Marche Militaire and the big bass drum

I first went to Cranbourne Rd Infants School in 1942, my mother took me, as my father was in the army in the Far East, I did not see him until I was eight years old, when he came home at the end of the war. It is strange how the memory works, I cannot remember the name of a single teacher in the infants school only the Head Mistress Ms Pool. For the first couple of weeks my mum took me to school but I soon teamed up with Peter Dolman who became my “best friend” and who lived in Crayford Rd which was just round the corner from where I lived in Hurlingham Rd, as we walked to school we would meet with others and chat we were a very happy group. We were always early for school and would play in the playground until the bell sounded, we would then line up in front of our teacher who would then march us into class, where she would call the register. She then marched us into the big hall youngest at the front oldest at the back, the whole infants school assembled we sang a hymn,recited the lords prayer and Ms Pool would tell us about things going on in the school. When this was over a teacher played a gramophone record, for us to march out to it was always the same record “Marche Militaire” by Schubert, back in our class the learning began. Our abc’s and our numbers and learning to write. Our teacher would read us a story, to be continued next day. The commands ” sit up straight arms folded” ” Heads Down ” we would all lie across our desks with our heads resting on our arms, if I did this today I’d be asleep in minutes. Pupils would bring in bunches of flowers for the teacher who would put them in vases around the room and on Friday she would offer them to pupils to take home it was a highly sought after prize. Another lesson I enjoyed was music, for this we went into the big hall where there was a piano,and a “band box” this contained an assortment of musical instruments, castanets, tambourines, drums, cymbals, triangles and a big bass drum, as I was a big boy I often got to play the big drum, I also liked the cymbals they also made a loud noise. Another aspect of our music lessons was singing, although I had a croaky voice I enjoyed singing ” the British Grenadiers, Men of Harlech, the Ash Grove” and many more, our teacher would help us by playing the piano, which helped keep us in tune. As I progressed through the infants I was given the job, with other boys, as a milk monitor. A milk lorry would reverse up the drive to the school and we would help the driver off load his delivery of milk crates. Each pupil was given a Gill of milk morning and afternoon, a gill was a quarter of a pint, our job as milk monitors was to carry the crates, two each classroom. I enjoyed my years in the infants and cannot remember any unhappy times there