Very similar: body
I added a reviewers discount.
Love a bargain!
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@WillC that’s a lovely story.
Childhood can be miserable for some, but I don’t think kids are naturally prejudiced - it probably does come from those around them, in their families or in neighbourhoods/towns. And kids in a classroom can catch it from each other and gang up, unless an adult puts a stop to it. It can just be coldness towards outsiders if not downright racism.
Good for you for making such firm friendships at a young age - you must have made an impression for people to want to be in touch with you many years later.
ETA your mum is right!
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@MsR as you can imagine, the early 70’s was a much more racist time than now. I know my grandparents were abused and spat at in the street for being Irish, despite being from Belfast and loyal to the Crown when they settled here. As for being friends still 50+ years later, i am quite proud of that, and it is one of the benefits of the internet, re-connecting people. Plus it takes no effort to be nice to people! 
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@WillC It is disgusting how people were treated when English people could look down on them… I bet a lot of people are quite envious of your Irish roots, now? OH is Scottish…
I was born in 1970 and I have remained good friends with some people I grew up with - one from primary school and several from secondary school, all god-parents to each other’s kiddies etc even though we are all live up and down the country now… a good time to make life-long friendships if folk are sorted enough. You are right to be proud of that.
It is one benefit of the internet - being connected. I really enjoy Facebook for that reason alone, even though I’m not very Facebooky…
And you are quite right that it takes no effort to be nice - I can say that now that I have learned to be rude to idiots, after an upbringing of being ‘nice’ to my elders and betters, and ‘suitors’ - is that the word? I remember my Grandmother asking my parents - over my head - if I was ‘courting yet’. I was 12?
Blimey - it feels like a generation ago and - thankfully! - it probably is!
@MsR i am proud of my Irish roots because my nan and grandad were lovely hardworking people. Oh and if someone makes an enemy of me, they can watch out! 
But i try to be a nice person! I judge people on their personality not their look, race or religion etc.
Regarding courting, i went out on a date with a lovely girl when i was about 10…oh the shitstorm that created! (You’ll be bringing no wee babies here!) She was one of the girls on the table at school! We are friends to this day!
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@Knight1119 sadly a sign of the times, the signs on rental accomodation read " No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs" We have come so far since then, but still have far to go.
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Ha! I can imagine, except that my parents would have been choosing the stationary for the wedding invitations… I’m really sorry for your treatment - what an overreaction.
Both my young teens have had romantic friends, and one was especially cut up when it ended. Young people’s feelings run very deep.
I look at my children and - from birth - they were their own people. I try to get out of the way so that they can become themselves. A parent’s role is to guide and support, I think, not dictate. We try to listen and we take their feelings seriously, but I hope we don’t try to ‘shape’ in any prescriptive way.
Fingers crossed 
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@Purring-Pussy - sorry, I missed your post yesterday.
What a heart-wrenching situation.
Everything you taught him was taught with love, and that will have left its mark on him, even if it seems hidden for now. It will come back, one day, when something stirs his memory… maybe if he has his own kids, or meets someone who is different in some way?
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Yeah I remember the lady on cbeebies. Caused outrage. It’s pathetic. I was horrified when my son came home 1st day of his new year at school and was describing his teacher and he told me she had the same skin as him. I still can’t get out of him where it’s come from as I have a very diverse set of friends and nothing has ever been said like that before.
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