AP and the young whippersnapper

We went to see Dad this afternoon.

He has a 'significant' birthday in August, which is whilst we are away. He has organised a 'surprise' party for himself for after we return, but I was determined that he would have his present before we left for Spain, so that I knew he had it, and a card, on the day.

I'm hoping he likes the present. It was a fairly significant investment!
Anyway, whilst there, James showed AP his end of school report. To reciprocate, Dad rooted out his school reports to show James - how different they are. Dad's was just a table of grades with single word comments, and, horror upon horror, a 'position in class' (ranking) for every subject! Jeepers - we'd get hung from on high, by our toenails if we did that now.

Dad also shared stories of his school days, some of which I didn't know. James was particularly tickled to hear of the boy, who when he was told to bend over at the front of the class (to receive a slippering), said "But Sir, I'd rather be slippered than that". This apparently reduced my Dad and all of his classmates to giggling wrecks, which resulted in the whole group being lined up and slippered.

I also now understand my Dad's reaction when, in the sixth form, myself, my friend Dani and a number of the other girls were 'suspended' for a number of days because we missed a lesson. At the time, I was expecting a rocket from my Dad, but he was actually (along with Dani's mum) more p***ed off at the Headteacher and couldn't understand the logic of suspending a group of girls who had missed a lesson. Surely he said (at the time) it would make more sense for them to be required to sign in to every lesson, not miss more of them. The irony was that we were sat at Dani's house revising and doing coursework, being given brews by Dani's mum, at the time of the lesson that we missed. It wasn't like we were chavving it round town.

SO you can imagine my glee and delight when Dad told me this afternoon that he was suspended in the Fifth form for having too many absences from school. Apparently, my Grandad's reaction was similar to my Dad's when it happened to me, and Grandad left the office shaking his head at the stupidity of it. What's more - Dad's absence was honest - he and a number of friends were absenting themself to go and study in Manchester library because they were bored in school and weren't being stretched.

Made me laugh even more to find out that Dad went on to get the best results in the year and was awarded the Fifth form prize at the school presentations at the Free Trade Hall. Dad said he had the last laugh, by turning up in jeans so tight he could barely walk, wearing winklepickers with big cuban heels, his school shirt and hat! However it turns out that the headteacher actually got the last laugh, because the book that Dad had requested as his prize was deemed to be too advanced for him (?!?!?) and so he was given something else.

So, James was filled with giggles at Dad's stories and I am starting to realise that life turns in circles sometimes - I wonder what my story will be to James' children!? Both James and I were also shown a slide-rule and shown how to use it - I have never seen one before. Quite cool really.