One small step for a man a giant step for a boy
The Adventure Begins
As I said in part one, my assigned dormitory was Fairlop with Miss Townrow as Dorm. Mistress, also the school music teacher. Mr. Roberts was the other dorm teacher
The first lesson to be learned was how to make up your bunk bed. We were supplied with a matress, pillow, bed bag and blanket. The bed bag was a combination of item which also held a pillow.The longer you were at the school, the more particular the teachers were in how neat your bed was made, for example, the hospital corners at the bottom of the bed. Beside each bunk was an open faced cupboard divided into four and each boy had a top and bottom in which to keep his clothes, neat of course. The larger items were placed at the bottom and grading to the smaller ones at the top.
As new boys, we made a mad dash to comandeer a top bunk (we were innocents at the time!). The older boys were quite happy to let us have them. The kindness suddenly made sense when there was a veritable outbreak of boys falling through the bunk and landing matress and all on the lower bunk, from which an old boy had quickly absented himself. Yes, it was a favorite pastime, removal of a row of support springs. We soon learned to check before leaping, ahh next term it's our turn!
Home Sickness I think we all suffered at one time or another and in varying degrees, my worst time being the first night after parents visiting Sunday. I won't dwell on that subject as I think we all have our own memories.
One thing we learned very quickly was not to go to the washroom at night in bare feet. Although most boys were deadly accurate with a sling shot or Dutch Arrow and other types of missiles, come night time, they could not hit the side of a barn! A favorite trick if you knew a boy was prone to having to make nightly trips was to hide his shoes, (what a bunch of heavenly angels we were). There was a danger in this activity because you had to sneak out of bed after lights out, it was usually at this time that there was a serious outbreak of loud coughing, which could wake a prefect and bring on the lights. Anyone for paper picking on your free time?
Stay tuned more to come.
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