sometime later our friend W was called out to the front, and the procedure was repeated — well, almost. Of course, he was wearing long trousers. Mr M wasn’t amused: he opened his desk drawer, pulled out a leather belt, and gave W a hefty whack on the backside. It was hard enough that W’s eyes were watering as he went back to his seat.
News spread, of course. One of the boys who saw the event commented “He pulled it right back”; another, older, boy was overheard in the playground remarking “Did you hear that W got the strap from M yesterday?”
That became the rule in Mr M’s class. Disobedience (not very common) was rewarded with a hard whack. But the belt was also used for lateness — unlike most lessons, which were in our form room, we had to go to a special room for geography. Typically half-a-dozen boys would be late for a lesson, and they’d each get a comparatively gentle whack with the belt.
