Never knew the end of a belt until aged 7; I got belted on the hands by the Head Nun at Boarding school - for not remembering the quoted passage from the Bible.
I remember holding out my hands in front of the class whilst the Head teacher came down full force with the vigour of a captain wishing to instill ‘workmanship’ discipline into my very being.
Learning ‘word for word’ passages from the bible to then recite in front of the class wasn’t something I took to naturally. Aged 7, the adrenalin certainly got the better of me and my mind went completely blank - as a blank slate. Tried as I could, I daren’t say out loud, ‘I did do my homework, I did learn the passage I had to learn’ but the words couldn’t come out. They got stuck in my throat.
No, but I felt the pain of that belted tremor and I remember my nose running and felt awkward tears rolling down my cheeks, as I silenced my mouth into not admitting that I did learn that passage; I did do my homework:
I daren’t cry out loud. The pain was awful. I didn’t think it was fair.
NB. In all fairness, the Head Nun was fair in many ways - but as the Bible was her forte, it meant a lot to her that we treated it with the respect and reverence it thoroughly deserved. Hence her stance on the matter at that moment.
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