General Chat

I remember slates...........we learned to do italic joined up writing.....thin lines up and thick lines down..........Have terrible writing now......

We spent a whole term making one pair of cotton knickers by hand ,grubby by the end if term..........dainty little stitches or they were ripped out............

Some very good stuff there. Any of the fellows remember 'highest up the wall'. Being made to stand in a corner; Believe it or not we used to walk to school - on our own. Again for the older ones, whenever a warship went down (Hood etc) we used to sing 'eternal father strong to save.......' the next morning. Very sad looking back, but it was popular hymm and quite emotive in an innocent way. Happy days

Harry I was sat in asembly on monday - primary school - and the head was waffling on about things that 'keep us safe'. Children were putting up hands and offering suggestions. One little chap, about 10 said 'the air raid siren'!! lol head trying hard not to laugh explained that the kid had been learning about WW2. Best assembly in weeks lol Claire

Good story indeed - but that is one thing that we don,t want brought back, and there are not too many of those in my old eyes. thanks for sharing the tale, claire. Margaret, so sad that sinking. Stella, re below. Wasn,t that cod liver oil awful? they used to hold our noses to make us swallow. Happy days

I loved junior school. I remember queuing up for a spoonful of Cod-liver oil and Malt and the teacher holding out the spoon and plopping it into our mouths. I loved it! Later they changed it to capsules which I hated.

Sorry - just remembered another one at junior school. We had a coal fire in the classroom and the caretaker used to bring the bottles of milk up in a crate and in the Winter used to stand it in the hearth to warm up - ugh!

stella, I used to be given a spoonful of cod liver oil every morning before school, this was done at one of the childrens homes I was in. never given it at any of the others. jean

Jean, can you believe I love cod-liver oil - when we had the capsules at school I hated them, but once I realised it was OK to bite them I loved them!

i remember the 'milk boys' having to go to a local farm mid-morning to collect the two small milk churns. The village pond was on route and in winter the teacher always said - keep off the pond. One day he bawled them out for being late back and said 'You've been on that pond, haven't you?' For years we really did think he had eyes in the back of his head, which could see everywhere (he always claimed he had.) Now i realise he didn't - it was the wet clothes that let the lads down. Jay

1951 ~ 1953.......'The Tin School', otherwise known as St Malacheys.........we called it the tin school because there was more corrugated tin than brickwork....used to have to drag my brother and cousin Susan there every day. Burgess St school juniors, hated music lessons (love music now), couldn't play anything so got stuck with triangle, or tambourine. Once in singing lessons, the teacher got so frustrated with the paltry efforts we were putting in she screamed at us to SING....more than ever! At that time there was a song doing the rounds........so called, Everyone began singing 'More than ever......more than ever, I love you.........' Anyone remember that one lol???? still pmsl every time I think about it! Senior school, loved art, came top every year Ahem....Teachers pet lol...Headmaster had one of my paintings framed and hung in his office. Won several certs..........for them, still have two surviving. Loved sports too but refused to play in the nationals for the school....too embarrassed about the bottle green knickers.....bad enough showing them off to the boys in school, didn't need to sport them to the nation lol.... Lin

So, the old teachers DIDN,T have eyes in the back of their head. don,t believe that. anyone remember the school dinners - large portions of black in the mashed potatoes? Lyn - good tale. I was teachers pet - she kept me in a cage in the ..... Happy days

I remember being very frightened at Infant School when the teacher shouted at me for drying my face on a roller towel. She told me I could catch infantile paraysis(polio) that way. Also remember how difficult it was for left-handers to use the ink well which was always in the top right corner of the desk. It helped if sitting on right hand side of double desks IF and only IF the other person would let you share theirs!

Harry, remember after the war........don't know where your from but, in Manchester, whenever a plane came over, after the war, all the kids would rush out onto the street screaming Aerra, Aerra, bomb, bomb, bomb. as though expecting a bomb to drop on them. It was good entertainment to my peer group, just having missed living through the terrors, and I don't think one halve of us knew exactly why we were doing it, being naive children, we just saw it as a new game to play. Lin

Exactly, Lyn. I was 18 miles from you and with the same scenario. looking up to the sky, 'is it one of ours or one of theirs' etc. Thank you hilary. Remember the scare. Happy days

Remember school dinners? For afters we used to sometimes have 'frogspawn' (tapioca). I really believed it WAS frogspawn!

As we live about 4 doors away from the school, when i was about 3 i went missing, was found in the school nobody had noticed me!!!!!!!!!!!!! My mother always told me i would be able to go to school ' One Day' Well when i did had a fab time, next day mum woke me up to get me ready for school( shock horror) Told her i had done my 'one Day') Headmaster had to come to the house and explain to me that i had to go every day. I was the one that took round the Cod Liver Oil Capsuls and would eat most of them. Friday afternoons the headmaster would read a story to the whole school over the tanoy. Ann

On my 1st day at school when I was 5 yrs old I went home at morning playtime - walked all the way on my own because I thought it was time to go home - also I wet myself because I was afraid to ask the teacher where the toilets were.

Ooooh those schooldays.......

Infants class memories -
had chalk and a slate to learn numbers and letters, later we got pencil & paper.
Outside toilets, with a really tiny one for the infants. Didn't like the paper, that Izal stuff...I asked my Mum why they put greaseproof paper there for our bums!

Milk was frozen in winter, warm in summer...2 of us were picked each week to bring the crate from the school gates, sometimes found holes in the tops where the birds had tried to get the cream - imagine the scare over bird flu now!! Elf 'n safety?!!
We had a little cardboard box on our desk with our name on the top, this was to keep our pencil and exercise book in.
Had prayers in class every morning, and every 'home time'.
Knickers and vest for PE in the hall.

I used to get peanut butter sandwiches every day for my lunch - Mum worked at Maconichies factory and got the bashed tins cheap so we had loads of the stuff. It didn't come in jars yet!
We all walked to school, how else would we get there???

Primary school memories...
still walked to school, and remember the school closing when it snowed and the pipes burst. School dinners were ok, my favourite was roast or chips! Hated, just hated that frogspawn and the semolina, liked the choc sponge pudding with pink custard.

Assembly in the hall every morning. Teacher slapped me after one morning assembly as I hadn't shut my eyes during the Lords prayer.....I ask you!
Sewing lessons, always on gingham or a piece of orange felt, we made pin cushions or tray cloths. The teacher was an absolute b***h, if your stitches were a millimetre too big she'd scream at you 'what are these girl, elephant's teeth?'. Same teacher took us for singing lessons, and used to scream at us 'listen to the cats chorus'.

The nit nurse, aka Nitty Nora! Poor woman, got called all sorts of things, none of them nice.
I remember learning 'joined-up writing' and then on to the dip nibs and powdered ink, always had blue fingers, whether I was ink monitor or not! And there was always fluff in the bottom of those little ink wells!

Loved Friday afternoons when it was story time, I remember listening to the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, amongst others. I loved reading, still do, but equally loved having a story read to me.
Sports day, I was always good at running so got picked for the county...and won the cup.

Grammar school.
Had to get the bus as it was 10 miles away. Teachers wore flowing black gowns, some of them quite scary. One teacher would often throw chalk or even the board rubber at you, if you weren't paying attention.

Hated sports teacher and my love of sports hit rock bottom due to evil witch lesbian teacher (didn't know what it was then, but understood the evilness of her!). We wore navy culottes and a white airtex shirt, hockey was ok though, and rounders was good. Swimming was in an open air pool, it was f.f.fffffreeezing.

Assembly every morning, and as we filed in, the music teacher would have a classical record playing - guess that's where my love of classical comes from. We'd start off with a hymn then the Headmaster would drone on about goodness knows what and we'd sing another hymn. Then a 6th former had to read from the bible ...the lesson today is from Luke, chapter 5 etc etc.

Had a wonderful Biology teacher, he'd take us on trips to the local dairy farm, water works, sewage farm, fruit picking, all sorts.
Had a wonderful English teacher too, full of verve and enthusiasm. Still love poetry because of those days.

End of year school dance.....woooooh, had my first crush, he was 4 yrs above me, and it lasted til he left in the 2nd year 6th. He didn't even notice my existence, even at the age of 14 I still looked about 8!!

Happy happy days, though didn't appreciate that at the time.

Thanks again girls... lovely memories - fluff in the ink-wells. Remember when I first went to school - 'we break up in a fortnight'. really thought it was literal. You modern 'oldies' keep going on about cod liver oil capsules -get the liquid stuff down you. Remember syrup of figs, although not exactly a school topic. Threading the milk bottle tops onto string? Happy days