School Holidays..Then and Now

I remember

School holidays were two weeks in May, two weeks in August, with four or more days at Easter and about 5 -6 weeks aver Christmas/New Year. In secondary school we also had a “mid semester break” of about 4 days in July, I think.

May and August being winter were shitty for holidays, too cold or wet most days to play out side.

<>We went to the movies once a week usually to see the new Disney film at the Grand in Footscray and had lunch at the Coles cafeteria after wards (we thought we were sooo grown up) as we caught the bus by ourselves.

School holidays were when Mum took us “into town” by train to look at the “big shops” and so Mum could look at the new fashions and talk to other designers/dressmakers at Georges, Myers and such. They would have a big morning tea at an upstairs room at either Georges or Myers, with yards and yards of fabric about, mannequins with designs half completed and dressmaker patterns everywhere. We just liked the food and the accents of some of the people.

School holidays were when you did not see your friends so you made your own fun with your siblings or neighbors. Summer was for running about under the hose or sprinkler (no such things as water restrictions and it watered those nice suburban lawns too) and “tiggity cricket” (you hit it, you run) in the evenings held over three front yards. Winter was for wandering down to the creek, for ‘taddies” (what did we know) or just to try and dam up parts of the creek and construct bridges and ride your bike if it wasn’t raining.

We did not have DVD’s, we didn’t own a video player, my brother had a TV game which played ping pong and Space Invaders which we were allowed to play if it was raining. My brother also had a home based CB radio which was fun, to think about it now; it was no more dangerous than an internet chat room is now, except our parents could hear what was being said.

School holidays; you wrote to your pen pal more, you rode your friends horse at the creek, you read, you went to the library to get books not for the activities (there were none) you went fishing at the “Hotties” on summer nights. You built forts in trees and bushes, you built billy carts, then fought over whose house it should be kept at, you had running street battles throwing lumps of dirt at each other, ambushes from out of the trees and bushes, safaris in the vacant block before they cut the grass, you got dirty, wet, bruised and tired. You had fun.

Now, there's Foxtel, DVD's videos, PC games, on line chat with friends, mobiles and SMS... God forbid you be away from your pals for 2 days without telling them what you are doing. Movies are crap and unsuited to under 10's most times. A trip to the city is no big deal, all they want to do is shop. They want "playdates' with friends they whine about all term, the Royal Melbourne Show is on during September holidays so all and sundry want to go to that. Holidays are now 2 weeks in March/April (easter time) two weeks in June/July, two weeks in September and 6 weeks at Christmas/New Year. There's school holiday programs run by councils, libraries have activites, you can't go to the creek for fear of toxic waste, drowning or whatever and no one really has a pet horse any more so you have to go and ride a riding school hack. Play in the street and neighbours complain about them being on the garden..(not so much where we are). Ride bikes and get told to go to a bike park or on a bike path, make a billy cart and some one, somewhere will complain or tell you to where a helmet ( I NEVER heard of any one getting killed on a billy cart) Parents are becoming over zealous in the "protection" of their kids to the point that if its not handed to them on a platter (or CD ROM) they don't know how to have fun!!! Currently, mine are outside in the backyard romping throught the agarpanthus with a hand drawn map looking for a treasure they hid yeasterday. That's after they drew a "road" on the road outside with chalk complete with a zoo, shops, railroad, park, traffic lights, etc and rode about on it whuilst I did some gardening. A friend of my daughters wanted to come over but first asked my daughter if they'd be watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory " on DVD, after being told that DVD's/TV/Foxtel was only for rainy. cold , wet afternoons..she did'nt want to visit anymore... oh well, off to make popcorn for my intrepid explorers.