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Boys will always be boys
I was watching one of those home movie nostalgia programmes on the television. The ones that take us back to the good old days, when men were men, and boys wore short trousers until they were old enough to shave. The aged commentator remarked that, in those days, the sexes were segregated at school and had their own play areas. So they did!
Girls were not to be exposed to the dangers of British Bulldog, the kind of crazed game that would be outlawed even for Royal Marine Commandoes in today's repressive health and safety culture. Female teachers were banned from the boys' back yard. This saved them from witnessing the disgusting ritual of seeing who could stand against the rear wall of the urinal and hit the trough without splashing on the floor. If the caretaker caught anybody attempting this, the culprit would have to endure the No.1 Field Punishment of sitting next to a girl in class for the rest of the day.
When the lads were mature enough to be admitted to the all male sanctum of the bar in a public house they knew that the only women allowed in there would be the barmaids. I use the word "maid" advisedly. They were usually the kind of women who could crack a walnut between their thighs.
Yet, in that segregationalist society, women were treated with a respect bordering on adulation, and one woman above all others. This is May, the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have seen rough, tough, young men, of the kind who it would be inadvisable to cause offence to on a Saturday night after closing time, holding aloft a statue of the Virgin and transporting it around the mean streets of a council housing estate in a deprived northern town, all the while singing "Hail Mary" at the top of their voices. The police were in attendance, but only to prevent the bearers setting about any bystander who said anything untoward.
In this, enlightened, age, the church which those youths supported has been demolished. The May procession can no longer safely take place. Is this progress?
May God bless you all, Fr. Allan
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