When I was little

I thought that didn't look right in my post - should've been high jinks...

I loved reading boarding school stories, but the boarding schools in fiction were as remote to me, who was at boarding school, as Hogwarts would have been.

The girls, the teachers and the schools came from a fictional world that certainly I could not relate to. But fairy stories are always enjoyable.

I watched "The Silver Sword" which was serialised on the TV, and remember crying when the children had to leave their little dog behind on an island.

It was many years later that I read the book to my son but, for me, it didn't pack the same punch as watching it on the TV.

I loved The Four Marys in Bunty and imagined myself having a wonderful time at boarding school - midnight feasts in the dorm and all that. In reality, I would have hated it as I was a real homebody and a bit of a wimp (still am).

The Jennings and Darbyshire boarding school stories were a pretty good preparation for the real thing. And I learned all the basics of sailing from Arthur Ransome, an author I never quite gave up.

Of course, being a grandfather means I can indulge in Brio wooden railways and Lego again, for the first time since my DDs were young.

That is definitely the bast bit about being a Grandparent, you get to play with toys again he he {smile]

sorry about bad spelling and problem with smile--it is 25 past 12 am

that's my excuse and I am sticking to it

I would also have been devastated if I had been sent away to boarding school, although I loved reading about the fictional ones.
Did anybody else play 'serial' games, where you carry on from day to day with your imaginary characters or adventures? My sister is nearly four years older than me, and she used to look after me when my mother was at work. She was excellent at inventing games, and we featured in them as the heroines and we had our villains - for some reason, our worst enemy was called Gwen Grant and we always defeated her. Now why would I remember that afer 60 years? Our 'chums' were called Hilary and Hazel. Of course, we were very good at games and in all the first teams (in fact, we were both completely unsporty).
We had few toys - apart from our poverty, not many were produced during the war. We used to use pillows as dolls and a favourite game was 'rescuing' them from the floor, which was the sea, and saving them on the bed, which was the lifeboat.
Kath was artistic and would make me whole families of dolls which she drew, and cut out from card, complete with outfits which had tabs to go over the shoulders.
All the children in the streets of terraced houses would play out in the evenings, games like 'Rally -oh' and 'Farmer, farmer'. The grannies would have their chairs put outside the door in summer and would watch us benignly. I don't remember any parents taking part in any activities with their children, but the older girls were very good at organising us, and taking us to the park with some jam 'butties' and a bottle of water.

The girls played skipping games and 'two balls' against the wall, there was a rope swing on the lamp-post and we made houses , setting out the rooms with the bricks and slates left from the rubble where a whole street had been demolished in the blitz. The boys seemed to have little imagination and would spoil our games out of boredom. I don't remember many football games - perhaps none of them could afford a ball.

grumppa, I LOVED Arthur Ransome, from the time I was given Swallows and Amazons for my 10th birthday. After reading it all I wanted to do was learn to sail, which I did when I went to university. Met DH at university sailing club and the rest, as they say, is history.

Greatnan, most parents make the decision to send children to boarding school with a heavy heart, my DF was in the army and we were always on the move. I went to 8 primary schools, still managed to pass the 11+ and was then at my first grammar school for 2 terms before DF was posted back to England. When we returned DP decided that the only way I and my sisters could get a proper education and pass O levels and A levels was to send us to boarding school.

They made the right decision because as we reached exam age DF was sent overseas again and we would have returned home 3 months before I did A levels and my sister did O levels. With all the problems of trying to find new schools doing the same exam board, same syllabuses and trying to transfer our exam registration from a school overseas to a school in England. At my school almost all the boarders were girls with peripatetic parents.

I wasn't criticising parents who have to send their children to boarding schools, Flickety. I know it is sometimes the best option. It would just have been terrible for me to be parted from my mother. My older brother and sister were evacuated to Blackpool from Salford during the blitz and they were so distressed that my mother just went and brought them home.
I do think that the nannies/prep school/boarding school regime that some wealthier parents use can result in adults who have difficulty in making relationships with the opposite sex. I went out with several ex-public school boys and they all had problems in understanding the nature of a normal man/woman relationship. Of course, they were all convinced that it had done them no harm, and planned to do the same for their own children. Only one had suffered so badly from bullying and forced homosexual behaviour that he said no son of his would be put in the same position.
Most other countries manage without boarding schools, just as they manage without grammar schools.

Reading annodomini's post, I had forgotten about the Katy books, my mum passed her's to me when I was about 7, I used to re read What Katy Did over and over. Later on when I was a bit older my mother gave me her original of Gone with the Wind, which I also loved. I wish I still had all my childhood books, particularly Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass which I remember were beautifully illustrated and although I have since bought them to read to my own children, when looking for these books I couldn't find any that were as good as mine. The only childhood book I still own is Wind in the Willows. The other two stand out favourites for me that others have mentioned were The Water Babies and Heidi.

I also loved Enid Blyton read all of hers, like Agatha Christie who I went on to when I was about 13. They were both of course of their time and their class. I don't believe in editing out things that would not be considered appropriate today. We wouldn't do it to say Shakespeare or Dickens, children can have it explained to them that attitudes have changed a lot since then and in many ways they reflect a bygone era and a piece of history. I say this as the granddaughter of a "swarthy foreigner" a much used phrase in many of Blyton's books, usually preceded by "suspicious!".

Greatnan I had forgotten until you mentioned cut -out dolls. I, too, used to draw and cut out dolls and the clothes for them with tabs on the shoulder. I used to make them for myself and my younger sisters. I also used to cut out "villages", make a flat plan of the houses and add tabs to the sides so that they would fold and stand in 3D when put together! Thanks for reminding me of that fond memory

Isn't it odd that we were never bored, in spite of having no expensive toys or gadgets, and certainly never looking to our mother to entertain us.

I used to read 'Bunty' and 'Judy' and fantasized about being one of The Four Marys.

Greatnan your sister sounds like a very kind and caring older sister - I'm sure I wasn't as nice to my younger sister, whom I had to drag around with me!

An interesting historical fact emerged from my daughter's cut out doll with cut out clothes. We were making clothes through the ages and looking the dresses up in books. We wondered why some of the clothes did not look right and then it dawned on us that it wasn't only the clothes that were changing as the years went by ,but the shape of the body underneath. Corsets, stays, bumrolls. fartgingales, crinolines all had a part to play.

Riverwalk, she was a second mother to me, and I am so glad that over the years I have been able to repay her in some way by taking her on holiday every year. We are totally unalike but that does not stop us loving each other dearly. I was very pleased to be able to introduce her to five of my good Gransnet friends in Manchester, where she lives.

What a contrast to the lives of many children today.

In the Family section of Saturday's Guardian there is an article "Should we fear the iNanny? Apparently children are increasingly being treated for screen addiction.

Go get it girl!!!!!!!!!!