I got my PPL in 1969. We did a lot of stall work prior to the checkride. Departure stalls, approach stalls, accelerated stalls, aggravated cross-control stalls, and so on. One time, we were doing approach stalls and getting into a cross-control situation when the airplane stalled, rolled over the top, went slightly inverted and then into an upright spin. I recovered just as the airplane started into the spin part. We spend the 1-1/2 hour lesson doing all kinds of stalls, and this one just capped it off. It was quite an exciting day.

After I got my ticket, we went out and did actual spins, with a conventional entry: throttle off, slow down and hold altitude until the stall break, and then smoothly add rudder as the nose came through the horizon, holding full-aft stick and neutral ailerons. After three turns, add opposite rudder to stop the turn, and relax the back pressure to come out of the stall. Watch the speed on recovery. This was all in a Citabria, which has very nice stall and spin handling. Nothing outrageous.