My 1950s school was a topsy-turvy world | Brief letters
by Letters from on (#5V6B5)
Eating upside down | Riding the Gypsy Queen | School mottos | Big dogs | Letters that divided Britain
I remember being taught in biology class in our 1950s grammar school in Manchester that peristalsis works both ways (Dairylea cheese ad showing child eating while upside down banned over choking risk, 19 January). Under teacher supervision, two of us held a boy upside down by his ankles while he drank half a bottle of milk through a straw. We all survived the demonstration.
Dr Roger Merry
Keynsham, Somerset
Lovely to hear the history behind the Gypsy Queen (Letters, 17 January). My housemates and I were still riding the Gypsy Queen from our student house to classes at Durham University in 1976.
Judith Jesch
Nottingham