Bravery in Numbers

This is one of my favourite pictures of me and my sister Jenny. Can you guess which one is me? Aren't these t-shirts hilarious? And the groovy pants of course.

I was thinking today about when I was a kid at St. Marks C of E school back in the 70's. When we had our injections (vaccines), a school nurse did us all in one big swoop. We lined up in the linoleum corridor and took it in turns going into the office shaking with fear for our big shot in the arm. After you got your shot you came out wincing at all the other kids in line, rubbing your arm and saying "it WRECKED!" then you walked off laughing as they all grasped their arms in anticipation and fear. I'm not sure if it was the same nurse or not, but we had one lady that made us all line up and she checked us for nits. We used to call her "Nitty Nora the Bug Explorer". Do they still do group injections at school in the UK, or is it more like America now where you take your child on their own to a doctor's office?

The reason this was on my mind is that Jack had his 4-year doctors visit today and they gave him an injection after I had told him specifically that he wouldn't get one. In my defense they did spring it on us. He was a brave soldier but couldn't use his arm afterwards unless it involved reaching for ice-pops or swinging on monkey bars. His statistics were odd: 43-inches tall and weighing 43 lbs. One pound for every inch! Tonight as I put his PJs on (him, not me), he told me glumly not to touch the band-aid covering the shot mark on his arm. I said "does it wreck?" and he looked at me like I was a martian. You obviously had to be there.