I can’t remember a lot about my first day at JCS apart from a feeling of dread as the break drew nearer. This was the moment all first year boys dreaded – ‘Running the Gauntlet’!
The senior boys stood in parallel lines punching and kicking the newcomers as they exited into the playground. Despite the, seeming, brutality of the ‘sport’ it was taken in fun and I don’t recall anyone suffering any lasting injury. My uppermost emotion was to look forward to the time when I would be one of the ones dishing it out!
I wonder did the girls have any similar initiation ceremonies?
Another memory, not necessarily of my first day, was how awful school milk tasted!
To this day I drink very little milk and I am sure this is because I can still remember, and shudder, at the thought of those bottles of cow juice. In later years bottles of orange juice were introduced which were more drinkable – just! I think there was probably one orange per ten gallons of water!
Lance.