A Loving family
By
Jacquimac
Pt Three

Childhood and Schooldays Continued

School was getting worse everyday,I singled out by the teachers as a troublemaker,I was forced to play netball dressed like a girl in vest and knickers and now I had to wear a dress in dance class, this carried on all through Primary and junior school.
After school no one play with me so I used to bury my head in a book, some of the neighbours saw how the other kids treated me as tried to get them to play with me but the kids refuses saying they wouldn`t play with a sissy.
Home life was even harder I suppose if i hadn`t been brought up by my grandmother for most of the first 6 years of my like things might have been different.My sister was daddy`s little princess and my brother was my mothers favorite,if they did anything wrong it was immediately my fault and I would be giving a thrashing.

I would still have to attend school covered in cuts and bruises but nobody cared,sometimes I was so sore I could barely move but I would still have to attend school.When we started swimming lessons the bruising would be even more apparent but the cold water would lessen the pain and stiffness a bit.Eventually I did get start to get a few friends but they all girls, i would watch them playing they`re games like hopscotch or skipping but would just and watch,some of them would sit and talk to me while they were waiting they`re turn.
At the end of Junior school we could pick our choice of schools in the area, and as the other kids were going to grammar school or attending the local secondary modern, I opted for one about 6 miles away, there it was great for the first year, as well as the usual lessons we also had craft lessons which meant boys did woodwork and metalwork and the girls did cooking and sewing.Yes the first year was good, nobody bullied me and I could do the same lesson the other boys did, well except for sport but I didn`t have to do the girls sports at this school I was one of boys, but that was about to change.

The Education Authority to save money started to close some of the older victorian schools down and one of the schools first to be closed was the one I had avoided.About 1/2 of the pupils form that school were now sent to the new school were I was already attending along with a few of the teachers.The school as I said was about 6 miles way, a long walk especially in the winter and get a bus to reach there meant first getting a bus into town.I`m sure my parents were masochists as they made me walk to school were the other kids got the bus,so I had to leave home a 7am to get to school by 9am.The other kids thought it was funny when I arrived and it was raining and I was soaked through to the skin. One day it was like a monsoon and I got to school with the water was running out of my clothes, everybody teachers included though it was hilarious,there was one teacher a Miss Wright who taught English was a kindly soul and sent me to the school secretary to see if they find something dry for me to put on.Oh yes they found something alright it seems that a couple of pupils that had attended the school the year before and had since left had donated all they`re school uniforms,so I was given a box with a complete uniform including regulation underwear.I was taken to empty room and told to change and bring my wet clothes to the office, when I inspected the I found it to contain a GIRLS uniform, I too it back to the office and told them it was a mistake, I was then told in no uncertain terms by the deputy head that was all there was and I would have to wear it.when I refused the Deputy head and the secretary dragged me into the empty room stripped me and dressed me in the dry uniform.I tried to fight them but with my size compared to their`s what is the borg say "Resistance Is Futile" .In the early 60`s you didn`t go to school with long hair but as I had suffered a scalp injury a few months earlier and was excused haircuts until my head became less sensative my hair was almost as long as most of the girls, so as well as having to wear to girls uniform as punishment for trying to defy the deputy head I ahd to suffer the further indignity fo having ribbons put in my hair. I was then dragged off to my next Class to be confronted by a room full a laughing a jeering pupils.