Forum things

 Weekend was not really as I wanted it to be being very poorly over several days so we're playing catch up but too much catch up can bring set backs so I will keep things fairly short this week.

The Past World is challenging not least when much before the Nineteen Nineties for many seems a foreign land where much they alone grew up just doesn't exist, people do things very differently and the World of the Child is so much more different.

Our world back then was highly deferential to adults, we took our caps of to them, their word was final and to a large extent they could do what they wanted within reason where other adults would look on and say "Well, you knew the rules and what would happen if you transgressed them" and no Childline to call.

Thus school life, going to your friends had known sanctions if you were cheeky,rude or went out of bounds.

We could laugh at others in that situation, knowing at the same time it could be us so it went in childrens fiction and drama one being the classic "Whack-O" radio and Television series from the mid nineteen fifties.

These days it'd be hard to make a long-running series based on a schoolmaster who took pleasure in thwacking his charges and swindling everyone. Fortunately, in olden days sense prevailed and it was the world the child then lived in.

Linking say a radio dramatization to that today can cause issues because modern thinking sees caning as at least potentially Child Abuse and is illegal, period in the UK today although when it was made it was common place as my bottom still remembers.

We opted to carry the link but not publish the title, relying in "common knowledge"  because it is a classic and has some excellent acting.

The other thing is about Who we are.

When the forum was set up, it was more of a Boys Club of ex Schoolboys who loved revisiting that time, the uniform we wore, the education we had, our likes and dislikes and boys we had and still have which was and remains refreshing free from some of fetish things that get attached at other places.

We have female members and they are free to talk about their backgrounds and what being school girls meant to them.

I am aware we have some who may not of been "born" female who do like wearing girls uniform and I do wish to say that is quite acceptable and apart from being only posting within our rules that is it.

Be yourself by all means but treat others as you yourself wish to be treated.

Not what you asked for...

When you get around to reading this, then the likelihood is I'm getting ready to go out to meet some family members for lunch and conversation which for various reasons has been put off for nearly a year and a half.

Arrangements have been made for any parcels that are likly to come and I've been out as normally today is the day I tend to be out.

Sometimes that goes through messy spells such as one item I did want after being checked after being paid for I'm informed it skips on two tracks and has a scratch on another so I request a cancellation with full refund only to be met with a "Can I offer you a discount?" but when this is an expensive record do I really want a only playable on one side copy?

Not really. Why would I???

Then there's the tale of the broken record whose replacement arrives from a totally different seller in a different part of the UK and is a different edition to the one I paid for and it has a thumb size tear on the front where the One had I had paid for did not.

There are clear rules about this "drop shipping" on platforms such as Ebay as it muddies the waters when it comes to accountability and in any event what you paid for such be what you get unless you are informed later and they ask you if that's acceptable.

It's one of the things in this era of reduced physical stores that irritates me as we depend on the honesty and intergrity of vendors and this is continuing.

The school year begins different

This year, strictly speaking this academic year feels different and it's not the never ending arguments over school uniforms - excessive logoization, are skirts and shorts acceptable? or even the "right to free expression, man" topics.

Nor is it school dinners as in entitlements to free ones although that will change in 2027/8 which pleases me, or the rumblings over what should be permitted in them which we've had yet another statement on or the sandwich box police confiscating items put in by parents that aren't allowed.

This year our amazingly bad council decided to axe free school transport for those over 11 for distances of three miles or less as a child just turned 11 in Junior can't walk it and at 11 and bit and moving to the First Years of a high school somehow can now.

Now this means going on partly pavement free roads with heavy traffic, lots of  concealed spots where nasty people can lurk to do nasty stuff to kids on a three mile each way walk.

It was protested, rightly I might add, but no change made so some who can afford the £800 per year per child can pay for a fee paying bus organized by the school by a local coach company but many can't.

So guess what happens?

Those children's parents enrol them very late in the day into a school five miles away that they do have provide free transport for which means the LEA has to put another bus on at cost.

The stupidity of Groan Ups is outstanding as they now lose savings and by reducing pupil numbers at the other school means a number of senior posts will have to go as they're no longer getting the "per pupil" funding.

It also means this September I see few children walking to the school bus around 8am and instead see others in their plainer uniform go past instead as locals have voted with their feet at such a rediculous policy.

All this happens when parents are no longer able to afford to send their children to the nearest school.

The return continues

 Well it IS Wednesday , school is back for many although thjis morning I saw a man walking his youngest child with the older one behind while yapping into his smartphone  which really was depressing when you consider all the conversations you could be having developing bonds between you and your children.

Makes you wonder how they'd of coped in the age of the wired in home phone that required you to be in one area to take and make calls.

One thing about this time year always was you spent seven weeks or so at home som you tended to became accustomed to doing things either your folks way or often just yours which can clash as in the first week or so you forget teacher expects you to follow their rules and timetable.

Sometimes we have similar moments on the Forum when some one forgets all about "The Rules" even though it's a sticky post and when reposting from elsewhere the angle that person had  and how that fits in  with what we do.

On the forum we don't do whack-o stuff and try to avoid things with a humilation theme cos surprise surprise some people do carry traumatic memories that are triggering because of how things were very much back in the day and how they were applied to them.

Help!

Things that annoy me?

Beyond those who run schools more for own benefit than than that of pupils and their parents and inept politicians of all political colours the big one for me is getting about as a disabled person as it seems all to often the "disabling world" actually gets in the way of me doing things.

It can be something like the weight of door being such I can't easily open it if you don't put step steps I struggle to walk up or stairs in the building or just not thinking and leaving things in shops cluttering the approach to each set of shelves that at heights even I on foot can't reach.

Schools for all there talk of being inclusive aren't such as our combined infant juniors that isn't easy to get about in in a wheelchair and doesn't make arrnangements for disabilty sports you can do before we get to the many secondary schools that despite being on more than one level have no lifts.

A constant in each is getting your meal which can be workable if you have a wheelchair with a tray fitted at the front or if fully walking when many use cafeteria system but as I was I wan't able to carry a tray and no one provided for assistance when just out of class, your mates are like released lions charging for food utterly ignoring you.

Usually I have to ask for assistance if I'm out in anywhere self serving and pre-booked assistance on trains is very hit and miss not always helped by cancellations and platform changes at the last minute.

The call of that time of year

You can't escape it, no not the straw like stuff in the fields and in your garden which still needs much rain to recover from that really hot period a few weeks back  but the "Back to school" promotions in the popular press, in store where T G Jones were pushing geometry sets, folders, note pads while you encounter them online.

For some us it was either Martins or Hayden's with branches across most towns here in North Staffordshire who also stock school specific items while market stores stocked more generic items by Banner David Luke and Trutext.

Unlike him this is exactly what I wanted back then having had the misfortune to be in the era where Longs were taking over which I found less than comfortable.

Truthly this time of year makes me sad for just the lack of that whole feel of going back to school, the comradeship and sense of purpose of it all.

Oh Miss Manners

Hello and welcome back after last weeks egg frying weather which I'm only just recovering from glad as I am it's a good eight to ten degrees cooler than it was and life continues at the forum even if understandably people were flagging during the daytime.

Communication styles vary if you've ever been in chat rooms with some using the clipped comments heavily laden with abbreviations that don't have full stops (AmE: periods) between each abbreviation per word so it's no always apparent just what they're saying.

Others just seem to type in what they themselves want without consideration of what you be looking for which really doesn't achieve anything that resembles a good face to face chat or just feel it's okay to keep you up because...they're bored.

Sometimes we get I certainly get message from people who appear to be very desperate to reach out to others or even attempt a two way conversation over my blogs.

Let's start with the basics.

They exist to help explore and discuss what this life all about and that can certainly include a comment about a post and if I get a few, chances are they may influence another post.

What isn't good is when you just type out your contact details with no reference to what was posted coming over as a bit rude and expect me to authorize that for publishing.

It won't be when it makes no reference at all to the post.

You wish to talk about ALB/ASB life, then come on over to uniformedregressors join in and if you wish talk to people via direct messaging or share your email address using it.

All you need to know is on site.