Only Chalet School? What about St. Claire's?
do you remember when the Sullivan twins started at St. Claire's, they were nervous, and homesick for their dear little prep, Red Roofs. (Red Rooves? wtf). Through some weird glitch in the matrix, I am now nostalgic for Red Roofs. Rooves. Roofies.
I went to a state middle school on a rough estate, in real life. BUT STILL there is a part of me that remembers the warm evening sun on the terracotta tiles of dear old welcoming little Red Roofuses.
the perversity of this is fascinating me because in the St Claire's books, the twins had already left it behind. It isn't even as if I am nostalgic for having read their experiences. It is an ultra-removed nostalgia for something that was only tangentially remembered in the books I read. And yet in a Total Recall way, or Eternal Sunshine way, it has wormed its way into my Nostalgia jar on the shelf in my head and can be taken out and licked, like a bon-bon being hoarded for 37 years. Mmm yum, red roofinis.
ALSO do you remember when Mavis, who had a wonderful singing voice, and used to show off about it, broke out of school to enter a rough and common talent contest, and caught a chill in the rain on the way back, and spent weeks in the San, and lost her voice?
THAT HAPPENED TO ME IN REAL LIFE! (I was 40) (I didn't enter a talent contest I just got all over invested and over excited about a solo and then got sick and couldn't do it)