Recognising other Gransnetters

Thanks, Anagram, I will have a look on Amazon.
I think forcing girls (or boys) to take communal showers is abuse.

At my co-ed secondary modern as a well developed girl in my early teens I was always rather humiliated that we had to strip down to our ordinary knickers to do games with all the boys gawping and laughing out of the classroom windows. We used to get grabbed as we walked through the double doors and in the pool.

We could have done with a nun or two!

Lordy! At my second secondary school (comp) we had to strip off after PE and have showers..no cubicles just a row of showers! I was taught about menstruation, puberty and reproduction by a large matron at my Quaker boarding school. All very factual and matter of fact but a friend burst into tears and declared her parents would never do 'that', they just kissed!

Have any of you convent school ladies read 'Frost in May' by Antonia White?
I read it when I was about 14 and it has stayed with me ever since - a beautiful book, touching and tragic at the same time. How I felt for the main character!

Greatnan ...'What the hell was wrong with those people?' PLEASE don't get me started. My experiences at the convent, were the 'unmaking' of me.

There were absolutely no men in my convent school, except the caretaker who was about 70. Nevertheless, we had to go through the most ridiculous rigmarole when changing for PE in the communal changing room in the gym. We had to somehow get out of our blouse and skirt and into our one piece gym dress without showing a glimpse of our bra to any other girl.
Blimey, those nuns must have been highly sexed or frustrated if a flash of a bra on another girl was going to turn them into raging sex fiends.
We were not allowed to study biology at A-level because it covered human reproduction and the girls wanting to do medicine had to go out to Salford Tech. We were never even told about menstruation, and my mother shared the nuns' attitude to anything remotely connected with the body, so I got my health education from other girls and found out later that it was mostly wrong.
What the hell was wrong with those people? It was much better when I taught in a catholic high school in the 1970's - I was even allowed to talk about different methods of contraception, which was much appreciated by any of the mothers.

And what about having to wear a shift to have a bath in? Is that a myth?

Same her. Our nuns were ' the charity of st Vincent de Paul.' I think!

At the convent that I went to between the ages of 7 and 10, the nuns would insist that our hands were kept above the table at lunch time. Perhaps they thought that we would play with ourselves or our neighbours if our hands were not visible
Sorry to veer off the thread, but talk of nuns had me remembering!

Isn't it the case that nuns used to advise girls not to polish their shoes in case underwear was reflected in the mirror like surface?

Well I hope the shoes are not patent leather if your not wearing any knickers

I've always said "red shoes, no knickers", but with all the variations seen here it seems that anything red may mean that we're knickerless!

My mother's version was 'fur coat, no knickers'. Remember Mae West's reply when someone said 'My goodness, what a lovely mink'? 'Goodness had nothing to do with it.

(Annobel, I have sent you a pm)

Nonny

By the way, one of my favourite men, Robert Mitchum, is supposed to have said to his wife, when proposing, 'marry me and you'll fart through silk'. Romantic or what?

Just as long as the fur knickers werent made of pussy fur!

red dress, no knickers. used my my grandad's grandma, who also said to her 'son's intended - "tha'll ave many a cowd arse for want of warm petticoat if tha' marries im'!

I thought it was red shoes, no knickers. I'm rather partial to red shoes...

My great gran was a real (pathological) miser and she'd do anything to save money. I was told she once made herself some knickers out of an old fur coat and I've always wondered whether she turned the fur inwards or outwards.

I've only heard the phrase "All fur coat and no knickers", so perhaps that would cover us for the winter months?

Good idea.

Yes I've heard it in which case can be wait for the warmer weather before we go with the red hats?

I have just been catching up with this thread having been away for over a week.
I thought that I spotted a Gransnetter at the secc in Glasgow on 9th March at a spinning demonstration but I felt too shy to say anything incase I was wrong!!
By the way the red hat idea made me laugh- have you ever heard the saying "Red hat no knickers?!!!

Carol and Petallus That's better!

back at yer Petallus

Of course Carol I don't mean we are all the same. And I did put a grin by my comments.