New Girl

[englishangel]

Thank God for daily baths!

Did you have daily baths, Maggie? We certainly didn't in my time in 6s. It was (officially) either Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. I always assumed none on Sunday so that it worked out we could have them on the same night each week.

The bath list was stuck on the bathroom door (I think) one of the many lists where we were not people but numbers.

This is what I remember too. I think the sixth form, or perhaps just Upper sixth could have a bath on a Sunday, probably the only day when the water was hot for them/us.

They started to 'allow' deodorants when I was in Upper Fourth (1968/9?) and 'internal sanitary protection' a year later. Bowing to the inevitable I think.

[midget]

Definitely daily baths-Deo gratias

Maggie

[Euterpe13]

Indeed, baths every other day, hair-washing on Saturdays in the basins, with a tooth-mug to rinse, Mons could have a bath when they wanted, but there was rarely any hot water left - when I was in the Mon´s bedroom by the ends, I used to get up early before the bell so that I could have a hot bath before the hordes invaded the bathrooms.

That bedroom was true luxury, given the era : a feather pillow and sprung mattress, dressing table, wardrobe, desk & lamp and , above all , privacy!

happy days...

[englishangel]

Saturday afternoon hairwashing is one of my abiding memories Barbara. Especially you and Liga drying your hair, you both had such long thick hair that without hairdryers it could easily take 3 hours or more to dry.

[Euterpe13]

Saturday afternoon hairwashing is one of my abiding memories Barbara. Especially you and Liga drying your hair, you both had such long thick hair that without hairdryers it could easily take 3 hours or more to dry.

yes, and the only way to dry it faster was to shake our heads backwards and forwards - probably one of the causes of my lovely cervical arthrosis in later life !
There was a hairdryer in the wardrobe room, but we were not allowed to use it, for some obscure reason...

Wonder what happened to Liga after she left for Australia ?

[Jo]

I remember the "list" before my first term. I can also remember pretty much verbatim the dictat about periods: As the houses are of mixed ages, it is essential that girls know about menstruation. I remember it because it wasn't a word I'd ever encountered before but I had a suspicion it was going to be something my mother was going to have to explain in acute embarrassment - and I was right.

Actually, she took the opportunity to give me the full story - she thrust a little book into my hands one evening, told me to read it and said she'd come back later to see if I had any questions

I remember my eyes popping out of my head as I read that people apparently actually *did* that thing that rude boys joked about in the playground. I couldn't believe it, but I didn't have the words to ask my mother elegantly, so I made her promise that she wouldn't tell me off for using a rude word, and then asked her "so is it really saying that people actually do f*ck, then?" Her face was a picture, but to her credit she didn't tell me off - though she did say I must never use that word again! (Err, no mum, never )

[kerrensimmonds]

Interrresting.
I 'started' at an early age (11) and Miss Bailes, my Wardmistress had to cope with the basics. She also wrote and told my mother, who wrote to me about how proud she was that I had entered womanhood blah blah. And if there were any questions she would answer them when I was next home. I got home at the end of term, we had our usual family tea, then on a pretext my mother took me upstairs to ask me to help her make my bed to sleep in. She asked if I had any questions. I did. 'Where do boys come in to it?'. Her red-faced reply was to say that she would tell me about that the night before I got married. Poor mother - she has long gone, I am not married, but I am still waiting for the explanation. Just as well I grew up in the 1960's!

[Vonny]

I couldn't believe it, but I didn't have the words to ask my mother elegantly, so I made her promise that she wouldn't tell me off for using a rude word, and then asked her "so is it really saying that people actually do f*ck, then?"

[Vonny]

She also wrote and told my mother,

Was that standard practice?

[kayinbaja]

Jo! It's so nice to see you here, we 5s being few and far between! And so spooky that you raise the subject of "periods" as I was just thinking about it earlier today, in the context of CH that is, not myself (no idea why!). Do you remember how we used to have to write the dates of our periods in a book? Were they checking to see if we were regular, or collecting data to support that theory of "girls who live together bleed together"? (Sorry guys, this thread may be going to places you don't want to follow!) I'm pretty sure they weren't worried that any of us would get pregnant. And those pink elastic ST belts, how glamourous were they? I remember being absolutely horrified when Jan Newman (I think, or was it Hilary Bowman?) announced in the dorm one night that she couldn't wait to get pregnant so that she could have 9 months off.

Kay

[Jo]

Hi Kay - as you say, we 5's must stick together!

This might belong in the housemistresses thread, but do you remember mad Miss Screen (and her fox terrier Sarah?). I was about to voice a very unambiguous opinion but I'd better do that in another posting where I don't mention her by name

She used to pretend that sanitary towel supplies were rationed and that she had to be very careful in apportioning out the supply - to the extent that sometimes (look away guys, and anyone of a nervous disposition), you would have to go maybe two days without changing. She would pretend to be sympathetic and suggest that sprinkling talc on would make them "last" longer. She understood our plight, she said, but "I can't manufacture sanitary towels!"

It wasn't the school being mean at all...... when she left, our next housemistress asked bewilderedly why there were enough STs to withstand a siege all locked into a cupboard in the wardrobe room.

That was just one of a huge variety of nutty (but at the time quite distressing) incidents involving Miss S. She was certainly in a class of her own.

[kayinbaja]

Ah yes! Miss Scream. Who used to cook up disgusting concoctions made from the internal organs of several different animals for her beloved dog in the house kitchen... who had a book entitled "Children under pressure" prominently displayed in her sitting room (I was convinced it was actually called How to Put Children under Pressure)...who used to store the STs in a very high cupboard, but I know that I climbed up there at least once to liberate a few for myself and others.
On that happy note
Night night!

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Do you remember how we used to have to write the dates of our periods in a book? Were they checking to see if we were regular, or collecting data to support that theory of "girls who live together bleed together"?
Kay

Who else remembers the incinerators, used for, well, incinerating of course , the discarded items? Also, how overloaded and stinky they would be for one week out of four, due to synchronised cycles?

xx

[Angela Woodford]

do you remember mad Miss Screen (and her fox terrier Sarah?).

She used to pretend that sanitary towel supplies were rationed and that she had to be very careful in apportioning out the supply - to the extent that sometimes (look away guys, and anyone of a nervous disposition), you would have to go maybe two days without changing. She would pretend to be sympathetic and suggest that sprinkling talc on would make them "last" longer. She understood our plight, she said, but "I can't manufacture sanitary towels!"

I can't tell you the horror with which I read this, and duly choked over my breakfast tea -

I sort of remember Miss Screen - Sarah was a fox terrier? Generally on a lead?

She must have had a wartime shortages obsession. But hoarding the things in the 60's?

I don't remember we had a cycle recording notebook in 6's - only that "on or off swimming notebook" that so embarassed me. The Study recorded this after prayers in the morning. I don't remember dear old Pot taking any sort of interest in Menstruation!

Except! She had a sort of daft obsession that nobody should go upstairs during break. Therefore any girl doing a rapid necessary trip got an "Eee - eee - I see you! (Cough, splutter!) Eee - come doon here art once! Why..." etc.

Reluctant explanation.

(I reckon we were quite lucky to have Pot. "You scrarch ma back, I'll scrarch yours" was her unappetising phrase to condone any minor rule infringement which she was anxious that DR should not discover.)

Caroline! Those incinerators! Do I also remember a bucket with brown paper bags for disposal? How revolting the whole procedure was. But making do for two days with powder! Appalling. And yet I bet you never thought to complain? We didn't.

Girls today are so lucky with modern products, aren't they? I was delighted to go on the Pill. Painfree and predictable!

Munch

[Euterpe13]

oh heavens, I had totally and deliberately forgotten most of this - and here you are bringing it all back as if it was yesterday !

Remember how you had your pack put on your slat every month ? and then had to cadge around because you had run out ! My own particular humiliation was that I started very late ( almost 16), and the wardrobe girls kept asking whether I needed a pack yet...lots of sniggers all round.

Got my own back, though - at nearly 55 I'm still not into the menopause and look ( according to an assortment of blokes ) about 10 years younger ... vindication !

B.