The first reunion was five years ago. I hadn't seen the 'kids' for decades, and didn't recognise anyone. Even my best mate who visited me in Margate as my first teen-womanising buddy. Despite searching his face hard, I couldn't recognise a single feature about him. All these men looked too fat or too sick, too white-haired or bald.
But they all remembered me. Which made it even more embarrassing.
One tall man hugged me, then dropped his head on my shoulder and sobbed loudly for ages. I didn't even know who he was. After, he said he was so happy to see me alive. I'd been so ill as a child, he hadn't expected me to live beyond my 20s. I still can't remember who he was.
Luckily, despite being ill, I had a photographic memory, so easily passed exams – I could remember and read any topic, in any page, of any book.
My boarding school in Bury St Edmunds is historic. In the year 903 King Edmund's body was laid in the priests' college, part of the school.
Soon after, King Canute arrived. This wise Danish prince ruled Denmark, England, Norway, and Sweden. He is famous for sitting in his throne on a beach and trying to command the tide not to wet his feet - to show his courtiers he is not as all-powerful as God.
King Canute paid from his royal purse for boys to attend school. He even freed sons of slaves and paid for them to attend school too.
By the Royal Command of King Edward V1, in 1550 my school became a Royal School, the second “King Edward VI School” in England. It's now had that name for 450 years. Original school rules still exist:
- Rules for staff in 1550 AD
- Women like deadly plagues shall be kept at a distance.
- Teachers shall never advance to fresh subjects until earlier ones are thoroughly understood.
- The teachers shall appoint two boys called censors to note offences.
- The teachers shall secretly appoint a third boy to watch the other two and report to the master any offences overlooked or not noticed.
- Boys shall amuse themselves in decent sports such as the use of the javelin or archery.
- The privilege of recreation shall only be allowed on Thursdays and only then if the weather is fine and the work of the scholars justifies it.
- Rules for parents in 1550 AD
- You shall find your child sufficient ink, and candles for the winter.
- You shall allow your child a bow, three arrow shafts, bow strings and an arm guard to exercise shooting.
- School rules for the boys in 1550 AD
- Those who cannot read and write shall be excluded.
- Any boy misbehaving himself in any public place shall be flogged.
- Boys shall amuse themselves in decent sports such as the use of the javelin or archery.
- They shall speak Latin in school.
- Every boy shall have a knife (used to sharpen a feathered quill pen).
- When they have need to write, the boys shall use their knees as a table.
So in 1550 children attended school with bows and arrows. It hasn't changed much. In my school days, we attended with use of bren-guns and 303 rifles. Same thing, just more modern weaponry.
Previously I'd attended a Margate boarding school for "delicate children", a polite phrase for children in danger of death. Some children died.
Thank God my health improved, and I was seen as capable. So local government paid my boarding school fees to attend the minor public school, in the same way King Canute paid for poorer boys to attend this school over 1,000 years ago.
I was still too ill though. Friends were there, but not enough. Most of my energy was spent staying alive. Healing and love hadn't entered by thoughts. I wasn't 'cured' by a healer until many years later.
Inevitably I was bullied for being a sick child. Thank God the bullies had no bows and arrows, and no bren guns or rifles.
School bullies should be shunned. They damage psyche that needs healing later in life. But what when school bullies grow up, and meet kids they bullied when a child? Should the bully apologise? Or should we imagine they've learned a lesson, and moved on with love?
Luckily, I've moved on with love, and school bullies weren't at the reunion. But if they had been, I would have sent love to them anyway. They might need love too...