Giddy Old School

<P class=MsoBodyText style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt><SPAN lang=EN-GB>How were your schooldays - happy horrible or just a bit crazy?<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>For one teenager writing in Austerity Britain sixty years ago they were a mixture of all three but it was the craziness that stood out in retrospect.</SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office /><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags /><st1:PlaceName w:st=on><SPAN lang=EN-GB>Eastwood</SPAN></st1:PlaceName><SPAN lang=EN-GB> <st1:PlaceType w:st=on>School</st1:PlaceType> near <st1:City w:st=on><st1:place w:st=on>Glasgow</st1:place></st1:City> went through a very lively period in the years following the Second World War.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>Many of the staff were young men not long back from the forces often as high-spirited as the pupils they strove to teach.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>Yet somehow they earned respect from these rowdy pupils.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>Relations between staff and pupils were generally good with the teachers emerging as the real heroes of the piece.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN></SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB>Many things were done differently in the days before calculators computers mobile phones and iPods.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>Ball-point pens and television existed but not many people had either and even paper was in short supply.</SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB>Other aspects no doubt remain much the same.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>All school life is chronicled here: high jinks to alleviate the boredom of classes; the giggling girls and the earnest students; the blushes of embarrassment; the dramas and disasters of exams; hopes and disappointments; crushes on teachers; the excitement of concerts dances and sports events which included annual contests of pupils versus staff in hockey cricket badminton and tennis.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>For many the Staff Hockey was the highlight of the school year.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>Food of course was still rationed and the dinner-ladies did not have an easy life.</SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB>All these activities interwoven with the on-going saga of the disintegrating bicycle and keen observation of teachers and fellow-pupils are linked by one pupil's odyssey from gawky fourteen-year-old new girl desperately trying to fit in to senior student eager to move on to the next stage of life.</SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify><SPAN lang=EN-GB>This account is an edited version of the author's diaries from 1948 to 1951.<SPAN style=mso-spacerun: yes>  </SPAN>Irreverent illustrations were added at a later date.</SPAN></P>