Poem THE NIT NURSE

[john wilsonhall]

Who's old enough to remember the nit nurse? The one that used to come around our schools had hands like sandpaper and seemed huge at the time.

OUR SID BROUGHT HOME A LETTER
AND THE NEWS JUST COULDN'T BE WORSE
'COS IT CAME IN A PLAIN BROWN ENVELOPE
FROM THE DREADED SCHOOL NIT NURSE.

NOW WE KNEW WHEN MOTHER READ IT
THE GOING WOULD BE ROUGH
SO US OLD ONES TRIED TO LEG IT
BUT WE WERN'T FAST ENOUGH

SHE LINED 6 OF US ALL ON THE LANDING
AND NON OF US WERE IN A RUSH
TO GO INTO THAT BATHROOM
WITH MUM AND HER SCRUBBING BRUSH

THERE WERE SCREAM AND SHOUTS FROM IN THERE
AND AS EACH ONE CAME THROUGH THE DOOR
THEIR HAIR WAS CHEMICALLY PURPLE
AND THEIR SCALPS WERE RED AND RAW

NOW WHEN THE ORDEAL WAS OVER
WE TOOK TURNS TO SLAP OUR SID
JUST TO HELP HIM REMEMBER
IN FUTURE SUCH LETTERS GET HID

[bowlingbun]

I'm 66, old enough to remember the School Nurse checking for nits, fortunately I was OK.
She was OK too, it was a little village at the time, now a suburb of Bournemouth sadly, but as kids we all knew her, the village Bobby etc. etc. They all knew us too, mum used to say we'd better not get into trouble, as she'd soon know about it!

[Pet66]

Oh yes, I remember the nit nurse!! . Luckily I never had them, but my mother used to go mad with the dreaded nit comb. Blinking hurt as well. Such a stigma back then and lived in fear of having them.

[Sally_17031]

I'm 42 & Nit Nurses were still in action when I was at school! I have kids myself now and we've had a couple of cases of nits. It is making me itch just thinking about it! There isn't the stigma anymore now though, thankfully!

[Melly1]

I remember the nit nurse too.

These days, it's up to the parents and school staff to notice. Some children at school seem to permanently have them ... I wear my hair tied back to reduce incidences of hair pulling (it's a special needs school,) and catching them!

Only caught them once and that was off S. We both have very thick hair and as he couldn't be relied on to keep his eyes closed if I used nit shampoo, it was a case of tons of conditioner and lots of daily combing with the nit comb. Luckily I noticed at the start of the summer hols.


Melly1

[susieq]

If one had nits it was assumed that you were "dirty" - in fact, nits prefer clean hair

They can still be a problem in schools, especially when the 'fashion' (for both girls and boys) is long, loose hair !