what struck you or rather what struck me
as a person was just the sense of discipline
that was there because we were looked after
by junior NCOs.
They were the course instructors and things.
My junior NCO at the time,
I remember his name very well
was a young man called Corporal Stangroom.
And the first thing they did was call out names,
so, so and so, so and so,
and everyone yeah, up here
and I think when he got to my name,
he stopped because my surname is just complicated
and straightaway I thought that must be my name
and he looked at me
and said well, I can't pronounce your name,
I'm gonna call you Hopscotch.
Do you have a problem with that?
And I thought no, not really
because at the time I didn't think quickly enough
to say do I have a problem with him
calling me Hopscotch?
No.
And I thought back to the fact
that actually in my own country
people struggle to pronounce my surname,
so I've never really had hangups on my surname
'cause some people do
and then from then on,
I was actually called by people who joined up with me
at that time, the majority of them used to call me Hops.
