Friday, October 5, 2018

BULLYING EXCERPT ~ SPORTS DAY (14 YEARS OLD IN 1963)

    After the school sports day was all over and all the dignitaries and parents had gone home, the school detentionees were left to clean up the mess and bring all the folding chairs and tables back to the school yards so they could be loaded into vans,
     About an hour of fetching and carrying chairs I was just about sick of it. there was only about a dozen chairs left. I did not feel like walking all the way across the sports field to get them. Just then, I spotted a  boy who was struggling to carry 4 folding chairs the remaining distance across the field so I went over to him and said,
"Give me 2 of your chairs and I'll carry them for you."
"Fuck you, go and get your own.", he said.
"I've already carried more than you have.", I said. "And I'm not walking all the way over there again." 
     I took two of his chairs off of him and started to carry them the rest of the way. The boy got really angry and threw his 2 chairs on the ground.,
"Fuck you Swindells!", he said. "I'm going to tell Mr. Clayton on you!"
     He ran off and that was the last I expected to see of him. I carried the2 chairs over to the stack and then went back to pick up the 2 chairs the boy had thrown down on the sports field.
     As I was carrying the 2 last chairs back to the yard, I saw the boy and Mr. Clayton coming across the field towards me. Between myself and Mr. Clayton was a small group of teachers who were still standing around and discussing what a great day it had been. I met up with Mr. Clayton right next to the group of teachers. As I approached him he said to me,
"Swindells!"
"Yes sir.", I said.
"You took 2 chairs off of one of my Form boys."
"Yes sir. There weren't any more chairs to carry."
"Why didn't you look for some more chairs Swindells."
"I already told you sir, there are no more chairs to carry except these ones."
     The next thing I remember was a tremendous bang! I flew through the air backwards and then everything went totally black. I had no idea whatsoever what hit me or how long I was laying on mi back on the school sports field. The only thing I remember was when I was coming back into consciousness, my head was in tremendous pain. As I tried to open my eyes and sit up, the small group of teachers were spinning around and around and their faces were all blurred. The body felt like it was 500 pounds. My elbows just gave way and I fell backwards again.
     I remembered 2 of the teachers who were in the small group had put their arms around me and were trying to sit me up.
"Are you alright Swindells?" said one of them.
     My eyesight was very blurry and I still felt Like I was floating in fluid. A minute or so later I heard one of the female teachers say,
"How could you do that Mr. Clayton?"
     Then another teacher said,
"Mr. Clayton, indeed, hitting a boy so hard!"
     That was all I needed to hear.

BULLYING EXCERPTS ~ BIBLE STUDY AT STONE SCHOOL ~ (6 years)

"Open the bible up at the beginning and start to read Genesis and read it quietly to yourselves.", said Mr. Graham, the Head Master. "I'm going out for a few minutes and then I'll be back and ask questions on what you've read."

     It was the most boring book I had ever read. All anyone seemed to do was BEGAT! Abraham begat this wife who in turn begat a son who grew up and begat a wife. After a bit more 'begating' they they in turn begat a daughter who in turn grew up to begat a husband that  begat 3 sons who begat 10 children who begat and begat and begat!
     Just then I begat a great idea. I noticed that if I opened the book right in the middle and slammed it together real fast it made an incredible deep popping sound. Now bible study was taking on a new dimension!
     In the beginning God created sound...BANG!  I'd slam the pages shut. I started making an experiment with music. According to the speed and pressure I slammed the pages together, the bible made different popping vibrations. Then, I discovered that by opening it off center, it made a different sort of vibration. I told my friend in the seat next to me what I'd discovered but he wasn't interested. He was more interested in 'begating'.
     Next, I discovered that the bible was a very powerful book. It could actually fly! I put the bible on the edge of the desk, right in the middle so the  balance was perfect. Once this was done I moved my chair back into position so I had plenty of room. Then, I brought my fist crashing down on the end overhanging the desk. WHALLOP! The bible shot up in the air spinning around as it went. After a few good whallops this way, I discovered that if I put the bible off center, meaning  more on the desk-side and then gave it another good whallop it flew even higher in the air and spun around faster.
     Now, the hard part was yet to be worked out. How to catch the bible with one hand. Depending on how hard I hit it and how much overhang I gave it depended on how many times it would spin around in mid air.
     I'd worked out how to catch it with 2 hands then with just the right hand. I was still trying to master the left-hand when Mr. Graham walked back into the room from behind me. He obviously had been standing behind me for some time watching me. As he passed my desk, he said to me,
"That's very clever Swindells. How long did it take you to work that out?"
"Not long Sir.", I sez. "See, it depends on the overhang and how hard..."
"Don't bother explaining it to me. I can see for myself. Oh, by the way, go into my drawer and get my size 11 pump shoe for me would you?"
"Yes Sir!", I sez. 'This is going to be fun', I thought. 'Somebody must be going to get his size 11 right across the backside. That's probably why he went out of the room. Somebody in one of the other classes must have been cheeky to a teacher or something.
     He kept  his size 11 Pump in the bottom of his right-hand drawer. I opened the drawer and pulled it out. It was massive and very flexible. It was white and the laces had been removed.
'Whoever wore this must have had big feet.', I thought.
     I closed the drawer and ran back over to him. Handing it to him with a smile I said,
"Here's you are sir. Your shoe. Is someone going to get it Sir?"
"Yes they are.", he sez. "Come with me a minute."
'Oh good.', I thought. 'He's going to let me watch. This will be great fun.'
     As we passed a big black table that had been pushed against the side wall, he turned to me and said,
"Bend over that table boy!"
     I couldn't believe my ears so I said to him,
"Who me Sir?"
"Yes, you boy! Now bend over and don't get up until I tell you!"
     The smile on my face was now gone. it had  been replaced by the shock of realization that he was not joking.
"Come on, hurry up boy. Bend over!"
     There was no choice. I laid across the table waiting in the totally silent room. The first thing I heard was this loud 'whacking' sound. The next thing I felt was an incredible burning, stinging pain across the back of my bum.
'Oh shit! That hurt!', I thought.
     There was a gap of about 4 seconds and then 'BANG'. I felt the same sensation and heard the same sound only this time it felt worse as my bum was still stinging from the first one. It seemed like he was never going to stop. After six whacks with that size 11 shoe, I couldn't stand still. My body was shaking  and my hands were trembling. After 3 more whacks, I'd already made up my mind not to cry and let him see he'd hurt me. As I stood up and looked in his face, he had a grin on his lips. Then he said,
"Now go and sit at your desk!"
     My mind was totally silent. I stood there looking into his eyes. Then I heard myself tell him with the voice of silence,
'One day Graham, you will be very sorry you did that. No matter where you go in this life I will find you. Then it will be my turn!'
     With that, I went back to my desk. The pain across the  back of my bum was unimaginable. As I tried to sit down on the chair, burning pains shot down the backs of my legs and up the center of my back.
     It took about one week before I could sit down without thinking about it. The bruising on mi bum took much longer to to. The scarring to my heart took 40 years to heal.


Thursday, October 4, 2018

THE XMAS PARTY (5 Years old)

     As the days rolled along, I was getting very interested in school. I was fast at learning to read and write. I was also good adding, subtracting and tables. Looking back I would have said, I was having fun.
     Xmas time was upon us and the school headmaster, Mr. Graham, announced that we would be having a Xmas party for the last day of school. Mr. Graham said there would be lots of games and fun and the winners of the games would be given prizes.
     It was hard to wait for the great day to arrive. I told mi mum and she said,
"Better not to get your hopes too high for a prize in case you get disappointed."

    Finally, the day arrives. The last school day before the holidays. The party was due to start around 5 pm and would last till around 7 pm.  There was a tremendous amount of excitement in the air as all the kids were anxious for the party to start. Paper hats were given out to all the children. We had Xmas tea which consisted of cakes, jellies, biscuit, ice cream and sandwiches. What a great feast!
     Long tables were placed end to end fashion across one of the corners. Tins of chocolate biscuits, packets of sugar biscuits, baskets of fruit covered with see-though  cellophane paper. Baskets of grapes, apples, tangerines, pomegranates, pears, baskets of Mars bars, Kit Kats and Milky Ways.
     My eyes took in the whole scene! My family was not rich by any means and all that food and fruit would have looked right good in our house on Xmas morning. Right then and there, I made mi mind up I was going to win it all and take it home to mi mum and dad, although I hadn't worked out how to carry it all yet.
     There were so many games. Musical Chairs, Pass the Parcel, Circles. I discovered that if I concentrated on the piano man, I, somehow, knew exactly when he was going to stop playing. By the time the party and games were coming to an end, I'd won 90% of all the prizes. I was ecstatic.
     Next up came the Award time. The Head Master said,
"All those who won prizes, I'll call your name out and come and collect your prizes from the table. Richard Swindells, string bag of Tangerines."
     On it went until the table was empty, barring 4 or 5 prizes for school term work, he got sick of calling my name.
     Now, I thought, 'I'll give some to the piano player, some to poor kids, stack the rest in mi coat and tie the sleeves up and home go'!
NOT SO!

      Just then I heard Mr. Graham speak my name,
"That's too many prizes for one boy, therefore we've decided, that is the other teachers and myself, to take them all off you and leave you with 2 prizes. The rest we'll hand out to all the other kids as they're going out the door on their way home."
"That's not fair sir.", I said.
"Fair or  not, that's what we're doing Swindells."
     With that, he and the other teachers picked up all of the prizes except two. I watched all my prizes being handed out till the table was empty.
     When mi mum came to pick me up, she didn't believe me, so she said,
"Wait here and I'll go and have a word with them."
     When she got back she said,
"Well lad, there's now't I can do about it now so let's go home."
     On the way home, I had a good cry about it.
"It's not going to bring all the prizes back by crying about it." said mi mum.
     From that day on, I hated school and Mr. Graham. Overnight, Stones School had turned into a prison sentence and those teachers were now the enemy!



BULLYING EXCERPTS ~ JIM BAILEY - 13 years

     Jim Bailey was about 6'2" tall. He had a large barrel chest, a short back and sides haircut and weighed about 250 pounds. He was a man of around 58 years old when I first met him. Had I have met him under different circumstances I would have probably liked him much more. He had worked at Whitelys' for about 12 years when mi mum first met him and prior to that he was a Parade Sergeant Major in the Summerset Regiment. 27 years in the army so ever detail of his life was run  by the book. He had never been married before he met mi mum so he had never  been around 3 growing children before.  It was not in his nature to ask me to do something for him, it had been drilled into his nature to give orders and it was not in my nature to carry orders from anyone unless my heart told me it was alright.
     The first time he gave me one of his orders, in his Parade Sergeants voice, I said to him,
"Who the hell do you think you're ordering around? I am not one of your bloody little tin soldiers, neither are my sisters. I don't carry orders from you or any other bugger . There's only one who I carry orders for and you're not him."
     This little confrontation happened as we passed each other on the bedroom stairs. Without a word of warning he gave me a good right stiff arm with his fist and knocked me down the steps. When I picked miself up from the bottom of the stairs he was coming down the stairs towards me. Now I was really angry so I said to him,
"You are not my father and you never will be and one of these days I will be much more bigger than I am right now and when that day comes you will know I will get you for this and when I do you will be bloody sorry you did that cause I'll knock your bloody head off your big fat shoulders with one hit. You won't be so smart then. I'll teach you what happens when you punch kids like that!"
      With that, I took off out of the house just as mi mother was coming up the cellar stairs.
"What's all the shouting about?", she sez.
"Ask him!", I said. "He knows I'm not one of his bloody tin soldiers.", I said as I slammed the door behind me.
"Come back here!", sez mi mother as I headed off up the street.
"Get lost!", I said. "You're just as bad as he is.
 
     In those days, I was allowed to go out at night and play with mi new-found friends as long as I did the washing up and made the fire. If I didn't do those jobs, no going out for me. In the summer months Jim Baileys' rules were that I had to  be in at 9 O'Clock.
     One evening as I walked home from playing with mi pals, I got home at 1 minute past 9.
"What time do you call this lad?" he said as I walked in the door.
"9 O'clock", I sez, with a look of surprise on mi face.
"What time does that clock on the wall read"?, he sez.
"9 O'clock.", I sez. "Why"?
"Take another look and read it more carefully", He sez.
"Two minutes past nine". I sez.
"Right! 2 minutes past nine. That means you're late so tomorrow night you stay home. No going out for you!"
     I could not believe what I was hearing so I looked at mi mum who was sat knitting in her chair. She didn't look up, she just kept her head down and kept right on knitting.
"It's only 2 minutes past 9!", I said to her.
"Don't tell me, tell your father.", she said as she went on knitting.
     This made me really angry, so I said,
"He's not my father. He's your husband and nobody told me we were joining the army before we left mi dad!"
     That was it! She dropped the knitting, ran over to me and grabbed me by the arm and proceeded to smack mi bare legs as hard as she could with the wooden ruler she used for measuring the length of her knitting with.
"Get up those stairs to bed you cheeky little bugger!", she said. "And just for that, you won't move out of this house of a night time for the rest of the bloody week! Now get out out of my bloody sight you impudent little bleeder!"
     Meal times were now conducted in silence. I used to think mi dad was strict but he never had a patch on Jim Bailey.