Our eldest son did Correspondence
Schooling with me for a short while when we lived on the mine. He did very well
but really needed the sporting and academic challenges of other classmates. We
weren’t happy with the idea of boarding school, so applied for and got a
transfer to a town where there were good schools.
It was several years later, after more moves
within Rhodesia, that we felt the political temperature rising higher than it
had ever been. Like many thousands of others, we moved South, taking with us minimal
assets.
I remember a chant from my junior
schooldays, we used it frequently when we were being bullied: Sticks and stones can break my bones, but
words can never harm me.”
Recalling
that chant now, the sticks and stones (and bullets) certainly harmed thousands.
The
vitriolic words certainly drove people out of the country.
But
the words I had written had already been captured by a publishing house, and
the resultant income became available in South Africa.
Another interesting anecdote, Patricia, and one to make us think. I know we used to chant that little rhyme a lot during my school days but I was never too certain of the truth of the matter. Words live on in our memories far longer than physical hurts unless they are very extreme it seems. You have had a very varied life for one reason or another. Plenty of grist for the writing mill.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ann. I wonder how many of those old chants have lived on and are still being used. I see in Wikipedia that it was reported to have appeared in 1862 in an African Methodist Episcopal Church publication. In my entry above I used 'can' but of course 'will' is the correct form.
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