Steering clear

I learned about not doing up the bottom button on my waistcoat .. We wore the uniform all day and every day .. When the weather got cold we had to buy old Army or Air Force greatcoats because it wasn't allowed to have a winter jacket that didn't cover the tails.

I had been afraid of Manson, just like everybody else. None of us felt sure enough about ourselves that he could not find a chink in our armor and dig in with whatever sharp words he could find.

But lately I'd noticed that his spell over me was growing tired .. It seemed that the best way to pay back Manson's waterfall of constant mockery was to give him only silence in return .. Slowly, he began to understand, and I never had trouble again from Manson.

Paul Watkins
Stand Before your God
  An American Schoolboy in England
Faber & Faber, Ltd, 1993©