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A HBC reader had provided us some interesting memories about his boyhood experiences growing up during the 1970s. He tells us, "It's fascinating how clothing styles have changed since I went to scholl. I attended both English and Belgian schools in the 1970s. There were differences between the clothes we were ued to wearing and what our Belgian friends wore. I can also shed some light on changes in school clothes in England during the 80s and 90s and the reasons for it. "
Mum and dad were very much from working class stock and the council estate.
Dad got an apprenticeship in a lorry and bus factory, but switched to the
drawing office and became a draughtsman. We called our father daddy and then later dad! We always used mum for mother.
I was the youngest. Two of my brothers were a year or two older them me (Andrew and Michael. Our older brother was Stephen. He was about 6 years older than me.
We all got along really well together, but of course had our own destinct interests and personalities. I don't recall too much about differences as concerns clothing. There is one incident that one of my brothers recalls vividly though (Michael, one year older than me.. the one in the blue and white football kit in the garden play scene.) He was a much rougher kid than the rest of us, noisier and boisterous, mad on football. Once he'd started wearing long trousers to school (probably when he was 10 or 11) he kept gettig holes in the knee. Mum had told him if it happened again, he woud have to wear shorts and she carried out her threat. He was telling me only recently about how he went to school and kept trying to hide behind tables or chairs hoping people wouldn't notice he was in shorts again. The next day he smuggled some trousers out and put them on
on the way to school. I think his punishment only lasted a week ... but the embarrasment has lasted a life time! A girl reminded him about it once years later and even said how she could see he was tyring to hide behind things all day. My next two brothers are are 1 year older and 2 years older than me.
But they were 2 years and 3 years ahead of me in school, because their birthdays were during the summer holidays, whereas mine is after the summer holidays! So they always tended to be the youngest in their classes, while I was among the oldest in my class!
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.
We went to school every Sunday. That was much more common in England than is the case today. I believe that Church attendance was beginning to decline in the 1960s. I'm not sure just why. We and many other families still attended regularly. Here we are off to Church Sunday morning spriced up in our Sunday best. In our case this mean our school uniforms. We didn't have proper suits. Look how shiny my mum kept the windows! Not many people do that nowadays.
Here's a Christmas scene. It's an intriguing picture. I'm playing with toys I got at Christmas while my eldest brother is sat at a table making good use of his new painting by numbers set of oil paints. Excuse the state of the living room - it was being decorated just before Christmas and was finished afterwards. I think the year is about 1970. I'm playing with my new "Magic Robot" quiz game. You can also see my Dinky Scammell transporter lorry with Dinky cars.... three Minis, a Hillman Imp, an MGB GT and Simon Templar's Volvo with The Saint matchstick man on the bonnet. (UK readers will know what all that means!) The blue lorry and "Dizzy Bug" game were presents another brother had got. The clothes I'm wearing are a mystery. It's Christmas, so clearly I hadn't just got in from school. It might be Christmas Day itself or a Sunday and maybe we'd been to church, my oldest brother had got changed and I hadn't... or maybe that's just what I wore anyway... I really don't know!
We of course were affected by the pop music culture of the day. Perhaps not as much as other famolies, but we were interested. Ah look, I did own some long trousers! Blue chords by the look of it! As you see, we're presenting a forerunner of Pop Idol here. The microphones are candelsticks with a ball of plastecine in the top, wrapped in tin foil with some string attached!
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!!
My brothers and I were dressed in fairly standard 1970s clothes. We had duffle coats whch doubled for school wear. In addition to our grey school sweaters we also had colored sweathers. We had grey and white shirts wgich we wore for school and other occassions, but also a variety of other colored and striped shirts. We also had polo-type summer shirts. We had grey shorts which were required for school as well as casual boxer shorts for Summerwear. Our older brother had black long trousers for his secondary school which he also commonly wore outside of school. We younger brothers had long trousers as well, including cords sand jeans. We wore long grey kneesocks for school but had a variety of anxle socks, some grey for regular wear. We had black lace up shoes for dressing up as well as sandals for school and plasy and slip-on shoes. We also had flannel pajamas.
It made me laugh when I read the HBC page on real life hair styles. When I was growing up in the 1970s, I
never combed my own hair. My mum always combed it. If she hadn't it would never have been combed at all. I don't think I took any interest in my hair
or clothes till long after I started work when I was 16. I wore whatever clothes were put out for me. Grandad was always saying me and my brothers looked like girls because of our long hair. We didn't think it was that long, but I do know that if you'd just had a hair cut (mum always did the hair cutting) it was really
embarrassing if you went to school with your ears showing! I've got a passport photo of me taken whn I was 12 and grandad was right.... I DID look
like a girl!
We didn't have money for expensives holidays, staying in hotels and the like. And it wasn't yet common to venture accross the Channel to France and Spain as is now much more common. We did, however, take a Summer vacation every year. We would stay at caravan parks, meaning a camper park for your American readers. We didn't have a caravan of our own, but you could rent one at these parks for much less than the cost of a hotel. We usually went go beach resorts. We all looked forward to it. I wasn't so aware of it at the time, but the water at English beaches is cold! Even on a nice warm Summer day. We would stay in caravan parks. We visited sites all along the Dorset, Devon, Sussex, and Kent coasts. They were wonderful family vacations. We would have fun at the beach and go for lovely walks in the countryside where we would enjoy a picnic lunch. My brother was keen on fishing. There was always lots of other children at the caravan parks so we would meet new friends.
We didn't join the Boy Scouts. We did, however, join the Boys' Brigade. That is a youth group similar to the Scouts, but more religiously oeiented. British readers will know about the Boys' Brigade, but I don't think they are very well known in America. We got involved through our church. All four of us participated. And we all enjoyed the experience. Thuis ebded when we moved to Belgium because they did not have the Boys' Brigade there.
My family moved to Belgium when I was 12 years old in 1974. I was immediately "gobsmacked" at the short trousers that the Belgian boys were all wearing. They were so much shorter than what boys were wearing at the time in England. I was terrified that I might have to wear them--but fortunately I never did. I couldn't bring myself to wear shorts even in heatwaves until I was well into my 20s as a result! I was startled to often seeing boys as old as 14 or 15 still wearing shorts all year round sometimes, even in the bitterest of cold, and at the time the style was VERY short. I remember one day my dad was driving us into town and we stopped at some
traffic lights. It was a bitter cold winter's day. Nxt to us a boy pulled up
on his bike. Warm anorak, scarf, balaclava, brown shoes, long shocks with a criss-cross patten... and no sign of any trousers. Just bear legs which he was rubbing to keep warm. It was a main road and he was at least 14, about my age at the time. That's what made it so memorable, because I was thinking "Wow, imagine, if I'd been born here I could be dressed like that now!" I had friends in secondary school who would wear jeans to school, but if they came round after school to ask if I wanted to come out, they'd appear at the door looking as if they didn't have any trousers on! I remember my mum commenting on the shorts some of the boys in the street were wearing and how incredibly short they were. We didn't wear smocks although for metal work and electricity we wore grey "overalls" as I call them which were identical to the ones you'll see in these pix, which I believe HBC refers to as smocks.
Another funny thing in the 70s in junior school was you wouldn't be seen
dead in long or BAGGY shorts. They'd gone right out of fashion. If all my shorts were in the wash and mum tried to get me to wear one of my older brother's hand-me-downs, I'd get in a strop as they were SO OLD FASHIONED!! It's all completely the opposite now. In the few remaining schools and Scouts where kids wear shorts still, they're nearly all long and baggy.
In my case I think I got my first long trousers (jeans) when I was about 8, but my brothers and friends were 10, 11 even 12. I was unusual because the primary school I went to had just started experimenting with relaxing uniform regulations. Also, my mother liked to dress us all the same, so once my brothers started wearing long trousers for senior school when they were 11 or 12, she bought the same clothes for me.
People today may not fully realise the extent to which boys wore shorts by default across Europe, regardless of the weather, up until the early 80s. (In some cases, the late 80s) My parents have pictures of myself, my brothers and our friends setting off for school in winter in the 60s, wrapped up in duffel coats, scarves, gloves and wellington boots....and short trousers! They also have pictures of my brother towing me around in the snow on a sledge....in duffel-coats with hoods up, coats, gloves, scarves, wellington boots .... and bare legs! It was normal....I don't ever remember thinking it wasn't.
Nowadays, boys take a lot of care over their appearance and have as many
combs as girls, with tubs of gel and very definite ideas about what clothes
they'll wear. Sadly, in most cases the style is for very very short hair.
interstingly, this is true in ordinary working class areas but NOT among
affluent people, who's sons still have good stylish heads of hair.
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