Sounds Like A Brush Off

These blackmailing chore deals may even have included the polishing of the school shoes (A regular Sunday afternoon experience and one which few children seem to do nowadays), which was one chore, none of us enjoyed that much but, as we had to make our shoes last, it was an important one. And in those days, there was morning school assembly and inspection. Yes, if the shoes were not cleaned and shining, the nuns may decide that after morning parade, your name would appear on the list of children requiring that second form of punishment (physical). Do you think the nuns were preparing themselves for their afterlife? When they may be called upon to relieve for St Peter at the ‘Pearly gates’ (heaven*). Checking the names of the good off the roll? Regardless, the shoes had to be cleaned properly, and for us, they had to be really cleaned, as, with our long walk to school (no car remember), we didn’t want to scuff them on the way there. I was sure our mother generally knew we had been blackmailed when we set down to do the school shoes and then, ‘happily’ did our siblings as well. Sometimes, of course, this would lead to the ‘beans being spilt’ and the questions would be asked as to why I was so ‘happily’ cleaning my sister’s or brother’s school shoes? Then as the story would come out…. So followed the truer retribution from mother (if we were lucky), or, if the matter was more serious, then unfortunately father was brought in to the situation and made aware of what may have occurred.

This undoubtedly was what we had wished most to avoid, because, the following punishment issued / administered by our father, would usually include a penalty for trying to hide the incident, or for simply not informing the parent when the original incident had occurred. If it was really serious, sometimes the ‘blackmailer’ could also receive a punishment, for not coming forward anyway. It was sort of a lose/lose situation. So sometimes our mother kept ‘mum’ (thank you) and allowed us to ‘happily’ clean the other’s shoes.

So between we siblings we were able to effectively operate our own psychological warfare. Threats, promises and intimidation. All seem to have been a part of our family life. All for a good cause of course (survival). But having experienced many different levels of fear, and (as I was relating), having been released by the two showies, the windmill now back on the stall to be sold as it had been intended, I was left to move away from these two fearsome individuals and this antagonised gathering of citizens. To leave the scowls of disappointment of the members of the public, and the sneers of the two showies, and make my way back into the crowd and hide my tears as I traversed other happier people at the street fair. I felt truly admonished and still frightened of my possible fate, as I made my way along the road past the excited ‘honest’ members of the public until suddenly a hand fell on my shoulder.

(Continued tomorrow)
The pearly gates is another common name for the ‘gateway to Heaven’ Inspired by the description in the Book of Revelation 21:21. The twelve gates to ‘New Jerusalem’ were twelve pearls, each gate being made from a single pearl. (No wonder they think camels can fit through the eye of a needle, if people (the spirit of) are supposed to fit through a pearl. That’s some data compression).