Who You Calling A Wimp?!

Posted By on 28th January 2017

It’s sometimes difficult to find things to write about now all the building mayhem is behind us and Spring is still a distant dream. Today is one of those days, so it’s time to ask a question. I’ve already done ‘where would you go back to’ and ‘best value for money thing you own’, here’s another one to try. What is the oldest thing you possess that still works as good today as it did on Day 1.

After much consideration, and having rejected the plastic colander we were given as a wedding present in 1973 and the bottle of Dettol I bought back in 1985 (yes really) I decided to go with my school coat hanger, complete with my name attached with sellotape and a ‘Cash’s’ nametape. Remember those?

If you don’t this picture of my coat hanger might jog your memory, click on it for a better view. I don’t think it looks bad for 50+ years old.

This trip down memory lane reminded me of another ‘nametape’ story from my school days.

Miss Hirst (domestic science & needlework) was the ‘dragon’ of the teaching staff. If Miss Hirst said ‘jump’ you just jumped, you didn’t pause and ask ‘how high?’. I didn’t actually dislike her, but she scared me to death.

She got on well with my dad at parents evenings and I found out much later that they were both disappointed in me. They thought I had unfulfilled potential and they were right too, I’ve still got it now.

Remembering this so soon after sharing my bad memories of foreign language lessons I’m amazed I got out of school alive. Surrounded by all that despair and disappointment it’s a miracle I didn’t top myself.

However, one year I got some sheepskin mittens for Xmas and as I walked to school in all weathers they were very welcome. I’d outgrown the need for a piece of string threaded through my coat with a mitten on each end, or had I, because it didn’t take me long to loose one.

It was a school rule that every item had to be marked with your full name. Cash’s nametapes were the preferred method, but for some reason our gym kit had to have our name embroidered. I went through the first 2 years with my gym knickers saying ‘Judith Greenood’ as my mum missed out the ‘w’.

However I digress. On losing the mitten I went to ‘lost property’ to see if it had been handed in. Fortunately it had, but just my luck, it was Miss Hirst who was on duty.

She proceeded to give me a long lecture in how disappointed she was (there’s that word again) that neither me nor my parents had bothered to put my name in my new mittens.

But here’s the thing, I knew we had.

I now found myself in a unique position, should I wimp out and accept the unwarranted lambasting and meekly walk away, or should I stand up for myself and get one over on the scariest teacher in the school?

Surprisingly I chose the latter and pointed out to Miss Hirst that she was mistaken (I would never have dared say she was ‘wrong’) and that my mitten was in fact labelled correctly.

I can’t quite remember her exact reaction when I rolled back the cuff to reveal my nametape, but I think it fair to say she was ‘on the back foot’.

I don’t know if I bragged about my victory to my friends, probably not. Did Miss Hirst treat me better after that, no, she still continued to put the fear of God in me, but we shared the unspoken knowledge that I’d stood up to her once and won.

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