Memories of secondary school in the 70s (or thereabouts)

[waltzingparrot]

Pink custard and Spam Fritters (not together)

Budgie Jackets

Smoking in the toilets at breaktime (with lookout)

There was a phase of piercing friends' ears with a safety pin in the corridors (any old safety pin, no antiseptic) If you were lucky, they'd agree to do it at the weekend with an ice cube behind it.

Bomb Alerts - always seemed to be piling out to line up on the school field - garrison town.

But best best memories of packed lunches on the school field with your friends in all that glorious sunshine.

Essex 74-79

I started high school in 1978, it was an all girls comp that had been a sec modern but the nuns had pretensions of grandeur.

Hats were abandoned the term before I started but we still had pink gingham dresses in summer. No trousers allowed. Not even to walk to/from school.

You could smell the smoke as you passed the staff room. Never being sent home if you were ill, you just had to lie down in the medical room by the reception.

I used to get migraines, I may have faked more than I actually had, particularly when it was double English.

Only 5th year allowed out at lunchtime to buy meat pies, single cigarettes and 2 matches.

Not being allowed on the grass even if it was sunny.

Being allowed to play a record in Art, or persuading the art teacher to let us draw outside.

This is one for the RCs.

If they don't know how many people are going to take communion the priest puts a chalice near the entrance and you put a 'host' in if you are going to communion. If there were too many the priest had to eat the left over, there may have been times he had to eat rather a lot.

Oooh, this thread is great.

Going on runs in PE and nipping into my friends dads pub. He’d have cokes and crisps ready for us. We spent every PE afternoon in there. No one ever found out!😂

Playing Ouija boards in the toilets at dinner time. Smoking in the toilets at dinner time.

Soul skirts/pants and Bata shoes.
BCR bags
Peasant skirts
Cornish pasty shoes

Mocassin shoes, Just Musk perfume, smash hits mag with the lyrics

Duran Duran or spandau ballet??

Geminesse, Intrigue and Charlie perfume🤮.
Nylon uniform blouses🤮
Coconut oil instead of sun tan oil
Flicky hair
Knee length socks and uniform pencil skirt
Plimsolls for pe. No trainers then.
Airtex PE top
Bomb scare in the middle of a history exam. We were so happy
Loads of fights

Everyone used to form a sort of guard of honour in the playground to watch Chris What'shisname walk into school because he was our first punk with amazing mohawk hair like this, which I think he actually glued.

Those were the days when they didn't knock the creative self-expression out of you.

I got sent home from school for dyeing my hair pink!

It was in 1981, l was in the 6th form and was told l was not a good example to the younger pupils😂😂

They didn’t see me at university when l had a 2 foot Mohawk complete with shaved sides.

A trip down memory lane.
Yes to Panache and Charlie perfume, smoking in the toilets and temporary classrooms we called 'Terrapins' and seemed to be temp forever.
Lunchtime discos where we all did the same group dance steps. Recall Leo Sayer being played lots and also Status Quo.
Science teacher having an affair with a dinner lady. Same teacher never actually looked at your homework even though you had a row of marks in his register - how do I know? - because I didn't do any for weeks yet had a glowing report/parents evening, and I wasn't alone. Also, when he wrote on the board Page 155 looked like 'PISS' and amused our young teenage minds.
1979 school strike about lost lessons due to to teachers striking.
HT had nervous breakdown.

Yeah the strike was great!! I found my old diary. We were out of school for 6 weeks in early 79.

Teacher strikes
Caretaker strikes
Endless snow
Broken boilers.
It was great!!!!

Still managed to pass my o levels.....

@waltzingparrot Actually my eye makeup was a rather fetching shade of Aquamarine in a cream stick from Rimmel

Whole school assemblies complete with your school hymn. The HT stood on the stage to address you Being allocated a 'house' and having to wear a belt in your house colour.
Cold showers you just ran through after PE. The PE teacher would supervise this useless practice, so everyone was convinced she HAD to be a lesbian
Wearing a black leotard for gym class
Tuck shop
Victoria principal shampoo 70/80s
Hushpuppies worn with really long cream socks almost stocking length
You had one pair of shoes only

No one’s mentioned heather shimmer lipstick!

@TheDogsMother Aquamarine you say.,..... That'll be blue then!

Doh ! Turquoise I meant. Twas classy though

Nylon uniform or such like.
Loafers.
Long socks.
Purse belts.
Tuck shop.
The fog of smoke from the staff room.
Dance lessons.
Smitty/It was the perfume spray of choice.
Panda pop and a 1/4 of sweets instead of school dinners.

And let's not forget the annual School Magazine.

Sadly, I never made it in myself but there was always some amazing bit of artwork or two that looked like adult professionals had done it and a load of pretty rubbish poems. Can't remember what they filled the other 50 pages with.

Ankle socks - if you made the mistake of wearing knee socks, people followed you round shouting 'virgin socks'.

(As if being a virgin at the age of 12 was something to be ashamed of!).

Those were the days when they didn't knock the creative self-expression out of you.

Not at my school. Everything we wore was prescribed, down to the ribbons to tie our hair back, had to be school colours! All the girls had to file past the senior mistress every day into assembly, so she could inspect our appearance! No girl got away with black tights never mind a Mohican!

@Sheknowsaboutme

No one’s mentioned heather shimmer lipstick!

I loved that

In 1974 (ish) there was an oil shortage and we only went into school 1 day a week in the mobile- as that had storage heaters.

@BackforGood

Jackie magazine Discussing what had been on Top of the Pops on Thursday night, on Fridays Bomb scares (lots) No calculators - we used log books, and slide rulers were still around, but were being phased out We were very advanced and did have a computer room at the end of the decade There was a pay phone by the staff room if you ever needed to contact your parents Really, really wide ties Great cookery lessons though, where we actually learned so many useful skills

People used to call the fire brigade from the pay phone under the stairs at our school

I remember these two as well.

But we probably all had Jackie - The Cathy and Claire page.

@waltzingparrot I was at primary not secondary but yes, definitely remember spam fritters. Yuck.

Also endless bombscares (Colchester) to the extent that there was a rota of parents to pick up groups of children when we were evacuated.

@EmmaGrundyForPM Waves to fellow Colcestrian.

Teachers giving you the belt, which was v painful Some teachers used to get the leather belt and put it on the table at the start of a lesson just to show you who was boss. Teachers got reputations, such as he’s good at the belt, theses classes were usually quieter.
I did get the belt, one time three of the belt for talking .My hand was red raw v painful When you complained to your mum you just got told, you must have deserved it! Teachers word was law then.
Teachers also threw chalk and wooden chalk board wipers which were quite heavy at anyone talking or carrying on. Staff rooms were full of smoke.
Smoking behind sheds, prefects had their own room and we played music fleetwood mac v loudly! Had to do PE in shirts and shorts in freezing winters Whilst teachers wore huge jumpers and padded coats and shouted at us to stop complaining! We went swimming which was great but no time for getting dressed so had to get on the bus back to school with soaking hair in middle of winter. One girl took “too long” to get out of her cubicle PE teacher opened it she was barely dressed, All the boys laughed so in future we all got dried and dressed in minutes!

Can still do this to this day!
Glasgow secondary mid 70’s

Forgot to say since it sounds awful I loved school Loads of laughing with friends and avoiding the scary girls lol

We had lots of bomb scares too. We spent half our time out on the back field.

Teachers throwing the board rubber at kids who were misbehaving.