AIBU To Think That The Chalet School Matron Would Be In Prison Nowadays

[TheShellBeach]

..........................for giving unprescribed sedatives to the girls so frequently.

(lighthearted) (in case a million people tell me that IABU)

The Chalet School Matron was forever doling out sedatives to the girls, without even asking Jack Maynard to prescribe them first.
Shocking stuff. Nowadays, she would be jailed and struck off the NMC Register.

And in Enid Blyton they had sardines smushed into sponge cake. That's at least as disgusting as raw bacon.

Billious attacks. Anyone having a midnight feast will definitely have one and need dosing by matron.

One of the most unbearable characters was The Robin (who saved Joey from pneumonia by singing a lullaby called the Red Caravan or something, I seem to remember).

EBD seemed to have decided that she was Too Good For This World ('child of Christ, gathered back into his arms because he loved her too much') but couldn't actually bring herself to kill her off. So she just lurked around being pointlessly delicate and eventually became a nun, which was presumably the next best thing to being a tragic dead heroine.

Is that not 99% of the reason why you have a matron? 😆

Maybe. There’s also the checking that the beds have been stripped or made in the only way acceptable to matron and checking drawers for tidiness. And making jam for the Sale.

Ah yes, checking the drawers. They'd all die if that wasn't seen to.

Which reminds me, the morning routine in the Chalet School was excruciating. Imagine dragging yourself out of bed to 'shake a leg' for Mary Lou?

Though who knows why, because several books earlier the entire CS regularly wore climbing breeches for winter walks and snowfights, so trousers weren’t at all unfamiliar. I’ve never understood why by the Swiss books, they were all climbing up to the shelf above wearing their full school uniform and blazers they weren’t allowed to take off.

Maybe Austrian trousers are different? 🤔

And why did she drop the Guides in such a wholesale fashion. I always wondered that. Though I can't say I loved those bits so probably a net benefit for me.

It’s the expectation that everyone has a cold bath in the morning that would do it for me.

There’s a definite implication that someone wanting to wash in warm or even tepid water would be lacking in moral fibre 🙄

And then weren’t they only allocated about 5 minutes each to wash in the mornings?

I can’t help but wonder if body odour was a problem or just considered perfectly normal.

I’ve not read though the thread in detail but it’s good to see an aibu about the chalet school with 359 comments 😀

It’s the expectation that everyone has a cold bath in the morning that would do it for me.

God yeah. Awful.

That's why I never really wanted to go. My friend did and badgered her mother to send her to this imaginary wonderland. But I knew I couldn't hack a cold bath so I kept stum.

Much discussion on the raw bacon issue in other places (and MN threads) have concluded that this was EBD’s take on speck.

I'm so glad to find someone else who's read them. I have the Dimsie titled ones and the Springdale series.

I couldn't get into Dimsie. Though I lost my heart to Antonia Forest.

Much discussion on the raw bacon issue in other places (and MN threads) have concluded that this was EBD’s take on speck.

I still don't see why she was expelled for it 😂

I do love Anthony Buckeridge as well. Both the Jennings books and the non boarding school other series he wrote which I cannot recall and am too lazy to get out of bed and walk over to my bookcase and look.

It was her general malign influence on the younger kids rather than her love of Mittel-European cured meat that saw her out of the door.

It’s been a while since I read the book with Thekla in it, but IIRC she didn’t get on with Joey 🤔

It was her general malign influence on the younger kids rather than her love of Mittel-European cured meat that saw her out of the door.

Much to my shock, when I finally figured that out.

Also, she was Prussian. Perhaps that was worse than raw meat?

And Joyce's major sin was not fawning over the Robin. Because God forbid a child would want an iota of attention for herself, when Robin was around. Not acceptable Joyce.

I loved both! And love EBD at her best, though she did write rather too much and her worst books are pretty boring. One of my favourite writers in the genre is the surprisingly neglected Evelyn Smith. On the other hand, I've never been able to get into Elsie Oxenham's Abbey books, which many school story fans love.

Doomed.

I love the Jennings books - often hilarious! Is the day school series 'Rex Milligan'? I like that too, though not as much as Jennings. I particularly love Jennings' best friend Darbishire: how refreshing to have a character in a school story who is likeable despite NOT being remotely sporty. I think my favourite book in the series is the one where they edit 'The Form Three Times'.

She told the mistresses that she hated Joey Bettany.
No wonder she came to a bad end.
Definite grounds for expulsion.

Maybe she meant Lederhosen?

I like the idea of Joey, Bill, Jack and co schlepping through the mountains dressed as the Von Trapp family in full festival regalia.

Also, Thekla was mean to Big Sophie Hamel, who was From Trade, and couldn’t believe her Hochgeboren Cousin Marie was at school with such low-born types. Also, I think she wore frilly petticoats to jump over some candles for one of those deeply bizarre staff evenings that make you realise this was a school in the middle of nowhere where making your own jigsaws for kicks was the most fun you could have on winter evening, and set her nether regions on fire.