Post by foveaux on Jul 13, 2019 17:12:00 GMT 12
The year was 1968, the protagonists were, collectively, class Form 4B2 at a certain Boys High School in Invercargill. It was a warm Friday, early afternoon, early summer. Music period with the music Master ‘Weasel’ Mr Frank_ _ _.
4B2 were in their second year of the School’s first “Commerce’ stream.
Typically the streams A and B1 were for the academics: languages, (incl. latin!), advanced sciences and mathematics, history, arts etc. These were the Chess Club, Debating club, School musical, science competition etc. boys. With hindsight, I wish I’d joined the Radio club. Exposure to audio, valves etc. would have been valuable and they had the most desirable base: a secluded room upstairs level 3 between the turrets, where the aerial lines were stretched prominently.
The C, D and E streams covered ‘Agriculture’ (appropriate when seeing the scores of boys from the Southland hinterland disgorged from a fleet of buses each morning) and others on course to inherit farms, family businesses or head into trades and service industries. Rifle club, metalwork and woodwork etc. for these boys.
4B2 were considered outliers, a bit edgy, a bit quirky. Indeed the Accounting and Commercial Practice periods were established exclusively for the commerce stream. (remember this was before IT and computer studies.)
Of course, paramount were the elite sportsmen, they could come from any stream and had extraordinary privileges, so long as the school won inter-school competitions.
Back to that Friday afternoon. Weasel advised our class he had a task to do for 30mins. He put a classical album on the radiogram and said on his return we’d be subjected to a test on the recording. Typical questions were: when did certain instruments take the solo? and he’d choose cor anglais, oboe, viola, french horn etc…(he may as well have quizzed us on Swahili, this was Friday pm and already our attention was coming on to weekend sports, activities, hobbies, socialising and girlfriends…)
As soon as Weasel departed, ‘TJ’ (Otautau farming family son, generous pocket money) whipped off the classical album and replaced it with his lunchtime purchase. Over the years we’ve debated what album it was. I’m sure it was Cream’s Wheels of Fire. Another thought it was Small Faces Ogdens NutGone Flake. I’m sure it wasn’t, because I’d certainly have remembered that unique fold-out cover. In any case the volume was cranked up and the conversation level went high too. The classroom door opened and in came “Greasy” Mr Will_ _ _ s the geography master from the next classroom. Volume down, order restored, but unfortunately Weasel returned just in time for Greasy to confirm his intervention.
‘Weasel’ mass caned the whole class of about 30 boys. Two strokes for the first 3/4 of boys and an additional stroke for the last quarter (as he had rightly predicted some boys thought he would be tiring towards their turn). It wasn’t so much the changing of the album Weasel was concerned about, rather that he expected discipline and that another master had to intervene!
These were the times of corporal punishment in schools. A sadistic, cruel practice that many masters relished and got satisfaction from. And implicated were many of the ‘prefects’ a training ground of neo-nazis if ever there was! They all seemed to delight in administering a system of punishment/detention. Transgressions included uniform abuse (socks down, not wearing your cap) riding your bicycle in the school driveways, running inside the school corridors, character building activities such as swearing, fighting, gambling (cards) sweepstake (weekend race meeting picks etc., though I always though we 4B2 boys could defend the last two as ‘commerce education;” and the dreaded random personal locker inspection: the seek-out of illicit items. Rest assured ‘Playboy’ was of far too high currency to be left in any locker! (Big glossy photo advertisements of Marantz amps, Altec Lansing speakers etc.
)The final period on Friday afternoons was always in your Form room with your Form master. Ours was ‘Norm’ Mr N.P.H. Jon_ _ s, a self-proclaiming war hero and our Accounting tutor. He was a real character, including in local body politics and later as an MP. He had learned of the mass caning before we got to the final period with him. He was positively ‘glowing’ that his class were cementing our upstart status (reflected his own outlook) and chuckling hard, his comment was “If you don’t learn through your ear, you’ll learn through your rear“
I wonder where that Cream LP ended up…?
"I see music as a lifetime affair." [Rory Gallagher]
