner for old school ink pots. We all turned round nervously to see what she was going to do to him.
"Right, think you can spit in my class room do you!" she shouted at him, making the whole class nervous, and the boy cowered in his seat. He didn't reply to her question.
"Well then, your assignment for this afternoon is to fill this glass up with spit by the end of the day". The rest of the afternoon was just filled with sounds of him trying to wet his mouth enough and the splatter and dribbles of spit as he tried to fulfil this task. He wasn't allowed a drink when he asked for one, and I can imagine how dry his mouth must have been. He hardly got anywhere with this special assignment and he received another telling off at the end of the day for failing in his task.
I was glad to be out of that room at the end of the day after my Mum had talked to Mr Wilkins about my story. I just knew I would have ended up in trouble if I had stayed.
It was a good move. The school used to give us free milk until the Prime Minister at the time, Mrs Thatcher stopped it. We all missed that free milk at lunchtime. I enjoyed that school but before long my dad, who worked for the MOD, had got a job in Farnborough and after a year we moved from Trowbridge to be near his work.
Nothing but trouble awaited. I reckon I would have done a lot better if I had stayed at that school and carried on living in the country. It was good for me, a quiet town out in the sticks near the big White Horse on the side of a hill. I miss that place and sometimes wonder what would have happened if we hadn't have moved. What would life have been like if my Dad hadn't got that job and we had stayed in the Wiltshire countryside in a quiet town, far away from county lines going-ons. I can only imagine.
© 2022 – Robert Reid All Rights Reserved
That takes me back! I still have your picture of Invincible and your writing about it somewhere!! It was certainly a fine beginning to an interesting academic career. You have always been artistic/creative and it's great that you still get so much pleasure from it.
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