by ciderman_nz » Wed May 30, 2018 9:30 pm
I must be very lucky. I have never had any complaints about any of the 14 schools I attended. Only one small bullying attempts which turned out well. I have archived all these sort of writings for my grandkids to read in 30 years time when I am not here.
Our first home in New Zealand was in Brown’s Bay , north of Auckland and about a half hour bus trip to Takapuna where I went to my first school. The school bus picked us up every morning at about quarter past eight and we were packed in like sardines for the trip to Takapuna Grammar school. As a recent arrival to New Zealand, I still had some kind of ‘Pommy’ accent and I found that although most of the kids were friendly, one or two used to poke fun at me. This was usually in good fun and no malice was intended but on one occasion a fifth former , so about two years older than me, started to pull my hair. After a bit of ignore it started to hurt and I reached over my head with both hands and clamped onto his wrist. Without any plan, I stood up and turned around to face my attacker. This, of course, caused his arm to rotate and he let out a cry of pain and burst into tears, much to the enjoyment of his classmates who all laughed at him in his pain and clapped me on the back like the winner of a contest. It was all, of course, not planned but by chance I had dislocated his elbow, as we found out later. There were no repercussions although he had to go to hospital to get fixed. It was put down to an accident in the crowded back of the bus and no blame was attached. Which, in a way, was true as I had no plan of attack just hurting hair.
Civilisation is a veneer, easily soluble in alcohol.