Figure 1.-- |
|
I can tell you about life at home for an ordinary English family during the late 1960s and 70s. Of course life was hectic in the morning. Mum had to see us all four were properly dressed, had brreakfast and then off to school. When it was cold we would all come down stairs and dress in front of the electric fire. After school there would be time for play, often in the back garden. We had a nice back arden. There were a variety of games that we had fun playing. We four boys shared a single bedroom. For a while we had two sets of bunk beds, but mom found it difficult tgo make the beds, so we lined then all four out flat. That didn't leave much room in our room.
Of course life was hectic in the morning. Mum had to see us all four were properly dressed, had breakfast and then off to school. You'll be amazed by the morning routine. EVERY morning, till I left home, mum brought us tea in bed. BUT, unlike kids today, we were not allowed to go down till mum was ready. Things might have been hectic but there was never chaos and there was never mess! On school days in the winter, we went down to the front room to get dressed in front of the electric fire. I can still remember holding my shirts up to the fire to warm them up before putting them on! Oh... the other thing was hunting for the garters ... there always seemed to be one missing! For breakfasts in the Winer it was usually hot porridge
oats or Ready Brek wih Tate & Lyle's Golden Syrup on top or sugar (yummy!!)
Apart from that my brothers all loved Corn Flakes (I didn't) and there was also Shredded Wheat and Weetabix (al these things are still around.) I usually went for toast instead! Toast with tomato kethcup on, toast with salad cream on... or even both together and maybe with sugar on too. Mum used to think I was mad.
I went to an English primary school for most of my primary school years. I was at a state primary (Grange Park Infants and Juniors) then a state secondary (Hayes Grammar) for one year, then it was off to Belgium. English schools at the time had just started experimenting with relaxing uniform rules and I started wearing long trousers at about 8 years of age. Then I moved to another primary school which had a strict uniform including shorts. However, it was January and my mum refused to send me to school in shorts. Some of the other boys complained to the teacher that I was getting away with long trousers and she sent a letter home telling my mum I had to wear shorts. My mum wrote back saying she sent me to school to learn how to read and write, not to be told how long my trousers should be; the interesting thing is, I was fed up being different and just wanted to dress the same as everyone else, especially as I was getting picked on because I was new there. I'd have MUCH rather worn the shorts just to be the same as everyone else!!
We all went home luncthime for a proper cooked dinner (sorry.. that's what
we called it!)
We had a nice back garden. American would say a back yard, but we would never call it a yard! As younger children it was a wonderful place to play. In our surburban neighborhood we all had similar back gardens and we were out an in each others gardens. Some parents were more fussy than others about their back gardens. Some were serious gardners. Others were more willing to make allounces for children. Having four boys, I supose our parents bowed to the inevitable. Here is a typical scene where friends from the street came round and we were all playing in the garden. I'm the one towards the back (as usual!) in the horizontal stripey T-shirt. I think this was a "statues" game, where one person stood one end of the garden and turned his back. We had to move forwards and if he turned round he wasn't allowed to see us moving. If he did, he'd send whoever was moving back to the start again. The winnder was the first person to reach the end.
Every evening, mum set out a tea, which was bread and jam ... with tea! I have a piccy of that somewhere.
Getting us all to bed in the evening was another big operation. There were four of us in one room. We originially had two double beds for the four of us, then mum bought bunk beds but she found them tricky when 'making the beds' each day, so they were placed alongside each other as four single beds across the room.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to Main Jonathan page]
[Return to Main English 1970s school experiences page]
[Return to Main English page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]