Things You Remember From School

Motley Crue · 24-07-2010 03:44PM #1

Anything funny or quirky you remember from your school days, particular those who grew up in Irish schools, who might remember little happy memories...or sad ones, if you wanna put them down!

My one is about the free Milk they used to give us in Primary School - I'm assuming they still do that - and they used to deliver it to the Reception who would then distribute it around the school to the door of each classroom. We had the Milk during "Little Break" and once a month, normally on a Friday, it would be the Strawberry Milk.

That would always be a good day - like a day when you could wear your tracksuit to school as opposed to your uniform

And did anyone used to have a "colours day" where you'd wear your normal clothes, or a football shirt, into school and they'd give money to charity?

Mickeroo · 24-07-2010 03:48PM

WE had milk too, but we had the option of strawberry flavoured milk called "Benny Buny" or plain old dawn milk.

Ruu_Old · 24-07-2010 03:51PM

We had Champion milk (cyclist on the front I think), small cartons. We took turns delivering it to each classroom.
Most of the nearby schools got to wear normal clothes but we had a uniform so we had 'denim day' every once in a while. Also, who could forget sports day. Egg and spoon (or spud) race, sack race, two legged race, penalties, etc.

Biggins · 24-07-2010 03:52PM

* MANY, many, many years ago, the free buns handed out to those that were thought not to be well fed at home!
* The free milk too.
* The leather!
* The thick headed bastard "Brothers" in their black gowns.
* The wallops and the black eyes we got from them.
* The endless amounts of "echo"

briany · 24-07-2010 03:53PM

The milk we got in my school was..........god it was god-awful stuff. Firstly some of the cartons were leaky and that made them sticky. They were left beside the sand pit so they got sand on them and they had been left out since morning. So in effect we got some lovely sandy, room temperature and slightly off tasting milk. Mmmmmm.........

ROCKMAN · 24-07-2010 03:54PM

The Black-Jack,
**** of a thing in the hands of an evil robe wearing bastard .

sh1tstirrer · 24-07-2010 03:54PM

Strawberry flavoured milk

ejmaztec · 24-07-2010 03:57PM

I remember the day I started and the day I left, the bit in between being a bit of a blur.

Berty · 24-07-2010 03:58PM

I remember the milk but we used to also have a store that had those small mineral bottle things that are mostly sugar than liquid(you know the ones).

We would arrive around 8:30 in the morning and offer to sweep the small area where every night it appeared a cyclone would appear and wreck the place. We would then head in and raid all the drinks.

We used to have Strawberry and plain milk and you know your parents were either poor or miserable because at the start of the year the teacher would keep pestering you for the money but you were never given it. *Sob

I remember in secondary school when people in Limerick were loosing their jobs all over the place and the school president was telling me that I needed to take the book grant(dad lost his job) but my father was too proud to take it so we ended up after weeks of pestering to take it and tore up the cheque. Also my father received 1000's in redundancy and in the early 90's that was millions.

alwaysadub · 24-07-2010 03:59PM

In Primary school, we'd get our milk first for some reason, so if we got flavoured milk, we'd put it in the freezer, so by little break it was like an ice cream.

Sports Day. Hated it with a passion, cos i was useless at all them.

Going to Mosney and Newgrange for school trips.

Playing in the yard at lunch, specially when we were older and bigger and we were able to move up to the 'big yard'.

Wondering what type of sandwiches you'd get, then trying to swap or get rid of them if you didn't want them.

Ah,i've a load of good memories of primary school

mikemac · 24-07-2010 04:02PM

Berty wrote: »

have a store that had those small mineral bottle things that are mostly sugar than liquid(you know the ones).

Cadet Cola? From your location it's got to be Cadet

Márla was the name.
We never called it plasticine
Years later when I heard plasticine I had to check what it actually was.

Berty · 24-07-2010 04:04PM

feelingstressed wrote: »

Cadet Cola? From your location it's got to be Cadet

Nope. It was actually Shannon Minerals which you can buy locally in Dunnes and Tesco. 3 Litres of Cola, Orange, Ice Cream Soda etc etc €1

arse..biscuits · 24-07-2010 04:06PM

The day the dog got in

phasers · 24-07-2010 04:08PM

You got free milk?

We got feck all, did this stop or was my school holding out on us?

Hank_Jones · 24-07-2010 04:08PM

I remember that if you were in trouble and the principal happened to be around, he'd have you put your hands on the table and then proceed to crack you across the fingers with a ruler.

He was a right evil, vindictive bastard.

This would have been in the mid 90's as well (I'm so old)..

bonerm · 24-07-2010 04:09PM

We had these annual "school magazines" (which consisted mainly of submitted articles, class photos and adverts to foot the bill for the thing). By weird coincidence (regarding these thread) I dug out mine for the first time in years exactly today.

As I looked over my class photos it was funny because whilst I clearly remembered all the names and faces of everyone I finished 6th class with. as I went over the previous years new faces started appearing that I had forgotten.

Somehow I had created this false memory that I'd started Junior Infants and finished 6th class with the exact same bunch of people - or that at the very least no one had left the school. Weird how a childs mind (or at least my mind) seems to create an illusion of stability in order to combat even the smallest changes in their life.

CorsetIsTight · 24-07-2010 04:19PM

The thrill of being chosen to clean the blackboard dusters by whacking them against the wall at the back of the school.

Berty · 24-07-2010 04:28PM

I remember sticking my biro in the fan of the projector whilst the projector was on and being used by the teacher. It would flicker and you would hear this sound like a tree going through a mill.

I, of course, continued to look very innocent.

Robby91 · 24-07-2010 04:29PM

Aside from what's already been mentioned (i.e. milk and marla, although there was a terrible smell of that stuff), I remember having to race around the school in 5th or 6th class with the bell to signify the start of each lunch break - looking back on it, makes me think I (and everyone else, doing it when it came round to their 2-day turn at it) must've looked like right gob****es running around flailing a little bell like mad :P

Ah, primary school was a good laugh ^^

Little Acorn · 24-07-2010 04:30PM

We had milk and "yogi"-it wasn't strawberry milk, it was drinkable strawberry yoghurt like YOP, except it came in cartons like the milk.

Only 2 or 3 kids got the yogi and were considered to have very weird tastes. :pac:

I remember collecting the tabs of the milk cartons too for some reason.

Berty · 24-07-2010 04:32PM

I remember all the mothers would park illegaly(as they still do) out the back of the school and a horse broke out of a local manor house stable and jumped all over her car and put in the windscreen while she was sitting in the car.

It was hilarious back then but surely rather terrifying for the woman. It didnt interrupt me eating my sandwhich of course.

Another day a truck, whilst building the celtic tiger houses, hit a wodden telephone pole(or something) and the wire landed next to a guy(still remember his name) and starting making that elecy sound whilst hopping all around him. He actually p*ssed his pants.

Not too long after that I made the mistake many make of calling my teacher "dad". Oh the pain of that lasted a long time. :mad:

Pauleta · 24-07-2010 04:44PM

Premier League stickers and Pogs

lilminx · 24-07-2010 04:48PM

Every class room had one and it was for collecting money for the African Missions. And every week there were these chalk statues given out for best picture or something and we'd use them to draw hopscotch mazes in the yard! Remember I got in trouble once for using one of Our Lady or something to draw pictures on the wall..

And I loved being picked to 'do the duster's. But I remember that each term 2 lucky girls were given the special task of cleaning the 'shared area's. (for years I didn't get the name and thought it was some magical foreign word)

But the special task involved cleaning it from top to bottom and it would take the whole day, used to have to scrub floors and everything. It was slave labour but we'd all jump at the chance to do it for some reason. You'd get a kitkat or something after finishing.

Ah remember once, someone peed in the corner of the shared area and the teachers of the three classes that shared it called us all in a line and told us that the guards had been called to test the wee for DNA and if the person who did it owned up they wouldn't get in trouble!! Scared the behoobas outta us!

Mimikyu · 24-07-2010 04:51PM

This post has been deleted.

MIRMIR82 · 24-07-2010 04:57PM

Does anyone remember the mouth wash they gave out in primary school? A nurse of some sort came around once a week and poured it into little plastic cups. It was the most horrendous tasting stuff!We used to pretend to put it in our mouths and cover the cup with our hand-real rebels us!!!:)

Oh and the milk in our school had to be paid for - needless to say we never got it. Too poor!!

JohnMearsheimer · 24-07-2010 04:59PM

We used to get cartons of Dawn milk as well at lunch time. For some reason I stopped drinking it for a while and started stockpiling in my bag not realising at the time (I was only about 5) what a really bad idea it was. One day I came home from school and threw my bag on the floor a little bit too hard.......sour milk all over my bag and the hall carpet. Anyway, my mother went crazy and a painful lesson was learned that day.

ROCKMAN · 24-07-2010 05:00PM

Warning very long post !

This thread reminded me of a post in the soccer forum last year ,it a hell of a long post but well worth a read, for anyone who dreamed and played .

By Dub13 (thank you and I hope you don't mind )

Playground Football Rules(those were the days)
The memories...

Matches shall be played over three unequal periods: two playtimes and a lunchtime. Each of these periods shall begin shortly after the ringing of a bell, and although a bell is also rung towards the end of these periods, play may continue for up to ten minutes afterwards, depending on the nihilism or “bottle” of the participants with regard to corporal punishment met out to latecomers back to the classroom.

In practice there is a sliding scale of nihilism, from those who hasten to stand in line as soon as the bell rings, known as “poofs”, through those who will hang on until the time they estimate it takes the teachers to down the last of their gins and journey from the staffroom, known as “chancers”, and finally to those who will hang on until a teacher actually has to physically retrieve them, known as “bampots”.

This sliding scale is intended to radically alter the logistics of a match in progress, often having dramatic effects on the scoreline as the number of remaining participants drops. It is important, therefore, in picking the sides, to achieve a fair balance of poofs, chancers and bampots in order that the scoreline achieved over a sustained period of play - a lunchtime, for instance - is not totally nullified by a five-minute post-bell onslaught of five bampots against one.

The scoreline to be carried over from the previous period of the match is in the trust of the last bampots to leave the field of play, and may be the matter of some debate.

This must be resolved in one of the approved manners (see Adjudication).

Parameters

The object is to force the ball between two large, unkempt piles of jackets, in lieu of goalposts. These piles may grow or shrink throughout the match, depending on the number of participants and the prevailing weather. As the number of players increases, so shall the piles. Each jacket added to the pile by a new addition to a side should be placed on the inside, nearest the goalkeeper, thus reducing the target area.

It is also important that the sleeve of one of the jackets should jut out across the goalmouth, as it will often be claimed that the ball went “over the post” and it can henceforth be asserted that the outstretched
sleeve denotes the innermost part of the pile and thus the inside of the post.

The on-going reduction of the size of the goal is the responsibility of any respectable defence and should be undertaken conscientiously with resourcefulness and imagination.

In the absence of a crossbar, the upper limit of the target area is observed as being slightly above head height, although when the height at which a ball passed between the jackets is in dispute, judgement shall lie with an arbitrary adjudicator from one of the sides. He is known as the “best fighter”; his decision is final and may be enforced with physical violence if anyone wants to stretch a point.

There are no pitch markings. Instead, physical objects denote the boundaries, ranging from the most common - walls and buildings – to roads or burns. Corners and throw-ins are redundant where bylines or touchlines are denoted by a two-storey building or a six-foot granite wall. Instead, a scrum should be instigated to decide possession. This should begin with the ball trapped between the brickwork and two opposing players, and should escalate to include as many team members as can get there before the now egg-shaped ball finally emerges, drunkenly and often with a dismembered foot and shin attached. At this point, goalkeepers should look out for the player who takes possession of the escaped ball and begins bearing down on goal, as most of those involved in the scrum will be unaware that the ball is no longer amidst their feet.

The goalkeeper should also try not to be distracted by the inevitable fighting that has by this point broken out.

In games on large open spaces, the length of the pitch is obviously denoted by the jacket piles, but the width is a variable. In the absence of roads, water hazards or “a big dug”, the width is determined by how far out the attacking winger has to meander before the pursuing defender gets fed up and lets him head back towards where the rest of the players are waiting, often as far as quarter of a mile away.

It is often observed that the playing area is “no’ a full-size pitch”. This can be invoked verbally to justify placing a wall of players eighteen inches from the ball at direct free kicks It is the formal response to “yards”, which the kick-taker will incant meaninglessly as he places the ball.

The Ball

There is a variety of types of ball approved for Primary School Football. I shall describe the most popular:

The rough-finish Mitre or Trophy 5. Half football, half Portuguese Man o’ War. On the verge of a ban in the European Court of Human Rights, this model is not for sale to children. Used exclusively by teachers during gym classes as a kind of aversion therapy. Made from highly durable fibre-glass, stuffed with neutron star and coated with dead jellyfish. Advantages: looks quite grown up, makes for high-scoring matches (keepers won’t even attempt to catch it). Disadvantages: scars or maims anything it touches.

Offside

There is no offside, for two reasons: one, “it’s not’ a full-size pitch”, and two, none of the players actually know what offside is. The lack of an offside rule gives rise to a unique sub-division of strikers. These players hang around the opposing goalmouth while play carries on at the other end, awaiting a long pass forward out of defence which they can help past the keeper before running the entire length of the pitch with their arms in the air to greet utterly imaginary adulation. These are known variously as “poachers”, “gloryhunters” and “fly wee bastarts”. These players display a remarkable degree of self-security, seemingly happy in their own appraisals of their achievements, and caring little for their team-mates’ failure to appreciate the contribution they have made. They know that it can be for nothing other than their enviable goal tallies that they are so bitterly despised.

Adjudication

The absence of a referee means that disputes must be resolved between the opposing teams rather than decided by an arbiter. There are two accepted ways of doing this. 1. Compromise. An arrangement is devised that is found acceptable by both sides. Sway is usually given to an action that is in accordance with the spirit of competition, ensuring that the game does not turn into “a pure skoosh”. For example, in the event of a dispute as towhether the ball in fact crossed the line, or whether the ball has gone inside or “over” the post, the attacking side may offer the ultimatum: “Penalty or goal.” It is not recorded whether any side has ever opted for the latter. It is on occasions that such arrangements or ultimata do not prove acceptable to both sides that the second adjudicatory method comes into play.

Team Selection

To ensure a fair and balanced contest, teams are selected democratically in a turns-about picking process, with either side beginning as a one-man selection committee and growing from there. The initial selectors are usually the recognised two Best Players of the assembled group. Their first selections will be the two recognised Best Fighters, to ensure a fair balance in the adjudication process, and to ensure that they don’t have their own performances impaired throughout the match by profusely bleeding noses. They will then proceed to pick team-mates in a roughly meritocratic order, selecting on grounds of skill and tactical awareness, but not forgetting that while there is a sliding scale of players’ ability, there is also a sliding scale of players’ brutality and propensities towards motiveless violence. A selecting captain might baffle a talented striker by picking the less nimble Big Jazza ahead of him, and may explain, perhaps in the words of Linden B Johnson upon his retention of J Edgar Hoover as the head of the FBI, that he’d “rather have him inside the tent ****ing out, than outside the tent ****ing in”. Special consideration is also given during the selection process to the owner of the ball. It is tacitly acknowledged to be “his gemme”, and he must be shown a degree of politeness for fear that he takes the huff at being picked late and withdraws his favours. Another aspect of team selection that may confuse those only familiar with the game at senior level will be the choice of goalkeepers, who will inevitably be the last players to be picked. Unlike in the senior game, where the goalkeeper is often the tallest member of his team, in the playground, the goalkeeper is usually the smallest. Senior aficionados must appreciate that playground selectors have a different agenda and are looking for altogether different properties in a goalkeeper. These can be listed briefly as: compliance, poor fighting ability, meekness, fear and anything else that makes it easier for their team-mates to banish the wee bugger between the sticks while they go off in search of personal glory up the other end.

Tactics

Playground football tactics are best explained in terms of team formation. Whereas senior sides tend to choose - according to circumstance - from among a number of standard options (eg 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 5-3-2), the playground side is usually more rigid in sticking to the all-purpose 1-1-17 formation. This formation is a sturdy basis for the unique style of play, ball-flow and territorial give-and-take that makes the playground game such a renowned and strategically engrossing spectacle. Just as the 5-3-2 formation is sometimes referred to in practice as “Cattenaccio”, the 1-1-17 formation gives rise to a style of play that is best described as “Nomadic”. All but perhaps four of the participants (see also Offside) migrate en masse from one area of the pitch to another, following the ball, and it is tactically vital that every last one of them remains within a ten-yard radius of it at all times.

Stoppages

Much stoppage time in the senior game is down to injured players requiring treatment on the field of play. The playground game flows freer having adopted the refereeing philosophy of “no Post-Mortem, no free-kick”, and play will continue around and even on top of a participant who has fallen in the course of his endeavours. However, the playground game is nonetheless subject to other interruptions, and some examples are listed below.

1. Ball on school roof or over school wall.

The retrieval time itself is negligible in these cases. The stoppage is most prolonged by the argument to decide which player must risk life, limb or four of the belt to scale the drainpipe or negotiate the barbed wire in order to return the ball to play. Disputes usually arise between the player who actually struck the ball and any others he claims it may have struck before disappearing into forbidden territory. In the case of the Best Fighter having been adjudged responsible for such an incident, a volunteer is often required to go in his stead or the game may be abandoned, as the Best Fighter is entitled to observe that A: “Ye canny make me”; or B: “It’s no’ ma baw anyway”.

2. Stray dog on pitch.

An interruption of unpredictable duration. The dog does not have to make off with the ball, it merely has to run around barking loudly, snarling and occasionally drooling or foaming at the mouth. This will ensure a dramatic reduction in the number of playing staff as 27 of them simultaneously volunteer to go indoors and inform the teacher of the threat. The length of the interruption can sometimes be gauged by the breed of dog. A deranged Irish Setter could take ten minutes to tire itself of running in circles, for instance, while a Jack Russell may take up to fifteen minutes to corner and force out through the gates. An Alsatian means instant abandonment.

3. Bigger boys steal ball.

A highly irritating interruption, the length of which is determined by the players’ experience in dealing with this sort of thing. The intruders will seldom actually steal the ball, but will improvise their own kickabout amongst themselves, occasionally inviting the younger players to attempt to tackle them. Standing around looking bored and unimpressed usually results in a quick restart. Shows of frustration and engaging in attempts to win back the ball can prolong the stoppage indefinitely. Informing the intruders that one of the players’ older brother is “Mad Chic Murphy” or some other noted local pugilist can also ensure minimum delay.

4. Celebration.

Kneeling down to head the ball over the line when defence and keeper are already beaten will elicit a thoroughly deserved kicking. As a footnote, however, it should be stressed that any goal scored by the Best Fighter will be met with universal acclaim, even if it was lucky/crap/took a deflection.

Penalties

At senior level, each side often has one appointed penalty-taker, who will defer to a team-mate in special circumstances, such as his requiring one more for a hat-trick. The playground side has two appointed penalty-takers: the Best Player and the Best Fighter. The arrangement is simple: the Best Player takes the penalties when his side is a retrievable margin behind, and the Best Fighter at all other times. If the side is comfortably in front, the ball-owner may be invited to take a penalty. Goalkeepers are often the subject of temporary substitutions at penalties, forced to give up their position to the Best Player or Best Fighter, who recognise the kudos attached to the heroic act of saving one of these kicks, and are buggered if Wee Titch is going to steal any of it.

Little Acorn · 24-07-2010 05:00PM

Sports Day:

Egg and Spoon races, or in my case Spud and spoon races. Used to cheat by scraping a bit of spud juice onto the spoon to make it stick.

3 legged races-Mum's tights would be called for.

Sack race-Usually a bin liner or clean coal sack.

Tug of War

Snatch the Bacon: two lines of teams with a jumper on the ground in the middle-you had to retrieve it without getting "snatched" by the other team.

Bulldog!!: Got Banned- About 5 people were the "bulldogs", the rest of the class had to get from side of the pitch to the other without being [aggressively wrestled and stopped] by the bulldogs. If you were caught you joined the bulldog team.

Tip the Can-great craic.

The Tumble/Monkey Bars.

Rounders

Skipping songs.[ tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor ,rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor , lawyer, indian chief]-it determined who you're future husband would be.:pac:

Those slapping, clapping, hi fi hand games and songs. Like secret handshake things?

Then I have vague memories of a game called rovers or rangers,

and also a game called red light-green light. I think it was one person would stand with their back turned and yell green light. Then the people behind him/her would start moving towards that person. The person would then yell RED LIGHT and turn around really quickly. Everybody would have to freeze like in musical statues, and if you moved you were out. Person would then turn their back again and yell green light. The objective was to reach the person at the top, without being knocked out in one of the "red light" stages.

Good Times.:D

EDIT: tried googling the "Rover" game and found it!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rover

ElaElaElano · 24-07-2010 05:05PM

Getting a mystery headache every week for six years, right before PE.

Crann na Beatha · 24-07-2010 05:12PM

This post has been deleted.

Mint Sauce · 24-07-2010 05:29PM

primary school in london

free milk, it was delivered at about 9am, and it sat out side till morning break, winter it would be frozen by the time we got to it, and curdled in summer, maggie thatcher getting rid of free milk done us all a favour

being made stand outside the head teachers office

class 7 v the rest at football (top junior class v the rest of the juniors)

dodge ball

one scary head teacher, scarier dinner ladies, an even scarier nun (had her for two years), and an even scarier parish priest

chip an dale, the class hamsters

swapsies

no talking during lunch break

my car, 6 or 7 lads standing at the school gate, any car that drove by you could claim as yours by shouting out, my (name make of car)

the school nurse, was also the head dinner lady, and sold crisps at lunch times

the school secutary, and a pic and mix bag at the end of term for bringing down the class register each day

sports day

being held in the air by the scruff of your neck

having a fight in the school play ground, punishment would be standing at oposite ends of playground for rest of brake

secondary school in london

finishing my last exam

Things You Remember From School

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