Thanks Belly, wrong thread, that's what beer does to you. This is the gay thread, I like to recount a story of mine about being called gay and my days at a Catholic school. Although the word gay had a different meaning in those days, nothing more than being happy ( just listen to the Flintstones theme song "have a gay old time").
In my 2nd year of high school about 1967, Sitting in class when Brother Dick, Master of the Cadet unit come marching in, looking for 'volunteers' for the unit. Volunteer had a different meaning to Brother Dick than it did to everyone else, It meant 'your in, no ifs or buts' Long story short, being very anti (Vietnam) war as I was, even then, I refused to volunteer along with one other kid, I think he was gay. Even longer story shorter, a couple of days later I'm in the school corridor when along comes Brother Dick, he pushes me up against the wall, the conversation goes like this: BD "Son you wont join the cadets ha." ME "no brother' BD "It ill make a man outer ya,...go na join?". ME "no brother" BD " ha, are ya one of them?" ME "One of what brother?" BD " A fancy boy." From then on Brother Dick only spoke to me through his cane, although he did like to speak to me often. The irony of it all is years later Brother Dick was done for being a pedophile.
p/s Belly you must admit I don't just heap crap on the Labor Party (just your in power at the moment) I do like to spread it liberally and nationally. There are many I admire in the ALP Penny Wong for one, there are others to. when I think of their names I'll let you know, only joking.

Dear Paul,

Thanks for filling me in on some "interesting" pollies.
As for Catholic Schools - my husband attended Christian
Brothers in North Melbourne and I still have nightmares
over a certain nun who took a great delight in her
version of discipline, which she thought was
"character-building." It resulted with my father
taking me out of that school. Need I say more?

As for our politicians? If they don't stop clogging up
our public discourses with the proliferation of
irrelevant, unimportant, total crap issues - we may
stop paying attention to them altogether.

I was C of E and never understood why the Catholics next door chanted hate rhythms at us.
It gets to the heart of my views.
In the link above fun is made in what surely must be a Catholic Church, of the virgin birth.
Mary is seen saying how will I tell my parents I am in child.
Remember Catholic Church.
Another cartoon has Mary in bed with her husband.
Caption reads poor Joesph hard to follow God.
You would be burned at the stake 3 hundred years ago flogged just 100.
A Catholic Church?
Well aware of the floggings in that Church, and the one of my birth.
Those same people told us what was evil!

Dear Belly,

Remember words like - wog, boong, dago, bloody balts, and so on.
There were many little ditties not only religious ones that
were in vogue way back when. Even as recently as the Cronulla
Riots t-shirts were embellished with - "Ethnic Cleansing Unit,"
and "You flew here , We grew here!" and so on. I remember
our Italian neighbours singing things like:

"Aussie, Aussie, born and bred
Long in the legs
And short in the head!"

However, hopefully these "outmoded" words are no longer
acceptable to most people.

Belly and Lexi, maybe I can enlighten you as to why the hate for C of E from us Tykes around those times. I recall one of my 'favorite' clergy being my primary teacher the old Irish nun Sister Mary, I do believe Sister was a 100 if she was a day, well so she seemed to a little lad of 7 or 8. Sister Mary's religious philosophy was very much based on hate, yes hate and lots of it. Sister didn't discriminate all that much when it came to hating others. Sister firmly believed the heathens, that's your Muslims, Buddhist, Hindus, black fellas in Africa, Jews, etc especially the Jews, their fate was to be cast into the ever lasting damnation of the fires of hell. Sister also believed strongly that God had reserved an especially hot place in hell for you protestants, particularly the C of E's I think that may have had something to do with sisters Irishness, Sister didn't discriminate she also had most of us Catholic boys burning in hell along with most others. In fact I do think to Sister Mary the only people going to Heaven were Our Holy Father in Rome, good Father O'Riley the parish priest ( I think she had a thing going for Fr, O'Riley) and herself, probably wasn't all that sure about herself getting in, most likely seen herself as some kind of sinner. Lexi like your nun Sister Mary was also a strong believer in 'character-building'. When I left the nuns and went to the brothers, it was very much a case of out of the pan and into the fire, when it came to 'character-building' the brothers loved to build your character.

Dear Paul,

You've probably heard these old jokes - but I'll
risk it anyway because I think they sum up the
"good old days," rather well:

1) Mother Superior was giving her usual "inspirational"
speech to the girls during Wednesday morning's school
assembly telling them about the evils of sex - and that
one hour's pleasure would damn them all to hell - and
to consider the consequences of that action. She ranted
and raved, when all of a sudden a young girl's voice
from the back of the hall cried out,

"Sister how do you make it last an hour?"

2) Sister Mary Virgilius went around the classroom asking
the girls what they wanted to do when they left school.
The answers were fairly tame - teacher, librarian, nurse,
and so on. However one girl smiled sweetly when asked,
and replied,

"I'd like to be a prostitute!"

Sister was shocked.

"You want to be a what?" she cried.

"A prostitute," the girl replied calmly.

"Oh Thank God my dear, " the nun exclaimed.

"I thought you said you wanted to be a Protestant!"