Christmas Edition part II - our day

Christmas comes but once a year no doubt to the relief of most parents when we think about how much they put into making Christmas happen such as getting the Christmas meal, buying presents visiting their own parents and so on.
Christmas is more a time for us as children has having had our school parties, we look forward to the day itself opening our presents and indeed I like most boys often was so excited the night before I could hardly sleep for wondering what I might have.
Sometimes that's hard to manage because our expectations are boundless and the reality sometimes is different such as a duplicate present, a sock say the wrong size or one that just isn't us which often happened with me for having some atypical interests compared to most boys.
Usually in my presents would be annuals connected to either pop artists, tv programs or the comics I read as boy that you'd read all year round.

These two are this years editions of two I got as an actual child jam full of stories featuring all the comics characters like Korky the cat, Dennis the Menace, Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx.
Then you'd have a Main Present which I can recall one year was a Lego set and when I was nine a cassette tape recorder followed by smaller odds and ends such as socks, underpants and pens for school. Finally you have presents from your Aunts, Uncles and Cousins and if you were jolly lucky your best friend at school.
Christmas was a indeed a magical time for us.

Christmas Edition

The last full week of Christmas at school was always a bit of a run down where we may play games, read and generally relax a little after the build up toward early December where we'd been rehearsing for our school plays between regular lessons as Winter set in.
You'd certainly notice that as we played soccer in the afternoons out of doors where you had to keep moving to avoid getting too cold.
The other big thing I loved at this time of year was our annual school Christmas Parties where fun and games would take place such as pass the parcel and our Christmas lunch where we'd we'd have a scaled down grown up Chicken lunch followed by Christmas Pudding to which we were expected as juniors to act a bit more grown up during.

*** HAPPY CHRISTMAS***

Cub scouts

Cub Scouts and Scouting in general wasn't something I got into or to be more accurate was encouraged into although my older brother did remain it up to his mid teens and my younger brother was a Cub.
It wasn't that it didn't appeal but it wasn't talked about in front of me by either of them so I'd only discover randomly it was 'Bob a Job" week and the like when they'd go out and bring home the completed forms to show what they did to take to Cubs or Scouts the next meeting.
Nor did my parents ever talk with me about joining, perhaps even inviting the cub or scouts leader to talk with me perhaps thinking disabled boys like me didn't have a place in Scouting although in later years I learned that during that era local packs did do this.
To me it was an essential part of being a boy, learning useful skills and values to help me make the most of it and a potential help in learning to integrate that I missed out on to the point when I started age regressing in my mid teens wearing the odd thing such as the green sock garters with their sashes and shorts was one my first steps back in time.

The boy on the train

Railways were a part of my boyhood not least cos my dad had and still has a fascination with model railways in connection with he'd take us to various railway museums and preserved vintage railways at weekends and while vacationing.
Sometimes we'd take the train to them and at other times we'd drive to them but often  there would be a shortish ride on a train powered by a big steam engine with all its smells and noises you could hear before you joined the line to board it as if it had a personality of its very own that you could tell the minute you were off having sat down in the carriage.
We also used trains to get to the large towns and cities nearby especially in the summer months when we were off from school and indeed one year I remember having arrived at the station coming back , crossing the road to the parking lot I get in the car the searing heat as I went to sit on the car seat coming through my shorts and the sting from the heat to my exposed legs.

A little rough and tumble

Play as a boy is very important and goes beyond merely the physical exhaustion of 'rough and tumble' but is an important part in their bonding letting out and asserting their masculinity in front of their peers while it is affirmed.
Timid boys need to helped into 'play fighting' to form good bonds learning to control their strength and handle aggression so they feel confident socially as males with a stake in society.
 While the 'fear factor' and the tendency to see boys as 'a problem' because they don't confirm in the main to female stereotypes has lead to more restrictions in the playground it simply needs to be recognized boys ARE different, they ARE a gender apart and it's better to direct that than in effect de-gender them.