General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Peter, I am with you there.

I got viciously caned: great purple welts across my backside for a week, and they bled and became infected and I had to have treatment at Wigan Infirmary.

Although feint, the marks are still visible all these decades later.

My offence: Not wearing my school cap!

It had been stolen. Whether deliberately to get me the whack, I have no way of knowing.

But it was within FOUR weeks of me leaving school: I was certainly not going to waste any money buying a new school cap, and refrained from just nicking someone else's cap.

The teacher concerned is damned lucky that I did not encounter him any time in the future: I am sure I would have taken my revenge.