Autumn Term at the Chalet School

[Vintagejazz]

Just starting a new thread here as I can't spot a new one.

So my lambs feel free to keep spreading the hanes, but watch the slang!

We used to play consequences in my dim and distant youth, which was a bit like book reviews only it went:

name of person 1
name of person 2
Where they met
person 1 said
person 2 said
and the consequence was...

As a child I found this the most hilarious thing ever. My own DDs were distinctly underwhelmed by it whenever I tried to get them to play, though.

Does anyone procrastinate with the online quiz site Sporcle? I'm rather addicted to it. You can look up quizzes on all sorts of things, and there are several where you have to guess (from clues) things beginning with particular letters of the alphabet, which has always seemed a bit like a progressive game to me. There's even a Chalet School quiz which some of you are bound to like.

Argh, I missed Feud! (I also missed Two Sams and Kenya, but I've not read either of those so it feels far more tolerable to forget those.)

I started listing the Armada second-half names (Rebel, Fete) in desperation to see if I could score any bonus points. You can't, fyi, but they do appear at the end of the list anyway, most gratifyingly.

I totally fail at the playing, appreciation, or nostalgic recollection of any/all paper games. I am clearly Joan Baker.

... Though I could probably be persuaded to enjoy any/all of them after enough wine, hels-style.

Reading Bride. The evening meal suddenly seems to be 'Abendessen' again. When did this restart? I am right in thinking it had become 'supper' (or similar) after the move from Austria, right? Was it reinstated at about the same time as German days, or is this brand new for this book because EBD has just written Oberland and picked the habit back up again? I suppose I could look back at Shocks really...

I think they start using the German names on the Island as a preparation for "going back to the Tyrol", Nell. I'm fairly sure it's not just Bride - I've just finished Shocks and I think it's in there.

I've just finished transcribing the first chapter of Excitements . The whole flipping chapter is a prefect meeting! Interestingly, it's the first one I can think of where it starts several weeks into term, and uses the first chapter to explain what's been happening. Or am I forgetting one?

well, I've got far enough through on transcripts to be reading a real book again, as I have the armarda pb of Leader but can't get the transcript doc to open on my e-reader.

NOt quite so handy as the e-rader on my phone, a paper back in my pocket is just going to get in the way.

Have a I missed something - how does one play book reveiws. consequences I know and used to play.
Beetle I still play regularly at an actual beetle drive evening, its more fun than it sounds and raises funds for the rec ground . Proper progressive games , with spot prizes and moving table to table and raffle and everything. We get 30-40 people along age range is about 5 - grandparents , sell tea, squash, wine, cake and crisps and charge a pound a head for the evenings games.

I think "Obligiatory"'s brother is called Martin.

Book Reviews is first played in whichever is the first Tyrol holiday book, with the Richardsons (Joey and Co. in the Tyrol, I think). There's various variations but they all seem to start the same. Everyone writes a made-up book title at the top their piece of paper, and folds it over so you can't see it. Then you pass the papers room, and everyone writes an alternative/sub-title, beginning with "or". Fold again, pass it on, and write an author - the rule we play with is that they have to be a real person, but they don't necessarily have to be an author. After that, there are various other categories you can do, depending on the amount of people playing - extracts from the book, reviews, name of publisher, reviews, and, the ones my brothers are most excited about including today as we're going to a friend's for Sunday lunch and with thus have more players: the name of the first person who brought the book, and what they did with it.

eg here's a "book review" from our most recent game (which was two whole days ago, as the DBs are anxious to remind me):

Yet another term at the Chalet School

Or a Gruesome Guide to the Darker Side of Yaoi, Slash and Shonen-ai

by Jr Hoillet

"This book was amazing. It told me about all of the fact about the animal called 'olms'. Obviously this book was short but it was still amazing. I used the last (and first) page as a tissue for when I had a nose bleed because there was no tissues in the vesinity"

*Left it it's original form, complete with all the spelling/grammar mistakes, courtesy of the twelve-year-olds.

Of course, it mostly ends up as something completely unintelligible like this, but sometimes you get flashes of genius such as:

I Accidently Gave Birth

or The Tale of the Tail

by King John

"This was a wonderful guide to pregnancy and labour. It was always politically correct, but the illustrations were...interesting"

The best things are the running gags that appear throughout, such as DB3's tail (as mentioned above) - he has a baboon onsie with a detachable tail which we're fond of stealing. There's also a running joke that DB2 loves Jimmy Carr and wants to marry him, hence endless pictures of [DB2's name] and Jimmy Carr's wedding (which turned into Harry Hill, as I forgot to give DB2 hair).

In the picture-sentence game we play (first person writes a sentence and draws a picture of it, folds over so only the picture is visible; next person writes a sentence of what they think the picture is, folds so only the sentence is visible; next person draws the picture of the sentence and folds etc) we have a fantastic sequence (even if I do say so myself) which begins "[DB2's name] driving Jimmy's Carr"

DD2 demanded last night that she needs some new chalet school books to read. I think we've pretty much got all of them that are affordable, but I think I'm duty bound to get some of the fill ins to read for her for Christmas aren't I after that?

Gruss Gott leiblings!

I have had such a lovely weekend reading from 40 onwards - think I got through three books and I haven't got bored of the Oberland (yet).

53/60. I got up to Mary Lou and then blanked. Had a few random ones thereafter but really a poor show.

I am trying to decide when to introduce them to my DD. She is 7. And then do i let her touch my precious hardbacks or make her read abridged paperbacks??

Ah but how many after Mary-Lou are really worth remembering, Cheddar?

hels: read to her from the hardbacks, of course. Other than that I have to say I'd be wary of letting anyone loose on my precious hardbacks, but perhaps I'm coming too much from the perspective of a mother of a younger child...
I suppose the plus side of the paperbacks is that the worst of the racism is edited out (iirc)? Your preference of course may be to keep those bits in in order to put them in proper context etc, but I can definitely see a strong strong case for avoiding them if possible.

DeWee lucky DD2!

I am about to start on Changes. I seem to move ever more slowly as the series goes on...

Is there a lot of racism in them? I also can not decide if i should read them to her or let her read them herself! She has the Naughtiest girl to egt through first anyway!!

There's not a lot of racism, in fact I think EBD deals well with the whole 'there's more than England in the world.'

That said, almost every unabridged book uses 'work like a N-word' to denote working very hard at least once Which is of course inexcusable to us now, but apart from that there's not much and there's certainly less colonialism than you'd get in Blyton. Both are very classist though.

It's probably a good lesson for DD on how language changes?

I was thinking about the repeated references to "working like a n-" (one of which is Mary Burnett as HG I think, so Rivals or Eustacia, but I've definitely noticed it elsewhere more recently on my read-through too), and Jo's "two little n- boys" in Joey Goes. V much of the time and not meaning deliberate offence, of course, but still rather jars for me when reading and I do sort of wish GGB had edited it out, in spite of my admiration of how faithful they are to the original text etc. I genuinely think it would do little harm to edit those few tiny lines, and a lot of good.

I'm probably taking a particular stance as the mother of a biracial child (the wrong sex, so of course he won't be reading the CS with me anyway, he'll be off to Winnie Embury's so I can have a break), and certainly my judgment is inferior because he's still so much younger. It's something I wondered whenever I come across those lines, though - how do I feel about exposing my child to casual and unchallenged terminology like that? I haven't worked out the answers...

Cross-posted because I took too long thinking while I was writing.

Total tangent now, but the thing that most interests me about the classism is that EBD really just doesn't pay a lot of attention to her domestic dogsbodies. Like how Karen is magically in Oberland and Shocks - clearly Nell Wilson and Julie Berné don't appear in Shocks because they've been earmarked for Switzerland, but it seems not to have occurred to EBD that Karen can't be in both places at once! Likewise the thing someone pointed out on here v recently about Rosa sharing a room with Anna at Cartref whilst also being in Canada.
And yet she's also, bless her, got a conscious anti-classism going on - usually expressed as "Our Lady was the wife of a humble carpenter" - and the pointed snobbery of Thekla is definitely supposed to be an example of bad manners. (Or, I suppose you might call it, 'ill breeding'. Ho hum.)

Jack refers to Grizel in reunion as 'free white and 21'.

The casual racism was par got the time I think. My dm tells me there was an actual cotton colour called 'n.. Brown' Cherry Christie is referred to as a cripple as is Deiras dd. I agree that it's a great lesson to show children how language and sensibilities change over time and understanding.

Just finished Adrienne and it's really bad. Seriously whacky and daft.

Isn't there a Karen at both the school and Welsen? Both cooks!

I liked the fact jack engages Rosli without knowing her age 'she's a younger sister and looks about 16'

And them she's shared between Joey, Biddy and Hilary.

Those were the days aye!

Oh to add airways makes me snort in changes when Madge says she's 'been up to her eyes getting the round house sorted as Marie kept it too beautifully like an exhibition house'

Thinking Madge stamping mud into the carpets and kicking the furniture!

That's a total retrospective explanation though, isn't it? In about Trials iirc there's suddenly this conversation between Hilda and Nell in which they refer to "my Karen" "your Karen". In Oberland there's no 'oh how funny, another Karen' remark - I take the later one to be EBD trying to correct an EBDism...

I have a vague feeling that Cicely Armitage randomly evolves into her cousin Davida Armitage in slightly dubious circumstances, but I'll wait and comment on that once I catch up to it

Also: poor bloody Rosli!

how about 'A Union rep comes to the platz'

Would be as funny as 'Ofsted and the chalet school'

There's also numerous references to 'hundreds of Pffeins' (totally wrong sp) as in a steady steam of serving wenches for Madge, Jo and the school.

And of course poor not-all-there Jockel

I agree with Nell though, I wish they had edited it out. I don't think it serves the story by staying in, in the way that the other replaced sections do.

Nell, as a complete aside, how do you feel about the 'reclamation' of the N word in rap music?