Tuesday, March 07, 2006

(16) Two male youths lie face down

On June 3rd 1986 I


was staying with Angela Julian-Day in the Great Eastern Hotel in London. At around 6 p.m. she left to fetch us some food and was gone for about fifteen minutes.

During her absence I found myself thinking back to an incident from 1972 at Bedford Modern School.

Two boys were misbehaving in class. Their names were Neil Owen and Edward Snell. I have seen neither since 1976.

The master taking the lesson was Dan Dicky, famed for his eccentricity. He punished the boys by the extraordinary device of having them lie face down on the floor.
He explained to us that after a time this becomes extremely unpleasant.

Angela returned with the food and she was laughing.
She explained that two young men had come up to her in the street and prostrated themselves in front of her.

She had laughed and moved around them, whereupon they got up and performed this act of mock obeisance again.

I told her what I had just been thinking of.

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