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!

Sorry, pressed send too quickly there. I meant to ask, did anyone else use to have bouts of indescribable sadness whenever they got to the end of a CS book? As a child and teen I definitely had lots of early-Joey-ish feelings of loss about various girls growing up and leaving, and everything changing. It used to make me feel desperately sad. That went alongside CS books being difficult to get - I grew up in the era of random Armada reprints and you never knew what might be published next or when. So getting to the end of a book always meant the sadness of knowing you had to wait an indeterminate length of time for the next.

No-o. I wasn't really aware that the paperbacks were being published out of order. I do remember going to the big WH Smith in Aberdeen with Granny to be bought one each, but I think I just fatalistically accepted what was there.

Stop press: Miss Annersley dyes her hair! Proof: in Exile, she is described as having "threads of grey in sunny brown hair", whereas in (I think) Trials, at least 14 years later, Mary Lou asks the other prefects if anyone else had noticed grey in The Abbess' hair. What explanation but dye could there be?

I have often pondered this, irl to guessing her age which is less explicit and less consistent than most others, changing subtly a number of times and on the whole (IMO) decreases as time goes by. I think EBD is reluctant to allow her to age - hence the increasing obsession with her lack of glasses, perhaps. In Carola she's been teaching for 27 years (which would make her no younger than, what, 48?). In Excitements, she says she was still in her twenties when she joined the school 18/19 years earlier (can't be older than 48?). And then in Challenge she says she was "not much over thirty" when she became headmistress... It's like she's permanently not-quite-fifty.

I sometimes wonder whether Nell's suddenly not-all-white-after-all hair is a similar thing, but I'm not so sure about that. Her age is perfectly consistent (12 years older than Joey, like Madge). I think earlier in the series Hilda is supposed to be noticeably older than this, but later on EBD forgets/prefers to think that all three are much the same age.

Actually not entirely unrelated to this bizarrely-detailed rambling: on mornington's question about book-ending disappointments - my very first was actually the Trials/Theodora 2-in-1 which I think was the final Armada reprint, so I don't recall actual unavailability of titles in that sense, but my access (mostly libraries) was fairly random and limited so I did have that same sense of 'onoes, over again!', if perhaps in a different way. But I am really, really struck reading through now, how frequently I feel saddened actually in the middle of books by the obvious decline in quality, and the good times which are gone and will not come back. I can be sat reading a Swiss one and suddenly feel myself really yearning for the particular innocence of the Tyrol books. Before the Nazis, before Grizel gets her heart trampled over for the umpteenth time, before everyone gets married off and boring - even Daisy the award-winning lady doctor, before Herr Marani dies when Maria is just a carefree Naughty Middle, before Marjorie Durrant loses her husband and child, before Joey becomes so unbearable, before Con Stewart runs off to get married ffs, before Sybil is problematised into a kind of Victorian moral tale, before Evvy Lannis and Hilary Burn lose fiancés in the war...

Agreed mornington and in fact in my not-read-Reunion childhood I was fairly convinced that Grizel and Deira had lived happily ever after in NZ! It would be a better happy ending, but tbh I'm happy to take whatever chance of happiness is offered to Grizel. And I do find Jo quite likeable in how she unhesitatingly opens up her home to Grizel, although it has taken her bloody decades to do so in spite of happily declaring Juliet and Robin 'sisters' all along.

Tl;dr.
Hair dye is evidence of EBD's reluctance to believe Hilda will ever be old.
Nothing's as good as wot it used to be.
I will gladly take any happy ending Grizel's offered.

Oh and Cheddar there is near-death in Peggy at least! When Jo arrives having been shipwrecked on her way over. There is somewhere an excellent short fic using a large section of this text to show Jo as possibly bipolar, which was interesting and now totally colours my reading of that scene. It is a bloody boring book though.

To be fair to Joey Robin and Juliet are sisters in that Madge is their guardian whereas Grizel does in fact have parents of her own, even if they are useless.

I also have a similar feeling reading the Swiss books. I really miss those lovely Tirol days where the characters actually seemed real!

That's true, but - from memory - doesn't Jo rather adamantly adopt Robin as a sister well before Madge actually becomes her guardian? In fact doesn't Eustacia become a Russell ward before Robin does? I can't think when Ted dies - is it New House or earlier than that?
I can see how Madge's more adult and sensitive approach to who is and isn't Die Rosen 'family' takes into account living (rubbish) families, but I don't really see that Joey would have perceived it the same way. In fact, I could just as easily see Young Jo feeling cross at Juliet for invading, and never managing to forgive her for disobeying Madge, holding some objectionable opinions etc.

When Joey 'displaces an organ slightly' in Richenda and goes to England for an operation, what sort of organ would that be? My organs generally seem to stay in their allotted places. Could it gave been a discreet reference to a prolapse? But would a prolapse make you vomit, as is mentioned earlier?

I suspect that Robin, being so much younger than Joey, was adopted by her as a sister before it became more official just because of her age and generally cuteness. Whereas Grizel being older and less cute(!) would have been less appealing in the adopted sister role!!

When Robin is dropped off, Father Ted is off to Russia where (presumably) they think he's going to be eaten by a bear or something, so the Bettanys immediately go into in loco parentis mode, in a way they don't do with anyone else (at that time, it obviously becomes a mania with Joey later on).

I didn't read Richenda as a child Tricky but when I read the transcript recently I was definitely thinking there was a prolapse involved. She'd had 8 weans by then, hadn't she?

Also who mentioned spreadsheets? In the Chalet School we use interlined albums to keep track of our old girls....

Lots of glorious spreadsheets charming interlined albums with pastel pages here. I've spotted a few errors (IMO, obvs) and it's not as smoothly put together as the GGB encyclopaedia, but that's still only half-published - plus freely available resources are wondrous things and I am grateful.

I think EBD just invented the slightly displaced organ. I am baffled by it. Of course it seems to me like a prolapse but I just can't believe she would have explicitly written about a prolapse. I mean this is the CS where nobody ever menstruates and pregnancy is signified by the wearing of a shawl or references to Anna being very busy soon.

Is it just me who, now, every time a character says 'very busy' I imagine they stop, bend forward, and say it in a really portentous way. Like the X Factor announcer in a horror movie.

'We can't disturb Joey about this now. She's going to be...... very busy.'

Oh, hello. I'm a new girl and I was told that a nice sheepdog called Mary Lou would be looking after me. But I haven't seen any dogs, only a rather bossy girl who told me not to use the word 'smashing' and to report to Matron for unpacking. Well the thing is, mummy taught me all the basic lifeskills so I actually know how to unpack a suitcase myself.
Oh, and a strange lady with a funny hair do and a scary smile told me I was to go over to her house for tea on Saturday. I've never seen her in my life before and mummy told me never to go anywhere with strangers.

Can anyone help me?

Don't worry. After a mug or two of special milk all will become clear.

Yes I was puzzled by the displaced organ too. Why does she have to go to Sir James Talbot - can't Jack just give her some extra special milk and have a rummage around? I don't think a prolapse would make you sick would it? And is a honeymoon really a good idea straight afterwards? Is that when she gets upduffed with the twins?
I am a veritable Jack Lambert of question marks.

Welcome, fallingovercliffs. So long as you haven't brought any shop-bought cake in your tuck box you'll do just fine. Please may I come with you to Mrs Maynard's house on Saturday? I'm still hoping against hope that if I implore her to sing with enough enthusiasm and imploringness, I'll be chosen as a baby angel in the Nativity play.

Extra special milk and a rummage yes, that sounds like getting upduffed to me.

By the way, Falling, has anyone mentioned that you will have to speak French and German all day four days a week? In lessons and everything?

Whaaat? Mummy never said a word about languages. Why didn't the school put it in the prospectus.

Ooh I'd love to be an angel in the nativity play. How do I go about getting a part?

Oh no, don't mention the Nativity Play - Joey's only just got over the sulks about having to include Emily's kapok humping star twirling and my role as 14th sheep. Ask her to sing, Mornington, and work on a look of devout adoration while she does it. Always works.

I have just started New Mistress and already there's loads Armada left out. How could they have got rid of Biddy asking Kathie if she is a Trollopian like herself, within seconds of meeting her?

Ha! I didn't notice that the Trollopian bonding had been snipped out by Armada, although I should have because I grinned at it this read-through in spite of having read the pb several times previously.

We could placate Joey by reminding her that she might have to lift up her golden voice and sing (whilst clutching her small children to her in terror) from the audience in order to stop the stampede to the door when some feckless Jockel-alike sets the stage on fire. A la Excitements. (How could I have slagged of Excitements, when it has moments of such heroism hidden inside?)

Welcome Falling! And what a very fitting name you have. We won't need to get Joey to shorten it to Ted or Biff or anything.

I actually used to know someone who used the word 'rummage' to invite someone to do, well. Things no decent Chalet girl would ever mention. NB I never personally received this invitation.

I'm actually always impressed when someone seeks out Sir James Talbot rather than simply asking their own husband, or the husband of their friends! Single-handedly propping up clinical governance, he is. She should definitely be packed off to Penny Rest/Robin's convent afterwards though, instead of getting upduffed yet again. I often imagine that after Mollie and Dick palm off Bride and Jackie onto the Russells, Jem has a tactful doctorly-brotherly word with Dick about not impregnating his wife so bloody frequently, but obviously this scenario is somewhat undermined by Jack and Joey's reckless procreation in the face of her supposed 'delicacy'.

Why is Joey beloved by random herdsmen? Otto Schneider would lie for her re Daisy in Exile, despite never being mentioned before or since. Makes you wonder whether she was in the habit of inviting them for a rummage or to displace an organ or two.

Ted Humphries dies shortly before Exile opens, doesn't it? Or is it actually earlier than that? And Young Jo (Joey-baba?) was all set to hate Juliet - "if they've worried Madge, I'll - I'll - I'll take it out on Juliet!" until Madge tells her the whole story of the Carricks ditching Juliet (starting the tradition of over-sharing with Joey) and Joey's heart is touched and she instantly resolves to be nice to her instead.

A prolapse would make me vom, Emily, when I glanced down and spotted it in my knickers. But perhaps she means a hernia instead - after all, Jo's stomach muscles must have been utterly shot after all those pregnancies, esp a triplet pregnancy. Do hernias make you sick?

Ah, Nell, but Jo and Jack are Catholics, and therefore no discussion about contraception can be had.

TooExtra Because Joey is beloved by everyone, even those who don't like her really adore her but are trying to suppress their feelings. Didn't you know? A random herdsman seems quite tame compared with who names their child/names her as guardian after her in later years.

Well fancy that. Googling tells me that abdominal hernias can result from multiple pregnancies and can cause nausea and vomiting. Surely Jack could have diagnosed that with or without a rummage.

"Oh, Otto, come here and displace my organ" is nearly as romantic as "what a solid lump of comfort you are", isn't it?

Oversharing doesn't ever guarantee Jo going all 'soft black eyes' and sympathy, does it? Thinking of Joyce "but she didn't kiss the Robin" Linton, for example. And presumably Jo was told about Eustacia being recently orphaned? Although perhaps not, cos the way all the staff carry on it seems as if nobody got told about that.

I was about to suggest that Joey had a hernia but Cheddar beat me to it