School Uniform And Schooldays

A Memory of Newburn.

This was 1958 the time when I seriously got into drainpipes, drapes and rock 'n roll music. I was at Walbottle Secondary Modern School. I used to take in the leg width of my jeans by hand using a needle and thread to make them as tight as I could get them, and I went to school with these drainpipes on and a Donegal jacket, along with black crepe shoes with white bars of music on the front, along with a red jumper with a white and black music bar across the front which me Ma knitted for me. It wasn't long before Mr Turnbull the Head got wind of me, as anyone who was in the assembly hall that day will tell you. Assembly had just finished and we were about to be dismissed when a strange request by the head was made for everyone to sit on the floor. "What's going on?" was the mumbling heard throughout. Then, the head boy was asked to go up on to the stage, then he looked straight at me and beckoned me up there as well. God, did my bottle go, and the red face was ablaze. I stood next to the head boy and he said to the school, "Which do you prefer?", and pointed to him in the school uniform, or this, pointing at me. I got the vote, I think the head felt he had been slapped in the face with a wet kipper, I even saw some of the teachers with a smirk on their faces. Do you remember Mr Norton the maths teacher with a bit of impediment in his speech? By, did he love the task of using the strap, you had to roll your sleeves up and the strap went from the palm of your hand up the forearm. That man was sadistic, on one occasion I pulled my hand out of the way and he got the full force between his legs, and that was in front of a full class. Mr Renwick the Geography teacher was a funny little man with his brown tweed suit. Not ha ha funny, but he loved to use the cane on your buttocks and this was done when the class was dismissed. Don't get the impression it was just me, I mean this punishment went on against the whole school for the most stupid reasons. I was with Alfie Nelson and a couple of others beside the stream that ran through the grounds, we made some paper boats and were racing them against each other. By the way, this was on a dinnertime break and we were given six of the best for this. Today this memory is as vivid as the day it happened and I can't for the love of me find the answer, why! Don't get me wrong, I did do silly things as most of the school did, but this punishment never ever resolved anything but make you hate the person who dished it out. Our P.E teacher, Richard Browell, got a road named after him in Throckley. Then there was Miss Robinson who had her first post here, all the lads had a crush on her. Mr Pigg was our woodwork teacher, Mr Spearman was a huge man and was our gardening teacher, we had a plot laid out at the side of the school and one day I was walking along a narrow path between the beds and one of the lads was walking behind me with a garden fork in his hand, he stabbed me in the soft flesh around the ankle with it, by accident he said. Anyway, I was sent home, but I had to get someone to go with me. Guess who I asked for! My pal Alfie. We both got an afternoon off down at Samples Yard. I still have the scar which is a round mark where it went in. I only ever once played the wag twice one day with my friend Dickie Bell and the school board man went to my house. That was red ears again for me. The second time was with Marlene Carter, Alfie Nelson and Susan Redshaw. Marlene was Alfies girl freind and Susan was mine. we just all had a fun day down the burn By Samples yard. I don't even know why I did it because I loved school. There were kids who hardly ever went and never got caught, but I was caught on my one and only time. Poor Dickie had a short life, he was in his early teens living with his Ma when he was smoking in bed, the rest is history.

---

---