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Figure 1.--. |
Your site took me back to when I was growing up in the 1960s here in the United Kingdom. The primary school I attended did not have a uniform policy, in fact my awareness about clothing did not really surface until I was about 14-15 years old. At primary school, we all just wore what our parents sent us out in that morning, sometimes it would be T-Shirt and shorts. Sometimes I wore wooly cardigans and horrible stretch trousers with loops around the foot.
When we moved to a new area (12 months before I was due
to leave primary school along with all my friends), My parents had to decide upon a new school for me. There was one called Redbrook and another a couple of miles further away (I cannot recall the name of the school).
It was decided that I should attend Redbrook which I would attend up until the age of 13. It was only during my time that a female teacher turned around to me and suggested that I go and get a haircut as the headmaster was considering introducing a short hair policy (a very brave move in the long-haired seventies), she also mentioned that the headmaster was going to introduce short trousers to replace our rather boring and cheap long trousers. The thought, strangely enough never bothered me at all, however one of my friends who had also heard the conversation stated that we would become another "St Thomas's" (or whatever the other school was called), apparently, this school which I so nearly attended had a shorts pants uniform policy all the way through to fifth form (15-16 years old).
It turned out that the teacher in question had only been joking (as I was always a practical joker myself at school), however my friend had not. The thing I cannot understand is that my mother always stated that
she felt that boys belonged in short trousers, surely she read the uniform requirements for St Thomas's. So why did she not send me there. In many respects I am delighted that she didn't because I made some great friends at Redbrook, however, I cannot help winder what St. Thomas's might have been like.
I do recall an incident at Redbrook where a new kid started on the first day of term and wore grey school shorts, for ONE day. Poor kid
got teased so much.