Post by Les on Oct 6, 2017 21:20:03 GMT
Maidstone I remember it well: I went to Maidstone Grammar School 1953-1958 when 'Wacky' Claydon was the Head Master. My Cousin and Uncle went there before and during the War also. From a village primary school at Sutton Valence where I attended it was quite a life changing experience going to the Grammar on the first day!! I recall as I went through the gate on that first morning a boy who would have been about 12 or 13 came running out screaming with a dart stuck in his knee!!! I thought wow, is this what it is like!!! It was so, so different to primary school, the ethos of Maidstone Grammer was to 'train' pupils for life at University, and it was hard in those days, We had preafects who were allowed to slipper boys, the teachers were allowed to cane boys as well, also preafects were allowed to have 'fags' as they were called, boys who had to clean their kit and tidy their room etc, all so much like the life in Uni then. We had a mad woodwork teacher, 'Nogger' Knight, who was a sadist I'm sure, he used to hit us with a three foot steel rule!! He was also an officer in the CCF, the Combined Cadet Force we had at school, which was mandatory unless you could prove you were a concientious objector!!! I was in the Army Cadets, there was an Air Force section too. They even had a glider which they used to 'fly' across the playing field powere by long elastic ropes which made it fly for about 400 yards! In my middle year there, the Upper Fourths, 1955, I was at my naughtiest...I kept a record of punishments in my journal, I had 49 sides of writing, over 1000 lines and some 24 hours of detention, and the detenton was Saturday mornings too!!! Can't imagine any of that taking place these days!! Anyone else there at the same time?