Posted by Peter Ceresole on December 02, 2009 at 19:07:18 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Holidays posted by Adam Quinan on December 02, 2009 at 18:16:54:
This is based on my memories of English private school holidays in the 1960s
From my memories of the '50s, your memory for dates are is jolly accurate. They were based on what I had always been told was the traditional English private school calendar, so it seems likely that it wasn't very different in the '30s.
I reckoned that I suffered by comparison with my continental cousins. I had no quarrel with the length of the winter and easter holidays, which were rather longer than they were abroad; they usually got two weeks compared to our month or so, but they got glorious summer holidays, starting in June and ending around the middle of August, at least eight weeks, whereas we got a measly six. I remember we'd always arrive after our cousins had been running riot for ages in the alpine woods and swimming in the lakes, and we had to leave almost immediately after they went back to school. And they got time off for the potato harvest. Not fair...