I was about five or six when I had an accident at the tennis court.  It was back in the day when you had a winch system to put the tennis net up and down and I was playing with it and came too close and one of spokes that poked out for the net to wind up which hit me in the face. 

My front left tooth went flying off leaving a poor wee stump of tooth that bled profusely.  Another of those “put in the special vault memories” is of Dad carrying me at a run down to the dental nurse’s room before taking me to hospital where they operated and removed the rest of the tooth. 

Not a huge deal in the big scheme of things but it added to a lisp that I already had.  Because of the trauma to the gum, they were not sure I would ever grow a replacement front tooth.  It did eventually grow back but when it grew back, I regained the lisp I had just worked hard to get rid of. 

All in all, I had a pronounced lisp for about four years.  Keep in mind when your Mum is an actress who is now teaching speech and drama at two private schools and your dad is an actor who is now a breakfast DJ on radio having a lisp sucks … literally and figuratively. 

I did however get to sing “All I want for Christmas is a new front tooth” at the end of year assembly for a couple of years in a row which just proves that there is always a silver lining to everything.

I remember distinctly knowing that I didn’t really fit in at school and I happily acknowledge that this is a feeling most children experience.  I was a kid so I didn’t know that at the time and thought it was just happening to me.  I had one ace up my sleeve though and that was that I had an incredible imagination which meant I could think up the coolest games. 

I suspect I had more friends because of this than anything else.  I was also able to keep up with the boys when it came to playing sports or fooling around on the monkey bars.  I was really active and “play time” was definitely my favorite subject. I suspect during all that play I got rid of a lot of nervous energy and that potentially helped me pay a little more attention than I might otherwise have done in class.  Let your energetic or anxious kids run free for a bit and they will come back calmer. 

My first three years at Arthur Street School were a blur – I had three different teachers who were all women.  This was fairly typical for my generation and I think from memory there were only two male teachers at my school as well as a lovely man called Mr. Stevenson who was probably in reality about six feet tall but who to me appeared about twelve feet tall. 

Mr. Stevenson was our principal and the closest thing to a God that I had met at that point in my life.  I adored Mr. Stevenson and I think the entire school felt the same way because he had that thing that all those involved in the education system should possess but unfortunately don’t.  He truly adored children, he loved to watch them grow and develop and finally and possibly most importantly he celebrated that they came in various forms.  He encouraged us all to be just who we were and nothing more. 

Not all the kids that attended his school would become lawyers or doctors but he did ensure that all his kids would leave and become good people who knew right from wrong and treated others with respect.