What did you hide from your parents as a child?

I have two recollections that involve hiding something... The first was when I was five and had just started school at Langside in Glasgow. The school gates were less than 100 yards from where we lived so right from the get go I was allowed to walk to and from school by myself or with Sheila. I remember the classroom being in rows with desks and I sat at the back on the left side of the class.

I have no idea how many children were in the class and in fact my stay at that school was fairly brief as we moved from Scotland to England in January 1952.I imagine I must have started school in the September of 1951. What I hid from my parents was an incident that truly upset me but I was too ashamed to tell them about it. I was in the girls' bathroom - the toilets did not have doors and some boys sneeked in and peered at me while I was using the toilet.

I must have been angry because I apparently used some 'strong' language at them, as the girls crowded round and told them to go away. One, or some, of the children then told the teacher that I had used rude words, I have complete amnesia as to what it might have been (!). I was taken from my desk at the back of the classroom and made to stand in front of all the class and the teacher beat my hand with a leather strap as punishment. Perhaps worse that I was made to sit at the front of the class where the teacher could keep an eye on my behaviour.

I remember going home, upset but too fearful of having done something wrong that I didn't tell them about it until at sometime when I was an adult. I think this one story is an awful reflection of the expectation that children should and would be disciplined and that physicial punishment was considered quite acceptable. A happier tale about hiding something was when we lived in Whitley Bay. These were post war years and sugar was still rationed - it came off ration in 1953.

Sweets ( candies) were a great treat. I used to get 3 pence a week for pocket money, I was probably 6 or maybe nearly 7. I was allowed to go to the sweet shop on the way home from school and I remember finding one day that they were selling fancy chocolates, the kind you would usually get in a box of chocolates, individually, for a penny each. The reason they were being sold individually was because the boxes had obviously not been stored well and some or all of the chocolates had that white 'bloom' on them when chocolate has been stored at a temperature that is too warm for it.

But I had a plan that if I bought one or two chocolates a week with my pocket money I would still have some left to spend, and that I could save the chocolates until I had enough to share with all the family, my Mum & Dad and my brother and sister. I thought that to have real fancy chocolates would be a special treat for all of us. So I collected them, in a sweetie bag, and kept them on the top of my wardrobe,which seemed like an amazing hiding place.

Of course my Mum & Dad probably saw right through it all along, but never asked any questions, I guess they just thought they would let it unfold. When I had collected enough sweets for all of us I brought them down to the living room and presented them.I seem to remember Mum & Dad being very 'thrilled' so I felt that my surprise had worked. I never asked Mum or Dad if they remembered that, but I remember it very clearly, wanting to share something that seemed like such a treat. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/5/ne wsid_2737000/2737731.stm