Those were the Days! I copied this from a recent Probus mag. ( author unknown) So very true.

Dickens

Exactly

There are so so many amazing things about the past but beating children?

It's just off putting

I did share what I loved about my childhood though

"A Bit of Australian Nostalgia!!"

nanna8 some of the tales I've heard from friends and family about life in 1950s outback Australia would make the hair curl of some on here!!

I must admit I take a certain pleasure in exploring these kinds of trips down memory lane.

I have actually read some really amusing observations about the antics that the older generation got up to when they were kids, the risks they took and the trouble they caused for their parents and community. And I think we can all remember things we did - adventurous, daring things, with hilarious results.

But the OP just didn't tickle any ribs for me - because it was so obviously a dig and completely lacked the subtlety that makes these "those-were-the-days" recollections funny.

And once you get into the territory of whacking kids - I presume a 'strap' is a belt (to teach them discipline and 'respect') - that's when it becomes obvious that this is not a humorous little recollection of times past. It's just a bit of propaganda, basically.

I think I can suffer the accusations of having had a humour bypass. It's nostalgic nonsense.

Oh dear!! Isn't it so sad and depressing when someone tries to amuse us and gets slapped brutally down by the GN miseries. Can I say " thank you nanna8. I enjoyed it!"

Moot!

I think a lot depended on your parents, the school and the perception that life was safer (whether it was or not is a mot point).

Unless we had a dreadful childhood I think most people look back on those days with rose-tinted spectacles because we had no responsibilities, except to ourselves to pass our exams, do well at school. I think the pressure that children seem to have these days is far more than we had.

Of course, they may look back in years to come and see it differently..

It's not saying life wasn't great, it's just the parts these share thingies think we're great... that actually weren't

I feel really sorry for the lady who started this “lighthearted” thread. It was high jacked early on by the ‘oh no it wasn’t’ group. I grew up in the 40s and 50s. College in the sixties. I know all aspects of life then and with my own children and grandchildren, life as it is now. Rough and smooth all the way.40s, 50s, 60s etc up till now. I prefer to dwell on the good bits.

Absolutely no idea what you are talking about

Is it some sort of hazing?

Did I pass?

Callistemon
No, I didn’t. My teacher had a sadist sidekick who took pleasure rapping down the back of the head with his knuckle if you were sent out of the class and told to face the wall.
My teacher used the cane and the slipper. The sick bastard had names for them and made you say thank you if he used them on you.

VioletSky

I'm 48 and old enough to be grandmother by quite a way

Is that OK? Or is there an initiation I'm missing? Like a blue rinse?

This bit?

VioletSky

Ah well

We have to keep gransnet current and appeal to younger grans right? Otherwise it's all doomed to 1 games thread and and 1 everlasting argument about Harry and Megan

Sorry, what part of it didn't I understand?

Why put words into my mouth and twist my meaning and just quote bits thus leaving out the context callistermon?

What do you get out of it?

MerylStreep

Callistemon
id have been in there like a shot
My mother did. Last year of junior school the teacher hit me so hard round the head my glasses went flying.
At lunchtime some of the kids went home for lunch. One of them told my mum what had happened.
We were all in class after lunch break and in charged my mum.
She grabbed him by the shirt and whacked him hard round the head.
He was moved to another school where he hit a child so hard he went to prison for assault.
I was just grateful my dad was at sea because he would have taken him apart 😱

Did you watch DNA Journey with Johnny Vegas, MerylStreep?

One of his ancestors was hit so hard across the head by a teacher that he lost 60% of his hearing 😲

The case was taken to court by the brave parents (Johnny's Gt-Grandparents and it was the 1930s) they won the case and a precedent was set but it took until 1987 until corporal punishment in schools was abolished by law

VioletSky

Ah well

We have to keep gransnet current and appeal to younger grans right? Otherwise it's all doomed to 1 games thread and and 1 everlasting argument about Harry and Megan

So completely out of touch
Who - all of us except you?

We have to keep gransnet current and appeal to younger grans right?
No, we have to appeal to all.

It's a chat thread and one of those daft "Those were the days" anecdotes that appear from time to time that we know aren't necessarily true.

Ah well

We have to keep gransnet current and appeal to younger grans right? Otherwise it's all doomed to 1 games thread and and 1 everlasting argument about Harry and Megan

It is sad that so many of you have bad memories of childhood. I must have been very lucky. We were not rich but always had good food, fruit and veg from the garden and allotment, with meat rarely. We had no processed food apart from sausages and all was cooked beautifully by my mother. Loads of friends of all ages in our street where we played safely getting plenty of exercise. Our school was staffed in the main by teachers who were interested and interesting. We all attended the nearest school a fifteen minute walk away.so no angst about ‘getting
a place’. The 11+ did mean that half the kids did not get such a good deal and also we had rationing. Girls and boys remained unconscious of their looks. My grand daughter has so many worries about her looks, weight and friendships she is often unhappy.
All in all it is swings and roundabouts. My upbringing was far healthier than that of many young people today but I do know I was lucky. However my parents did not expect further education to be necessary for a girl.

😁

Still younger than my DC!
If she'd been smacked at school I'd have been furious.

I'm longing to dye my hair purple Violet but it refuses to go grey.

Callistemon
id have been in there like a shot
My mother did. Last year of junior school the teacher hit me so hard round the head my glasses went flying.
At lunchtime some of the kids went home for lunch. One of them told my mum what had happened.
We were all in class after lunch break and in charged my mum.
She grabbed him by the shirt and whacked him hard round the head.
He was moved to another school where he hit a child so hard he went to prison for assault.
I was just grateful my dad was at sea because he would have taken him apart 😱

I'm 48 and old enough to be grandmother by quite a way

Is that OK? Or is there an initiation I'm missing? Like a blue rinse?

What vomit-inducing nonsense. I cringed so hard I think I strained something.

Actually these kind of posts do make me laugh

Just at them, not with them

So completely out of touch

Can't we have nostalgia about the things that were genuinely wonderful, like being able to give a small donation and traipse around a castle all day?

Like when you could actually see the sea bottom and didn't have to wade through oily mud to get to it?

Like when the air was so clear you thought you could see for 100s of miles?

Like when sweets were 2 for half a penny or you could buy a quater of sweets and feel like you won the lottery?

You know, all the things that were actually genuinely not harmful in any way to mental and physical health?

FannyCornforth

Violet you were at school mainly during the 1980s, you are a few years younger than me I believe.
I don’t think that your memories of school (beatings?) tie in with most others on here

I think Violetsky is younger than many Gransnetters' children.

If my children had been beaten at school I'd have been in there like a shot.

I was hit once at school and can still feel the injustice of it. No-one was ever hit at my senior school although it was very strict.
I was never smacked at home either although I do remember once when I was about 16 and unbearably rude to my mother, it came as the most enormous shock.

Bored? No, we played outdoors and it was always sunny from morning to night 🌞

Sigh!

Oreo

nanna8

What a bunch of miseries. No sense of humour, glad I don’t live there !

Sense of humour bypass I think.
I enjoyed your list btw.
Particularly the ‘we all knew that we had to accomplish something before we were allowed to be proud of ourselves’
😂

We are allowed a sense of humour that maybe doesn't chime with yours?

I didn't find it particularly amusing... partly because I'm pretty sure that whoever wrote it was aiming at another one of those look-at-the-snowflakes-today-compared-to-when-we-were-growing-up type of observations.

It could have been funny, but it was too... obvious.