Monday, March 29, 2010

On the matter of chalk erasers


When some one misbehaved in class or did not pay attention Flt Lt Tucker would, with great accuracy, hurl a chalk dust loaded eraser hitting the student 100% of the time. The student would then pick up the eraser and return it to Tucker saying, “Excuse me sir I believed you dropped this…” the student would then go back to his or her seat after being thanked. If Tucker thought the situation warranted he would hit the student in the back with the eraser again and the student would bring the eraser back. This process would continue until Tucker was satisfied he had made his point. Parents could gage how well their children were behaving in class by the chalk marks left on the clothing when they got home.

The Ink Well Incident



In the RAF Children’s school the desks had inkwells and writing was done with quills. One job for those in the 4th form was mixing the ink by adding water to a blue dust. The resulting ink would then be placed in the wells at each desk. While mixing the ink Peter Kay became annoying. In the exchange of words I mentioned that if he did not “pipe down” I’d pour ink on his head. He then dared me to do it. Well, a dare in front of classmates must be answered. So I poured an inkwell on his head. When Peter Kay got home his mother saw the damage and called my mother directly. I was told that Mrs. Kay had an impressive collection of vulgar adjectives. Fortunately bulk of the assault was lost on my mother how, as an Americans, do not find being called a "pig" especially offensive if not a bit lame as curses go. The majority of the assault was in thick English accent to the point of encrypting the contained references. She did catch “me Darlin Peter Kay” often. My mother immediately called Flt Lt Tucker to get a translation. His only response to my mother was “Oh my god she’ll be calling me next!” I never heard a thing about the incident until my mother told me years later.

The Super Ball incident

One day in the late spring it was hot and raining. Flt Lt Tucker declared that the physical training class would be conducted in the basement of the school where we would play cricket. The room was thirty feet loog by 15 wide and the ceiling was seven feet high. It was solid concrete and the lights were recessed in the ceiling and cover with thick unbreakable glass. Walls floor and ceiling were all smooth. The wicket was wooden affairs held together by a bolt through three blocks of wood each supporting a wicket. The bowler would use a rubber ball not a regular cricket ball. The ball was dark blue and exactly the same size as the Wamo super ball. I substituted the super ball for the regular ball unbeknownst to all concerned. Tucker elected to be the batter. The Scottish student threw the ball fast and Tucker made a solid hit. The ball streaked across the room hitting ceiling wall floor at high speed. Chaos ensued as everyone ran about to avoid being hit by the high speed projectile In the center of this chaos was Tucker in his RAF uniform with short pants, high socks with a red ribbon at the top leaning on the cricket bat, stroking his mustache while he watched. All the time he kept saying “Capital! Positively Capital!”. The game of cricket was abandoned in exchange for this new form of dodge ball.

The American Incident


Shortly after enrollment in the school I had occasion to be standing in a line in a hallway, probably for lunch. The teacher from the third form was walking the line with a meter stick in her hand. I recall she was attractive and wore small glasses. Occasionally she would make a correction and pop the person on the head with the meter stick. She approached me and I looked at her and without warning she swung at me, probably for not looking ahead. I ducked and she slammed her hand into the concrete wall.

I was removed from the line and marched to the Head Masters office to be cained. Caining involved holding out your hands palm up and receiving one or more blows with a thin piece of bamboo. Needless to say I was somewhat worried.

Flt Lt Tucker, the headmaster, asked the theater, "Why is he here?"

“He looked like he was going to cause trouble so I tried to pop him on the head. He ducked and I hit my hand on the wall.” She answered and indeed her knuckles did show a bit of blood.

“Madam,” answered Tucker, “ In this school we do not punish for looking like we are going to cause trouble. As to his ducking, he is an American and that is why they won the revolution!”

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The RAF Childrens School

When I was young I lived in Naples Italy from 1960 to 1963. I attended three schools: Forest Sherman Junior High, Notre Dame International in Rome and the RAF Children's School. The RAF Children's was located on the campus of the Allied Forces Southern Europe Headquarters (AFSOUTH) and located behind the facility theater. I located a picture of the building as it is today.

In the coming days I will add pictures from my family archives recently digitized.

The Head Master was Flight LT Ron Tucker. He was likely one of the best teachers in my life if not the one I remember best.

This Blog seeks to document what I know and can recover from my memory and family archives. I invite anyone who attended the school to send me an email and become a posting member of this blog.

I recall my class was small but little of the names of my fellow students. Anyway here are the ones I remember from the 4th form:

Peter Kay
Christopher Tucker (had a twin brother whose name escapes me)
Christa
Felicity Knight
Daphne
2 girls from Iceland
A tall fellow from Scotland

There were 4 houses: Hanover (Green badge), Stuart(Red Badge), Tudor(Yellow Badge) and Windsor (Navy Blue Badge).

It seems wrong that the World Wide Web should have no record of this school and the experiences shared there.