Simple childhood pleasures

[mercalia]

lolling around in tall grass on sunny days without a care in the world, during summer holidays

[Bonefishblues]

lolling around in tall grass on sunny days without a care in the world, during summer holidays

... except for rampant hay fever in my case

[661-Pete]

being able to wander off all day and not having the police out searching for lost children.

Same for me - in my case this was some years before Brady/Hindley did their stuff, I suppose things tightened up a bit after then...

Came unstuck once, though. I remember, there was a footpath at the end of our road which led down to a bridge over a little stream. My standing orders were, I could wander off on my own as far as the bridge and play by the stream (presumably in search of tiddlers or whatever) - but not the area beyond the stream: this was out-of-bounds, unaccompanied.

Well, one day, coaxed and cajoled by some other boys from the street, I was persuaded to venture onto the forbidden territory, where we invaded a grassy meadow and set up an improvised game of football I think it was. I had no watch but I had the sense it was getting late in the day, and I might be missed at home - anyway I tried to make moves to desert my companions. But they induced me to stay on....

The inevitable happened. In due course I caught sight of my father stomping across the field towards us. He was not in a pleasant mood: he said he'd been searching all the surrounding area. He dragged me off and - although I forget what happened after that, almost certainly the consequence was a sound thrashing. What was worse, I was forbidden to associate with these other lads from then on - although I think the ban was eventually lifted.

Certainly a childhood memory, this. Whether it could be called a 'pleasure' was debatable...

[Cyril Haearn]

I was physically beaten as punishment at school, I guess it was allowed then
I laugh about it now, but: could it have damaged me in some unseen way?

Didn't have Welsh for all back then either

[661-Pete]

I was physically beaten as punishment at school, I guess it was allowed then
I laugh about it now, but: could it have damaged me in some unseen way?

Physically - probably not. Psychologically maybe? I obviously can't speak for others - if I say this: "if you can put it out of your mind, do so", will it upset some?

Speaking personally, I can recall being caned a couple of times at school. It was commonplace back then and I think my tally was below average. I don't dwell on those occurrences now - nor what was meted out to me by my father. It was more than half a century ago. There are other things, more pressing on my mind, that bother me a lot more.

[Cyril Haearn]

I was physically beaten as punishment at school, I guess it was allowed then
I laugh about it now, but: could it have damaged me in some unseen way?

Physically - probably not. Psychologically maybe? I obviously can't speak for others - if I say this: "if you can put it out of your mind, do so", will it upset some?

Speaking personally, I can recall being caned a couple of times at school. It was commonplace back then and I think my tally was below average. I don't dwell on those occurrences now - nor what was meted out to me by my father. It was more than half a century ago. There are other things, more pressing on my mind, that bother me a lot more.

I changed schools at 13, was an outsider, got bullied. Haven't thought of it so much for a few decades
Bullying at work is bad, I have suffered that too

[Cyril Haearn]

Back on track, someone at school had a bike with derailleur gears, I got one too, started going further and further, fortunately both sets of grandparents lived 80+ miles away so I cycled to visit them.. .

[fixerupper]

Yeah I got caned a few times a school , I always seemed odd that they talked endlessly about respect and self respect , and how it had to be earned. The masters that caned us I lost all respect for ..I did however respect immensely the masters who never used violence ..

[pwa]

I was punched in the stomach by another boy at junior school, it was witnessed by a teacher and we were both slippered for fighting!
It taught me that the slipper doesn't hurt much. I already knew that life can be a jungle with no justice, so that aspect didn't actually bother me a lot.

[rjb]

Box of Bryant and May.

[661-Pete]

It taught me that the slipper doesn't hurt much.

You weren't slippered hard enough then!

This recalls to my mind my other experience of corporal punishment at school: I was slippered by my PT master (with an old plimsoll). Maybe if he'd been an ordinary man it wouldn't have amounted to much, but this guy was a retired Turkish wrestler. Small and wiry to look at, but blimey! could he pack a punch! Anyway the pain was excruciating - far worse than any caning.

And it was for a trivial reason, too. I'd turned up for PT in dirty kit. He didn't like boys to be in dirty kit - that was all....

[bigjim]

Back on track, someone at school had a bike with derailleur gears, I got one too, started going further and further, fortunately both sets of grandparents lived 80+ miles away so I cycled to visit them.. .

Yes. 1962 or 3. I had a secondhand 5 speed derailleur Sun something road bike. Used every day for school and club runs. Did Manchester to Torquay and back, Youth Hosteling as my summer holiday. Just an old Carradice bag and two water bottles. Part of it on the train I think. Sat in the guards van on mailbags. I must have been 14 or 15. Lovely memories.

[pwa]

I lived on the northern fringe of Bolton, which was actually a nice place to live. At about the age of twelve I set off on my five gear bike, with a friend, on a round trip of 66 miles to Southport and back. I didn't tell my Mum.

[661-Pete]

Sorry to have dwelt, upthread, on the downsides. Me bad!

I can remember happy afternoons careering down the snow-covered slopes on our home-built toboggan. This was an impressive affair, built of solid timber planks, pretty long, and with steel runners - and it was fast! OK, we're not talking bobsleigh or luge speeds here, but it was quite enough to give us kids the thrill of our lives. Certainly a lot more effective than those supermarket-bought, plastic apologies for sledges which you see kids mucking about on these days - if there ever is a flurry of snow for them to muck about on!

This would have been during the Great Winter of 1962-3 and the Big Freeze - when we certainly had no shortage of snow. I remember that, early on in the season, an old, rather worm-eaten old sledge with rusty runners, that we'd used up until then, snapped in half whilst my Dad was on it. So it was there and then that Dad took me along with him to the timber yard, bought the necessary pieces of wood and the steel strips for runners, and set to work in our garage building us the new sledge straightaway.

Possibly this was an act of atonement for breaking our old sledge. Or perhaps - just perhaps - this was an act of atonement for something else - seeing as I can remember my Dad delivering one of his aforementioned - ahem - 'corrections' a few days earlier. Maybe he'd realised he'd been a bit unjust. Maybe my mother remonstrated with him - or worse!

Anyway the new sledge performed excellently. I believe it is still in existence, though whether serviceable or not I don't know. My sister took it into her keeping - seeing as they live in a hilly part of Yorkshire that's blessed with more snow than us southerners. And she's got grandchildren to keep happy...

Strange to be writing of such things a few days after the Summer Solstice. Ah well!

[Cunobelin]

Yeah I got caned a few times a school , I always seemed odd that they talked endlessly about respect and self respect , and how it had to be earned. The masters that caned us I lost all respect for ..I did however respect immensely the masters who never used violence ..

I remember the Headmaster at our School.

He had a Slipper and a Cane.

Both were put in a case onto day he joined the School, and he was proud that in some twenty years they had never come out.

However he was no shrinking violet, or soft touch.

I remember we had some troublesome kids expelled from a notorious rough school. During assembly one day there was a commotion as one of the young female teachers had asked one of the boys to be quiet, and his response had been to slap her!

The head leapt off the stage, and had the offender pinned down in seconds!

We were all amazed as no-one had ever seen him even raise his voice.

Still didn't use the slipper or cane though.... Police were called and assault charges brought.