Childhood

I was born in 1970.

My Clothes

We liked to wear sneakers. I do recall having some sandals when I was much younger on holidays. I had leisure shorts when I was much younger which my mum had bought but never formal ones. My mum did take me to buy a pair of casual shorts once when I was 12. From what I can recall not many boys wore sandals, I think they were a bit outdated.

Catholic School: Early Years

I was sent to the local catholic primary school at the age of 4. The school saw itself as partially progressive and had a non-uniform policy, a fact that suited my friends and I, we all went to school in our normal "playing out" clothes. This being the 1970's meant a collection of woolly pullovers and flared jeans. Our non-uniformed state was made all the more obvious by the neighbouring schools who all had strict traditional dress codes including that most English of garments, grey short trousers. As far as I can remember some boys did wear shorts in summer before the introduction of uniform, but these were generally sports type with "T"-shirts. When I was very little I do recall some light blue summer shorts that I would wear which were fully elasticated. Very few boys wore stadard rather formal looking grey shorts. School sandals were also rarely worn, except by the younger boys.

Other Schools

The two neighbouring schools (one was a state primary and the other Church of England Voluntary) both had short trouser uniforms but much less formal than ours became. They did not have blazers or caps but did have long grey socks, most of the boys just wore normal jackets or their school jumpers.

My friends and I used to take great delight in teasing the boys from the neighbouring schools and shouting things like "shorties" at them, we could even do this to the older boys in the school which made us feel greatly superior. One of my friends in our street went to the C of E, I had taken a great deal of joy for years calling him 'shortie' which was ironic as he was nearly six feet tall at 11 years old. I remember it was tradition in winter to have mass snowball fights between our schools and we would always aim for their legs with stinging snowballs so that the red marks would show. The gloating of course stopped when I was introduced to my uniform.

New Head

All went well until 1980 when our school had a change of headteacher, and with him came a new regime which as well as strict corporal punishment also meant the introduction of school uniform. Rather naively myself and my other ten year old friends thought we would be exempted from this embarrassment as we only had one more year till we went to the big school, we were very wrong.

New Uniform

And so it came that I found myself with my dad during the summer holidays going to the local school outfitters to pick up my new uniform for the September start. In the uniform shop I was taken by the proprieter into a changing room and given the new items of clothing, I immediately noticed the blazer which was in a bright red colour, it was resting on top of the pile of clothes. Looking further I found six shirts (all grey, three with long sleeves and three with short), two red ties and three pairs of long red socks. On top of the chair sat a red school cap, I was horrified even the other local schools did not have a cap.

I suddenly realised that there were no trousers in the pile and felt relief that this could mean I could choose my own, I could not have been wronger, there was a sudden knock at the door and in walked the sales assistant to confirm my worst fears. In his hands he was carrying four pairs of grey short trousers. I began to cry and rushed out to beg my dad not to make me wear them, all he could say was that they were the rules and I must follow them, and to stop being a baby and get back in and put them on. Besides he said he rather liked the idea of shorts and thought they would "toughen me up".

I was mortified as I pulled the shorts up my legs, they were very short and left nothing to the imagination. I pulled the socks up as high as they went and plonked the cap on my head and left the room to face the world. Dad thought the uniform looked smart and decided I should walk home in it. I was very shy about it at first, just when I had been in Cubs. As wearing shorts became a daily ritual I soon stopped hiding as it was no longer worth it.

School

On the first day of school, my only saving grace was that the rest of my peers were dressed the same way. School became a different place after that and it was not long before I was getting a taste of the stiffer discipline.

Private School

My parents were so keen on the new uniform that they ended up sending me to a fee paying school when I was 11 where the uniform (with shorts) continued to the age of fourteen, right upto 1984.

Cubs

I joined the cubs very briefly, but being a big softee it did not last long. We did have to wear grey shorts and a cap, which I not used to. I remember hiding from friends and passers by when I first had to walk to cubs.

Created: December 18, 1999
Last updated: October 8, 2000