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.

I think with the kit they would have had at the time, skiing probably was much harder than it is now - wooden, straight skis, much longer than modern ones, probably with just a few leather straps to attach normal walking boots to. I attempted skiing with some 80s-ish skis once and it was way harder for a beginner! I also expect they had nowhere near the lift infrastructure there is now, so would have been more limited in where they could go.

I'm also not really sure if EBD knows the difference between downhill and cross country skiing, because what she describes seems to be a weird mix of both!

Perhaps they all had to rescue someone to gain a special Guide Rescuer badge while they were at the school, so the staff did not bother with risk assessments & encouraged the girls to hang around in dangerous places?

I remember when Joey rescued someone from St. Scholastika's, someone else was pissed off that the CS hadn't yet started Guides, as Joey would have been entitled to some sort of badge or award if she'd been a Guide.

Or somesuch nonsense.

And more or less all of the St Scholastika bad behaviour was attributed to the fact they didn't have Guides. I don't think the Chalet School girls came out of that particularly well despite all being Guides, so go figure.

I will put in a word in defence of the various "amusements". I think you have to remember this is a world without TV and internet and probably, where the girls live, with limited access to light reading. And I can't imagine they were allowed to go to the cinema, far too common.

You get descriptions of similar things in Little Women and its sequels.

Someone did a follow up story which featured Amy Stevens doing war work at Bletchley and there was another follow up which had Jeanne Le Cadoulec ( I think) working for the Resistance.

Think these might have been in the Friends Of the Chalet School newsletter not that I read that sort of thing

And I can't imagine they were allowed to go to the cinema, far too common

Quite. But they were allowed to go once, IIRC, in The Mystery at the Chalet School.

It wasn't much of a mystery, either. The older sister of the main character, a new girl, was a film star.

The CS were taken to see a film that the sister was in, and OF COURSE, someone fell down the stairs at the cinema, knocked herself out and had to be taken to hospital.

One of the mistresses tended to her and (also OF COURSE) a random doctor appeared by her side and gave first aid.

I always wondered if the mistress and the doctor got together. The book is surprisingly silent on this point.

I also receive the Friends of the Chalet School newsletter which naturally I do not read.

Wasnt it suggested that the doctor in Mystery was the one Mary Burnett got engaged to and was referred to in a later book @TheShellBeach .

Also glad there are other people not reading newsletters btw

Yes that’s right!

There is such a thing???? How do I know if my dd has the original versions /editions?

Jeez. MORE bullshit about hair.

I am currently reading Peggy of the CS, in which Peggy Bettany is made Head Girl despite there being older and more experienced girls available. I suppose the Heads couldn't resist having a relation of Madge and Joey's.

Polly Winterton is a new girl...............

"Your hair! You look like a shock-headed Peter! Go back and give it a good brushing, do!" Primrose urged.

"Oh rats! I'll do nothing of the sort!"

Naturally, Polly bumps into Joey, who tells her in no uncertain terms to go back and brush her "g**wg" mop.

Needless to day, Joey is exultant that Peggy has been made Head Girl.

"Congratulations, my lamb! The very first of the second generation to be Head Girl! Aren't we proud! At least, I am! And your mother will be shortly! I'm ringing her up this very night to tell her!"

Typical Joey, not letting anyone give news to their parents themselves.

Very likely. I get terribly mixed up with all the mistresses who are called Burn and Burnett.

There seems to be loads of them and I get them all confused.

They probably all married doctors.

One of the mistresses tended to her and (also OF COURSE) a random doctor appeared by her side and gave first aid.

This is a rather disturbing trend, isn’t it?

There’s quite a few cases where mistresses meet doctors as a direct result of one of the pupils having a nasty accident.

I have always wanted to know why the CS was so opposed to slang, but so keen on using bizarre and annoying abbreviations.

"Brekker" "Cubey" "Dormey" "Hols" and the oddest of the lot - "Coll".

I have never come across anyone who abbreviates "College" to "Coll".

Also, while we're on the subject of slang, why do they all (mistresses included) say "BRATS" and "SCRAM"?
Calling DC "BRATS" is unacceptable IMHO.

There's various updated editions, some more ridiculous than others, for EB. I always wonder why editors like updating EB so much when they don't update other authors in the same way. I mean EBD just gets things like "working like a...." which are clearly offensive, changed. Len slaps Margot in one book, I think the one where Ted comes to the Chalet School. That wasn't altered in the edition of books that came out about the same time they were erasing all slaps by EB.

I think the most ridiculous one was around late 80s/early 90s edition which as something like this:

Original: Jack Trent's thoughts in one of the adventure series)
"If I was Lucy Ann, then I'd sit down and cry, but as I'm a boy I suppose I have to just grin and bear it".

Updated:
"As I'm a boy I can sit down and cry; it's a good thing I'm not Lucy Ann as I'd have to just grin and bear it as girls don't cry."

What strikes me as especially silly is they could have changed "as I'm a boy" to "as I'm older" which still makes sense.

In the Faraway/Wishing Chair books Dame Slap is changed to Dame Snap. I remember my oldest just being bemused as to why she was so feared. It's not even as though what she says is particularly bad-more Dame Grumpy really. When I found an original it made far more sense to dd.
And Daryll now "tells off" Gwendolyn rather than slapping her, which loses a lot. Telling her off is clearly reasonable. Slapping her is not. Part of Daryll is that she isn't a perfect heroine, she has faults-but she admits them.

I've recently discovered fadedpage.com, which makes old books available. Having read The New Abbey Girls, which includes an Italian heiress, they take her clothes shopping. In the unabridged version, when she wants a red dress but says "you couldn't wear it, could you?" Joy says "you ni**ery people look good in bright colours".

I have never come across anyone who abbreviates "College" to "Coll"

This abbreviation appears a lot in Angela Brazil's books - very possibly an influence on EBD.

Re the word “Brats” Joey says it in practically every sentence in one book - I think it’s Joey Goes to The Oberland. Very annoying!!

Oh, that's wonderful, I'm sorted for a couple of hours on Saturday night, even longer if penalties are involved, thanks very much.

I mean if you knew if you pushed a child down the stairs at the cinema you would meet and marry a hunky doctor and not have to work at the CS and deal with Joey as much...

I am pretty sure that doctor ends up working at the san, so she ends up living next to the school in Switzerland anyway

And spends the next 5 years on MN asking if her neighbour is a CF and if it's okay to LTB if her DH won't leave the country to work somewhere else 😆

Of course if he ends up working at the san (I had forgotten that) maybe we have this the wrong way round. Maybe he was not a well paid doctor and he knew if he got in with the chalet school he would end up working at the well paid San. Maybe he pushed the child down the stairs..

Does Joey do much socialising with the other doctors wives?

I’m wondering now, would you see more of Joey married to a doctor at the San, or as a Chalet School teacher?

I suppose at least it’d be easier to cut Joey off as a doctor’s wife. Joey must have some pull at the Chalet School or they’d have barred her from the premises. I know EBD wants us to think all the staff love Joey, but she’s just there so very very often…