So the other night we were watching the news, when a reporter informed us that a Sunshine Coast school has banned its students from doing cartwheels and handstands, “unless they were properly supervised by a trained PE teacher.”
I was all “FFS”. In my head, of course. I mean, as if I would say that out loud in front of the kids. Everybody knows I only drop the F bomb in extremely tense situations, like Big Brother Finales, or after I’ve downed a couple of glasses of bubbly. Meanwhile Sophie was all, “Why can’t they do handstands at school? I don’t want to go to that school ever. It sounds like no fun at all.”
This got Scott and I talking about all the things we used to do at school back in the 80’s, which was quite the trip down memory lane and one well worth sharing. So here we go with this week’s Friday Five: The 5 Things We Did At School in the 80’s That No Kid Would Be Allowed To Do Now Edition!
1. Jump Over Tennis Nets
I can vividly remember lining up at lunch time to jump over a tennis net that one of our teachers had forgotten to put away. I tried to jump that damn things three times and every time I landed flat on my face. My knees were covered in blood and the palms of my hands were grazed, when a teacher approached me and my friends and kindly asked that we stop jumping over the tennis net.
Not because he was worried about the somewhat severe injuries I was enforcing on myself due to having the running and jumping ability of a newborn giraffe, but because he was very concerned that we were going to damage the tennis net! It was an expensive tennis net and the only one the school had, so if we could all go and find something else to do for the next 20 minutes, Mr I’ve Forgotten His Name would be most appreciative!
May or may not be what I looked like jumping over a tennis net!
2. Run On Concrete
I went to an inner city primary school and our entire playground was concrete, so we ran on that concrete all day long. We skipped, we played bullrush, we sat on it and played our recorder (ok, that might have only been me.)
There was never a teacher hovering nearby reminding us, “We don’t run on concrete. Please use your walking feet.” Nope. We ran and we ran and we ran. And sometimes we fell over! And blood was involved! There was no sick bay to go to, no school nurse to urgently call our parents. Nope. We just got back up, ran to the toilets to wipe of the blood with a bit of toilet paper and got back outside and kept running on that concrete. I KNOW. SO. WEIRD.
That’s me, on my first day of school. Please note, photography is not Pam’s strong point. Also, I wonder if Dad ever finished staining the fence?
3. Play a Good Game Of Slaps
Now might be a good time to point out that as a kid I went to 6 different schools. Year 1 to Year 5 at a lovely little school in Christchurch, then we moved to Auckland so I finished Year 5 at a primary school there before going to an intermediate school for Year 6. By Year 7 we were back living in Christchurch, so I went to another intermediate school and before starting high school. In 1989, when I was in Year 11, we moved to Brisbane and that’s where I finished my last two years of high school. It was during my year at the Auckland intermediate school (I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the school and I can’t be bothered finding my school photo from that year, so let’s just call it The School Full Of Feral Children) that I was introduced to a game called Slaps.
Basically it involved splitting up into teams of girls v boys during morning tea and lunch, taking your shoes off and chasing each other. When you caught someone from the opposing team, you slapped the living daylights out of their arm until it was as red as the apple your mother insisted on putting in your lunch box everyday and that you refused to eat (who wants to waste time eating an apple, when there’s a game of slaps waiting?!) The toilets were ‘bar’ and it was a good day when you were allowed to wear your jandles/thongs/flip flops to school because that would mean exceptional slapping ability!
4. Ride in The Boot Of Some Random’s Car
When we went on school excursions in the 80’s, it was specifically requested that parents with station wagons help out. That was because a station wagon could comfortably fit 7-8 children inside. You know the drill, one in the front seat, 3 in the back seat and 3-4 IN THE BOOT! And no, I am not kidding.
I remember Mum giving me strict instructions on my way to school one day that under no circumstances was I to get in the boot of anyone’s car while travelling to and/or from the excursion destination. I was so devo at the thought of not being flung around the boot of the car while the parent helper drove around a round a bout 4 times on our way to wherever it was we were going. It was SO UNFAIR to have a mother who was always worried about stupid things like car accidents and keeping her children safe!
Also, it might be of interest to note that back in the day, Pam drove a mini. Talk about a clever tactic. As if she was EVER going to be asked to come along as a parent helper on school excursions in the 80’s! Well played Pam, well played.
I was all set to throw this photo into the blog post, of Pam casually sipping on a chardy back in the 80’s, but thought she’d kill me for putting it on here for all of the internet to see, so I thought better of it and chose this photo instead:
It wasn’t taken in the 80’s, but there’s not a fresh perm or glass of cask wine in sight, so I think Pam will be ok with that one being on here!
5. Play Join The Crew
Number 5 is brought to you by Scott. Or Guns as he is affectionately known over on Instagram. Back in the day he used a play a game called Join The Crew which involved kids chasing each other and when they were caught, everyone would punch them as hard as they could until the kid who was caught yelled out, “Join The Crew!” Which sounds a lot like Slaps but without shoes. Sensible.
In keeping with the whole ‘let’s show everyone what we looked like in the 80’s’, I really wanted to put a photo in here of Scott in his school uniform, but his mum has all the photos of him as a kid, so I found this one of Scott eating a piece of chocolate slice instead. For more photos the recipe, click here.
What did you do at school in the 80’s that we wouldn’t be allowed to do now? Was it Slaps? Or sitting in the boot of a car? Or something else entirely? Also, are you concerned that Pam might call and be just a little be cross about the 80’s photo situation? Yeah, me too!
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