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

Lizbethann55. Saturday TV was filled with sport during the day, it used to bore me to tears too. ( still does really)😉
We had chips at school on Fridays with fish or sometimes as an accompaniment to a ham salad with a freshly made bread roll: yum!

I had a lovely childhood. I played out all day. We took our bikes to the park and played on the swings. The same park that I would never have let my children go to on their own. Mum never knew exactly where I was, but it was in one or other of several local houses. When I was older I went to the local youth club and walked home on my own at 10.00pm. Wouldn't let children today do that. I got smacked by mum if I was naughty. But never beaten or at school. I ate the meals mum cooked, or didn't. If I wasn't playing outside I was reading or doing jigsaws.. I chalked on the pavements and played hopscotch, because there were no cars parked on them. We played cricket down the middle of the street, because there was so little traffic. At school I learnt the Lord's Prayer and still know the words of the hymns we sang. Our headmaster played a piece of classical music while we walked into assembly and told us about it. I learnt to knit and sew at 7 years old and made things out of clay as our school had a kiln. It also had it's own swimming pool where we all learnt to swim. My siblings and I rushed down in the morning as first down sat nearest the fire. Mum worked part time, but there was always someone in when I got home. I walked to and from school by myself or with my friends. When we had an injection we sat on the teachers knee and got a handful of dolly mixtures from the big jars afterwards for being brave. If we were upset or scared or had hurt ourselves at school the teachers gave us a hug and reassured us. If the weather was bad everyonecwalked to school in black wellies and had a wooden clothes peg with our name on it to clip the boots together. I had lots of sleepovers at my grans .I would snuggle in her big bed with her while she told me " Goldilocks and the three bears" and sliced oranges and thickly covered the slices in sugar.
Yes there were bad bits. I didn't like school dinners ( no chips, pizza, pasta or rice) , though the puddings were gorgeous. I hated the cold , and still do. Grandstand on TV on Saturdays was really boring, as was the cricket. And I hated budget day because there was no childrens tele. But on the whole my childhood was good and the good memories far outweigh the bad. And I hope my children have found memories of their childhood and that my DGC have good memories too.

I hope my DGC are happy at home and at school.
Yes they have their phones but so do I!
They don't have helicopter parents and live healthy lives with lots of sport and nice holidays and friends
I wouldn't want them to have a childhood like mine, truly.

Yammy yes, some horrible memories . Many things have changed for the better.

A young boy in my primary school was continually thumped in the chest and back up and down the classroom one day. He cried and said I'm telling my mummy. (I'm crying remembering). He died of heart disease age 52. I know it's silly but I often wonder was there a connection.

Hitting children was and is never right. I'm glad there's protection for children now.

We had families whose fathers beat them regularly and mothers who did not dare leave the house without DH's permission or were not allowed to work. Was it picked up by the school nurse of course not the father had been POW's with the "Japs', It is mentioned in a novel by Melvyn Bragg. The poor things probably had PSD.
Things were pushed under the carpet and tried to be forgotten.
It doesn't make them right and I agree Fanny I was really glad when" No corporal punishment ", was brought into schools. In N/C they talked about the taws I had never heard of it a leather strap split with knots on the ends.
In their own way, all these things unknowingly harmed us and our parents. I'm certainly glad attitudes have changed and speak not smack practised.

FannyCornforth

Yes nadateturbe, as soon as you mention hitting children you’ve lost the room and the argument

... that's what did it for me.

I've seen a few of these trips down memory lane where posters recount how they and their siblings frequently got a good hiding and it "never did me any harm" and then go on to disparage today's parents who are "too soft".

<<<sigh>>>

We were allowed into the sea where the effluent pipe discharged, I don't think our parents were aware of the risks. People were off school feeling bilious did they have food poisoning?
All those children walking around with shaven heads and smelling of awful ointment after a visit from Nitty Nora. Teeth taken out by the school dentist that shouldn't have been. Others were covered in Gentian violet because they had impetigo and whole families with scabies or ringworm.
My mum grabbed me from under the Belfast sink and split my head open so badly that she had to take me to the local hospital. Was it looked at as child cruelty no I had been a naughty girl hiding under there? Only a few months after I had broken my collar bone falling off a chair. Were the two accidents put together "A mother under stress ", no it was a naughty child.
We did play in water meadows where there was very deep mud or on the beach where the tides were lethal or even on railway lines.
Mum smacked you and told dad when he came in from work . Sandshoes and canes or rulers were used by teachers even at grammar school.
Attitudes were different than less knowledge and there was still a wartime attitude of put up and shut up.
Life was not idyllic we all look back with rosy glasses and remember nostalgia trips to the pantomime or sweet shops etc..
This generation of youngsters probably will as well.

Yes nadateturbe, as soon as you mention hitting children you’ve lost the room and the argument

There was a lot that was wrong, but surely this is a lighthearted post.
Although I hate that posts like this usually include hitting children as being ok. It never is.

Callistemon21

^I can recall the book "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"^

I remember thinking about this book the other day which I read many years ago. There are some books which you need to keep and never pass on, unfortunately I passed it on to someone!

I've still got my very old and tatty copy!

I was hit on the bottom with a slipper by a male teacher in front of the whole class for talking. A crime which I didn't commit as I was far too shy. I was still in Primary school

Callistemon21

^My mum used to cut chicken, chop eggs, and spread butter,
lard, dripping etc., or bread on the same cutting board with
the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get
food poisoning^

My Mum had separate boards for meat, vegetables and definitely a bread board - I remember it well. "I need one of you to come and cut the bread and butter"! She also had a pastry board which I now have although I never make pastry now.

I've just remembered our breadboard. It was dark brown and had a special place for the knife to fit into it. And the pastry board, which was easier to clean up than the whole table.
The bread knife was different to the chopping knife as well. The bread knife had a serrated edge.

I like to believe that that all the germs I must have come into contact with have bestowed on me a cast iron stomach. As I have never suffered from actual food poisoning to -my knowledge anyway.
Migraines a-plenty, morning sickness oh yes, alcohol induced puking absolutely.
I do wash my hands rather a lot and am often to be seen spraying antibacterial on the kitchen or bathroom surfaces, some of it is subconscious in that if I see it I clean it.Can’t ignore it.
Growing up our house was quite untidy to say the least, but there was always plenty of hot water, Camay soap, Fairy Liquid and Domestos and everyone was free to avail themselves of it where appropriate. The dish cloths were always a bit dubious mind🤭

My mum used to cut chicken, chop eggs, and spread butter,
lard, dripping etc., or bread on the same cutting board with
the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning

I suspect 'mum' used to wipe the board in between these preparations, reducing the risk and refuse to believe that no-one ever got an upset stomach anyway.

Looking back with rose-tinted glasses, and selecting a narrative to fit the prejudice against progress that has been made since!

In 1958 as a healthy teenager I was hospitalised with (on the discharge paper) "salmonella dysentery" after eating cooked meat from a delicatessen which had been cut on the same board as the fresh meat.

I lived at home but my parents were away. My then boyfriend was concerned that I could barely get out of bed, vomited constantly and couldn't even hold down a sip of water, so he called my doctor for advice. Doctor came round, took my blood pressure and called an ambulance. I was apparently severely dehydrated and delirious, to the point I can barely remember the chain of events now.

Actually, where I live now there's park and a green field for common use the other side of my garden wall - in the summer it's packed with kids running around and enjoying themselves from about 8 in the morning until around 6 or 7 at night!

Regarding school teachers: from 1966 onwards in my experience from infant and junior school, many of the teachers were “getting on” and a couple were part time as in morning or afternoon but they were very patient while at the same time very much in control of the class room.

On female teacher in the infants school, we were about 8 then, grabbed a boy from behind his desk, pulled his short trousers down and gave him a frenzied “good thrashing” with her hands, and then continued with the lesson.

At junior school with the same cohort of pupils, the teachers were younger and slightly “trendy” but still commanded the same respect.

There were 2 male teachers for the oldest classes and one slightly older female. She was very sarcastic and strident and seemed to enjoy marching transgressors (and it was nearly always the boys) in front of her out of the hall (perhaps he was talking or annoying someone) whilest kneeing them up the bottom. She was quite heavily pregnant at the time and I remember thinking even at age 10 or 11ish that this was a most unedifying sight.

I hardly ever needed to be as much as “talked to” by my teachers although the slipper was used as a punishment for some boys by my last teacher at the juniors and it was in front of the class.

The past is another country and “they” definitely did things differently there.

Fast forward to now: my grandsons did not “get” why we smiled knowingly when he told us his new teacher was called Mr. Cane.
This is a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

^My mum used to cut chicken, chop eggs, and spread butter,
lard, dripping etc., or bread on the same cutting board with
the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get
food poisoning^

My Mum had separate boards for meat, vegetables and definitely a bread board - I remember it well. "I need one of you to come and cut the bread and butter"! She also had a pastry board which I now have although I never make pastry now.

I can recall the book "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"

I remember thinking about this book the other day which I read many years ago. There are some books which you need to keep and never pass on, unfortunately I passed it on to someone!

I can recall the book "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" when it had been a "good" day because the prisoners found easy work, got hot food, and didnt get beaten up by the guards. For me back in the 1950s it was a "good" day when I didnt get a whalloping from my father.

I loved secondary school because (apart from sport which I hated) I got on well with the teachers. Some of them - and especially my late head master - I owe a great deal to in respect of the confidence they instilled in me. If they had not taken an interest in me I would have fallen in with my parents wish to leave asap and get a job, any job, to contribute to the family finances. Instead I was allowed to see that there was a different path - even if I had to work fight and hustle to be able to follow it.

Years later one of my bosses told me that he occasionally saw my old headmaster. I asked him to pass on my regards if they ever met again and my acknowledgement of all he had done for me. Subsequently they did meet, and have the conversation. My old headmaster remembered me immediately. He admitted that one of the greatest rewards a teacher can experience is to know they made a difference in the life of a former student. Apparently he walked away with tears in his eyes.

Of course there are aspects of life we have lost.

But when my Dad died in 1971 in hospital of a relatively mild heart condition at 56 that theses day you have had rapid blood thinners leaving children 14x2, 18, an 19 and mum went into Mental Hospital I might be forgiven for wishing he could have now easily be helped.

and when I went to uni in 1969 only 1 in 10 students were women.

And I've just escaped an abusive marriage because of understanding changing of coercive abuse not to mention that rape in marriage was only illegal in 1991.

I don think "mockstalgia" very funny.

and the opportunities ahead for my DGD that were only available for boys...I celebrate

It's just nostalgic nonsense. Everyone didn't learn to read and write and do maths. Many struggled. In the '80s I volunteered as an adult literacy tutor, there were loads of people who had left school virtually illiterate.
There were dysfunctional families but they were called "problem families"
And the old chestnut about how it didn't do any harm when children were beaten is just untrue.

My father told me one of the teachers at his school in Wakefield used to 'cane' boys with a sawn-off billiard cue.

I'm surprised that people are surprised by the Johnny Vegas story. We all have different experiences. I remember seeing a boy being whacked across the face so hard by a teacher that he went flying across the classroom and hit his head on the floor.

nanna8

AmberSpyglass

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

Now that made me laugh,amber ( really, I’m not being sarcastic ) I agree about the beating stuff ,by the way, but that is how it was and whoever wrote that had a different viewpoint.

You started a worthwhile and interesting discussion.

Some of the individual's recollections obviously chimed with some of our own... playing outside all day and only going home when you were hungry type of thing which I think many of us fondly remember. Not to be sneered at either.

But the reference to kids learning 'respect' and discipline via the cane or strap, just killed it for me. Only a few days ago I was listening to a friend telling me how her younger brother was "taught a lesson" when their father took off his own belt and hit his naked and wimpering son in front of his siblings so they would understand the 'lesson' too. On more than one occasion.

Whoever writes these things obviously wants to undo a lot of progress

AmberSpyglass

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

Now that made me laugh,amber ( really, I’m not being sarcastic ) I agree about the beating stuff ,by the way, but that is how it was and whoever wrote that had a different viewpoint.