To wonder why MNHQ still haven't given us our Chalet School topic?

[TheObligatoryNotQuiteSoNewGirl]

Because we probably shouldn't still be hanging out in AIBU, four (or is it five?) threads later.

I've been reading all the lovely transcripts, and although I started Prefects yesterday, I don't want to finish it, because it's the last one! :-(

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

I know how you feel! I'm roaring through the transcripts myself, and haunt the local charity shops for any CS books.

I do hope that you're sitting up in bed with your bed jacket on and not reading lying down though! :)

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Hurrah, new thread!

Joey, I think 18+ is probably OK since she will be a visiting English girl and not one of the early-marrying locals. Madge is about 26 by the time she marries, isn't she? I have no idea who I'm going to take with me on my eventual trip. Can't think who will be willing to humour it.

I have been acquiring too many fill-ins. I think I have also read literally all the fic on the Internet, or at least, all the fic that didn't immediately put me off by being too doctorful, too crossed-over with stuff I don't know, or involving dead!Bill.

I have a question about hair. My vague impression of the 1920s and 1930s is that virtually all women had a bob. The CS is precisely opposite to this. Is it the case that my impression is in fact wrong, or is EBD simply expressing an alternative aesthetic preference, or is she in fact harking back wistfully to an era of long hair? (I'm also confused by the predominance of naturally curly hair in the CS - is this as improbable as it seems to me?)
I really, really imagine Madge with a bob (doesn't she have a bob in one of the earliest dustjackets?) but I'm fairly sure the text says otherwise.

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Oh, and yes, we shall have a bacon-less midnight. I'm sure Nancy and Kathie will be delighted to share their contraband tea!

Tea on the roof after lights out... That is such a very Chaletian kind of irrepressible Middle 'misbehaviour'.

[hels71]

I have just started a 're read of the la Rochelle books!
I often imagine I have gone to a charity shop and here is a completely newly discovered EBD char book...

[TheObligatoryNotQuiteSoNewGirl]

I read What Katy Did At School today, and the school sounds awful! The whole time, I kept comparing it to the Chalet School. At Katy's school, the food is awful, they never seem to go anywhere (apart from prim, proper walks in "crocs"), the teachers all seem horrible (compare that to those at the CS, who might be strict and sarcastic in lessons, but they're complete poppets out of them). I know which school I'd rather go to!

[LittleBearPad]

I figure Madge has her hair up in a way that looks from the front as if it's bobbed bit actually is in a bun at the back.

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

Tea on the roof after lights out... That is such a very Chaletian kind of irrepressible Middle 'misbehaviour'

A bit like going to Kavos in August and expecting quiet?

As for the hair, I believe that the fast young things in the 1920/1930s had bobs however most working class would have had long hair which was put up - my Nan was born in 1920 and had long hair up in a "do" until she died. Fabulous long white hair. I am prepared to be proved wrong though :)

[RaspberryLemonPavlova]

What are the transcripts some of you mention please?

[RobinHumphries]

I imagine Madge would look like Mary out of Downton

[Trills]

Because there are toooooooooo many topics

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

Robin I agree.

How big is the age gap between Madge and Joey please? I forget and it's bugging me.

[RobinHumphries]

12 years I think...

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Yes, def 12 years. They are 12 and 24 respectively in the first book.

But the characters wouldn't have been working class, would they - apart from permed and cheaply pretty Joan, obvs. So is it to do with avoiding the negative connotations of being 'fast' or fashionable? I wondered this, if there was some kind of conservatism to it - although of course it could also be a simple aesthetic preference. It was initially because I was trying to make sense of the earphones. (I still can't make sense of the earphones).

They could cull lots of other topics in order to create space for the Chalet School topic. I need a whole thread for hair, and there's definitely space for a whole thread on the food.

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

Thank you, that's what I thought... in Future CS girl the trips surmise that Madge is 43 (so Joey would be 31) but the trips are nearly 16 themselves.

EBD's magical ages in force again! And I have started to refer to them as the trips! aargh!

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Ah, maybe that's just flattery, or the typical teenage inability to guesstimate ages sensibly? And after all, Madame is so girlishly pretty.

(Why am I trying to suggest alternative explanations for obvious EBDisms?)

[Stratter5]

Transcripts? What transcripts? There's Chalet School stuff I've not read?

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

Sorry Nell I obviously didn't complete my thought. You're right - girls who went to the CS were not working class, apart from Joan Baker and she ate shop cake and had a perm. She's also about to get engaged to someone she met at the commercial college so is well common. I agree that it is maybe, like the "no ponytail" rule, to avoid appearing "common" or "working class" - EBD likes to stress how many girls can go back to help Mama before marriage and so don't need to work.

I was in future when (forgot name) is going to marry a schoolmaster so obviously will give up being a barrister as being a schoolmaster's wife will take up all her time. DD nearly had a kitten on the spot! And then the trips (aargh) saying they have to sew on all the boys name tapes on their school uniforms too (unspoken) as they are girls.

[Trills]

If you're mentioning What Katy Did - did you know there are two more book (that don't start with those words)?

They're all free on Kindle

And here's a hilarious review

[Stratter5]

A link to the transcripts? Please. And thank you.

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

My last sentence is so badly phrased that I need to have remedial grammar with Miss Annersley for the indefinite future.

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Do you think that was a personal fantasy, not having to work? Afaik EBD did, financially, have to work.

I may have generously misread this, but I think in Oberland there's a bit of self-conscious awkwardness around who does and doesn't have to get a job when they leave. A nice touch, though obvs 'having to get a job' is v much the two-servants-poor of eg The Railway Children rather than anything approaching actual inclusivity!

I shall message the transcript details!

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

She'll reduce you to tears and make a true Chalet girl of you, Joey!

[Stratter5]

Is this some kind of sad, closed clique, and you simply don't want to acknowledge any other poster? Or are you going to tell us where this Holy Grail of unseen CS transcripts hides? Because this is the fourth time someone has asked for them in 21 posts.

[LiberalLibertines]

I don't know what any of this means

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Erm. Ok.