Wick High School Reunion Pages

Do you remember ………. teachers’ nicknames?

Why is it that we as children, felt compelled to give nicknames to teachers?

I know that the practice of giving people nicknames didn’t start with our generation.   My grandmother used to amaze me with some of the nicknames used by her age group and it seemed to be the norm to have one. 

Sometimes teachers’ nicknames described temperament, sometimes appearance (I can hear your brains ticking over) and sometimes they made no sense at all.  Sometimes the person’s real name was merely mispronounced and turned into something slightly more unsavoury.

Sorry to disappoint you all, by not naming names and involving myself in a slander case.  Just let your minds drift back through the years and the nicknames will come flooding back.

One teacher at Wick High School was known as Cannon.  Very occasionally, we addressed her by the name of Miss T…, usually in the form of “Sorry, Miss T…”.  This apology would be closely followed by 6 lashes of the belt if you were lucky and more if you weren’t.  OK, maybe I exaggerate slightly, but I never remember her giving less than 2 lashes and boy did she get plenty of practice.  Anyway this is not the main point of my tale, although the belt seems to be a recurring theme in people’s memories.

The new entrants to Wick High had started and I was now in the second year.  We had been back to school for about 3 weeks, long enough for pupils to remember teachers’ names, but perhaps not.

There was a knock on the classroom door and young Derek who had started 3 weeks earlier, came in the room.  “Please sir, is Alan  M*** in this class?”.

“Yes, why?” says Mr ???.

 “Miss, Miss, Miss……. mmm?? ..…CANNON wants to see him”.

Unfortunately, I have the same problem as young Derek, because for the life of me, I can’t remember Mr ???’s name.  Sanny Cod is the only name that comes into my mind.