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a nurse in 60 or 61 |
“Bowels opened?”
A truly memorable quote from my 3rd year in 60-61 and my first in Halls House. It was uttered by a nurse to the first boy in our large dorm on the first floor when we were all qurantined thanks to a flu epidemic. Regarding that, we had as I recall THREE during my WHS years, but dating and describing them in detail is for another day.
Anyway, I think I knew by the 3rd form what a bowel was but had not heard it in the plural - or indeed used in this context. Had we ever needed for some strange reason to enquire or report on this occurrence to a peer it was not the terminology that would have automatically come to mind.
I will never forget that the first boy she asked replied: “I dunno, Miss.” This produced what I can only describe as a mini-snort of derision from the nurse - and an imperfectly-suppressed snigger from one or two other boys. The nurse then gave an alternative wording that I will assume you can imagine. She got an answer from the boy (I can’t remember who it was - will he out himself?!!), took his temperature and passed on to the next one, who even if he hadn’t known before what the question meant certainly did by then. I seem to recall everyone reporting that their bowels had indeed opened, for which no doubt the nurse was as relieved as the rest of us.
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