My dad was a big bloke and only had to give you ' that look' and you knew you had to pack in what you were doing or else. My mother was 5' and she ruled the roost, non of this wait till your dad gets home, she wheeled a vicious stair rod We slept three in a bed when we were nippers, which always caused chaos, but once you heard her on the stairs getting that rod out you soon calmed down and went to sleep. God how I miss my fabulous parents. Lost them both in their 50s, far too young. I had five brothers and we must have driven then mad. We had nowt but I have wonderful memories of my childhood, we never went hungry, my dad grew all our veg in his allotment, whist tending his pigeons, loved his pigeon racing he did, along with my eldest brother, non of the rest of us bothered with it. Like others out all day during the holidays, playing daft games, I hated school, being caned or slippered was a regular occurrence, we had some brutal teachers back then, late 1950s. But I never came to any harm, was taught right from wrong and have passed that onto my two daughters.
So many memories. I grew up in South Hetton and we used to take fishing nets over “The Beck” to catch sticklebacks and frogs. Hopping on our bikes to go the 3 miles to Hawthorn dene hunting for conkers. Visiting my grandparents every Saturday in Hetton and going for walks with my Granda up to Eppleton pit. He took me to see the guy who would operate the cage that brought the miners up from the pit face. I sat on his knee one time and he let me do it!! It was a different world back then and lives on only in memories
I remember one of those wooden buggers whistling past my ears for talking in class. Bugger said next time it is on target. I was only a bairn anarl, mind you I shut up for an hour or two
I'm merging this with the 'Remember when' thread . . . . I had a vague memory of a similar thread when I started this one, but I couldn't remember what it was called or who started it. John Wick did, and they're 'as one' now
Now we're merged, we can become more powerful,Gordon. lol. Threads like these solidify that people love nostalgia. It's a great thing because it's great getting others points of view on growing up, or the good old days and the similarities everyone has very close.
One of the things that those against caning ignored, wrongly in my view, was the immediacy of it all. You did something judged to be wrong. You got caned. There is a saying that justice is best when it is swift and sure. This is often rebuffed with the reply that 'if justice is swift it is rarely sure'. Caning though was instant, or nearly so. In our current society crime and punishment are so distanced by time that deterrence is meaningless. The educational lessonfor those of us who experienced this, that if you did something wrong, you got punished. How can that lesson be learned when the punishment happens, so long after the crime? (The only GOOD reason for banning caning was that it seemed to me that some of the people administering it, enjoyed it rather more than would be healthy for themselves).
We called it "Splits" because the "victim" started with their feet wide apart and the thrower had to split the gap with the knife, every successful throw of the knife saw the victims feet coming closer together until the either bottled it or ended up with an extra hole in their shoe. Definitely not dangerous Gordon, because you could bottle it anytime you wanted and have the piss taken out of you for the rest of the day
I remember "split the kipper" starting with your feet together, then having to keep moving them outwards to where the knife landed. The game where you started with your feet wide apart and moved them inwards, we called "chicken".
Don't recall that one Snaggey, I suppose it saves a bit of time if you accept that the point of the game was simply to stick a knife in your mates foot
I’m sure the teachers at Diamond Hall and Havelock gave their missus a extra helping when they got home.
