This morning I remembered some stuff and it made me deeply grateful

[Burney]

I think it's the cold I remember more than anything. Freezing when you arrived, freezing all day, ridiculously freezing on the rugby pitch / gym, and then... the joy of an arctic changing room in which to shiver, secure in the knowledge that some **** would flick you with a towel and raise a weal like a buboe on your bottom.

And the most you had to look forward to at night was boiled mince and Coronation Street.

Yes. The odd thing, though, is that I seem to remember enjoying school very much. Obviously, the individual elements were shít, but taken as a whole it was tremendous fun. I've never really understood these chaps who like to bang on about how school made them miserable. i always think they must have been doing it wrong.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

True that. Once we got to the fourth form, boarding school was like having a hundred brothers and no parents around to spoil it.

[Burney]

True that. Once we got to the fourth form, boarding school was like having a hundred brothers and no parents around to spoil it.

For anyone who wasn't monumentally stupid or hideously deformed, had a modicum of social skill and (ideally) some facility for sport, public school was tremendous fun.

[Sir C]

For anyone who wasn't monumentally stupid or hideously deformed, had a modicum of social skill and (ideally) some facility for sport, public school was tremendous fun.

Not in the 1970s, it wasn't.

It was fúcking brutal.

[Burney]

Not in the 1970s, it wasn't.

It was fúcking brutal.

I think my place was probably quite brutal if you were one of the chaps who weren't as described. I've met a couple of them in later life and they've told me how unhappy they were. I was oblivious to this at the time, of course, because no-one is more solipsistic than a kid.

Also, I left the fact that you had to be white and Christian off my list. God help you if you were brown or a four-by-two.

[Sir C]

I think my place was probably quite brutal if you were one of the chaps who weren't as described. I've met a couple of them in later life and they've told me how unhappy they were. I was oblivious to this at the time, of course, because no-one is more solipsistic than a kid.

Also, I left the fact that you had to be white and Christian off my list. God help you if you were brown or a four-by-two.

You'd have noticed. Fúcking hell, being reasonably good at sport and socially viable didn't save you from getting a regular hiding. Being able to fight did.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

For anyone who wasn't monumentally stupid or hideously deformed, had a modicum of social skill and (ideally) some facility for sport, public school was tremendous fun.

The great fun I had at school was most definitely in spite of the school and nothing to do with it.

I shudder to this day to recall the brutal bullying that was a reality for the less popular, the dim and the fat ( we reserved a highly refined and quite vicious odium for fat people).

[Burney]

The great fun I had at school was most definitely in spite of the school and nothing to do with it.

I shudder to this day to recall the brutal bullying that was a reality for the less popular, the dim and the fat ( we reserved a highly refined and quite vicious odium for fat people).

Yes. Fatness meant instant bullying back then. There was a chap called Jupp whose jelly-like frame would make him a constant target for vicious towel flicking after swimming. It has to be said there was a certain sadistic pleasure to be gained from watching his flab wobble when you caught him with a good one to the belly.

I suppose with hindsight that that was probably bullying Mind you, there was a big fat Chinese lad called Pete Lam who you didn't mock because he was enormous and would fück you up if you did.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

Well quite. There was a chap I recall was mercilessly tormented until one day he lost it and delivered a comprehensive and quite bloody shoeing to the tormentor-in-chief. None of us knew he could scrap and the bullying ceased immediately of course.

[redgunamo]

For anyone who wasn't monumentally stupid or hideously deformed, had a modicum of social skill and (ideally) some facility for sport, public school was tremendous fun.

Agreed. Terrific fun, them days.