High school memories

[Keith Webb]

What a great idea for a thread Mike!

A lot of us are from a generation where our teachers were WW2 vintage. In my case we had several ex-RAAF types who would even regale us with stories. One of our teachers was the school chaplain who was a Catalina pilot. I caught up with him many years later at a school reunion - he was almost deaf as a result of flying - he told me of a chant he learned doing funeral detail on his second day of flight training at Temora in 1943. This is what they said as they marched the coffin into the graveyard:
"I saw him crash, I watched him burn; he held off bank in a gliding turn"

There was one exceptional army man in the form of Henry Byron-Moore who was in the mould of Alex's teacher - he taught biology and commanded terrible respect from we students although we also enjoyed him immensely.

The biology classroom was on an upper level reached by a steel staircase. Once class had started you could hear latecomers walking up the stairs. Henry would wait behind the door and with a bellow "You're LATE, Matey" ringing in his ear the surprised boy would find himself propelled into the room by his hair.

Like you said, this wouldn't happen today, more's the pity. It certainly taught there were consequences to be considered by one's actions.

[Keith Webb]

My wife went to boarding school had an interesting one - a Scottish lady who had been a policewoman (not sure whether she had war service as well but was the right vintage)...

One evening she came into the dormitory pretending to be a dog urinating on the leg of each bed.

She was gone the next day without any explanation from the school.

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

My wife went to boarding school had an interesting one - a Scottish lady who had been a policewoman (not sure whether she had war service as well but was the right vintage)...

One evening she came into the dormitory pretending to be a dog urinating on the leg of each bed.

She was gone the next day without any explanation from the school.

We Scots can be a bit peculiar that way.

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Geoff Winnington-Ball

We Scots can be a bit peculiar that way.

Och Aye.

[Mike K]

Reading the responses , it is interesting , the different experiences .. those days do shape us .

One teacher at my school, the PE instructor , was verging on being taken away and locked up, he was of German or Dutch heritage , not sure which. Anyway, to give you an example .. we were all given leather cut - offs from a cricket ball factory .. we plaited them together to make skipping ropes ( I've still got mine here ). This guy would pick out three of us , and time us over a minute , skipping ... Now , you had to count how many times you skipped over the minute ... he would then ask one out of the three , "how many skips did you do?" On one occassion my unfortunate classmate got it wrong and MR... laid into him with his leather skipping rope, right across his legs , the soft part, the calves. The poor kid was jumping around in pain , like a western movie scene it was , shooting at someone's feet.

The said PE fascist, had a wicked temper .On bad days , he would round up any boy in sight and we went on forced runs around the suburb..in full school uniform.. wearing winter jackets .The boys in front would yell out " You bloody NAZI " . He loved humiliating anyone he thought wasn't good enough.. " go over there" ... then " come back here " to some kid , the kid would walk back and forward a few times .

Best thing at high school, the dancing classes with the girls in your class, in the assembly hall.... of course Mr. Neurotic PE man, put a stop to that , when he arrived. I almost had nightmares over this guy each Wednesday night.. the PE classes were on Thursday ... straight after lunch.

The Melbourne High Cadet unit , had a bren stolen .. it endup up in Ireland with the IRA .. true story .

Mike

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

The Melbourne High Cadet unit , had a bren stolen .. it endup up in Ireland with the IRA .. true story

How Much did you get for it...????

Possibly your old teacher could have been Dutch....A "Nazi" is possible the worst thing that a Dutch person could call any one...even worst that calling them a "Lawyer" or a "politition"...and with very good reason..