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.