I'm sure the teachers concerned
and especially the Head and
The Chairman of Governors
whose Mayor-making I went
to on behalf of school would
hope it is my learning to read
and write well enough to win
handwriting competitions as
well as pass public exams that
occupies my brain and heart, but
what sticks, really sticks to prompt
a torrent of recollections is the
reek of soap in the washrooms:
'twas a Carbolic Childhood mine.
(c) C J Heyworth September 2014
Mass conscription for Britain's Armed Forces in the two World Wars of the 20th. centrury scared the upper and middle classes to death about how unhygienic in their terms the "lower orders" were.
There were improvements after World War I, but over my lifetime (I was born along with lots of others in 1946 when our fathers had returned from fighting the War) getting the "lower orders" scrubbed and far more healthy (free school milk), and that regimentation of cleanliness for me is still represented by carbolic soap which stank so strongly in comparison to the Cussons Imperial Leather we used at home.
Of course there are other memories, often far pleasanter, but our remembered sense of smell is often the most vivid prompt to memory.