The best years of your life, Schooldays, well they were theres no denying it.
How well I remember my first days at 'the big school' the year I started my Secondary Education was the first year that Comprehensive schools had been introduced into the area. A great theory that, lets put all the clever children and all the morons into one great melting pot and give them the chance of equal education.
So out went Grammar schools, out went streaming all of us with mixed abilities just lumped together in one over-crowded classroom.
Yes we did get equal education, any-one with an ounce of sense soon learnt that you don't prove yourself keen to learn in front of the lads whose idea of fun was pulling the legs off smaller children.
I did get branded a a 'swat' however, it was my own fault, I was showing off in the newsagents I suppose. One of our classes professional shop-lifters caught me working out how much change I would get from a 10 shilling note when buying 5 Park Drive!
Mental arithmatic! this boys a swat!
Due to this sort of thing I and other boys that were capable of tying their own shoe-laces without it ending up in a knot were
DOOMED.
I did thanks to these boys however have some reasonable success with the girls in our class.
When they were asked how come you prefer Less to the rest of us?
The girls would say, "Well compared to the rest of you he smells so fresh and clean."
Well I would like to say a big thanks to those boys. By the way girls I can now tell you the secret, you would also smell clinically clean if you spent your playtimes with your head stuck down a toilet the caretaker had just poured San Izal into. Again all I can say is thanks lads!
Wash and go? I was one of the first!
Yes they were the best years of my life, I hope you have some equally fond memories, the funny thing though even today if I go into a public lavatory and smell disinfectant I still have an almost uncontrollable urge to stick my head in the toilet!