Autumn Term At Crepey Towers

[QueenQueenie]

I did it!

I loved Sheffield, stayed long after I qualified. Lived in Ranmoor for a while. Went back a couple of yrs ago for the 30th anniversary of an ensemble I sang in & for John Simms's Hamlet at the Crucible. Happy days. Great place to live.

Feel as though moving dd up to the attic is almost the first stage in her leaving home. We definitely see less of her now she has her own floor.

I took a bike that was old when my mother took it to college and a blue shiny kettle that was my pride and joy. Queen of cool, me. I know I will miss my dd loads, but it has occurred to me that her bedroom would be a fine place for a furtive Sunday afternoon snooze..

Oh alto, were you in Sheff too?
I'm afraid I never did anything as worthy as sing in an ensemble or at the Crucible (although I did go and watch the odd thing there) - my claim to fame is that I worked in the Frog and Parrot and lived above the Sex Shop on Division St

Addle, after a bit more googling, I see Pyjama Jump was axed in the 90's, so she's sadly missing out on the best night of the year safe

BTM, didn't sing at the Crucible, (if only) but went all the time.

addle - I had a Laura Ashley dress too - I think we were so green and innocent compared to the current sassy generation. I was in Newcastle - a bit further north. I've been talking to DD about the big northern uni's where you can have a great experience in a good Russell Group uni. Coming from France she thinks everywhere ought to have a castle or a cathedral which means she's come up with a list of very difficult uni's to get into. Although she is very bright her teacher has nonetheless warned her that there is a slim chance that she receives no offers at all. She shrugged and said "well in that case I'll just stay in France"

I don't think I ever had a Laura Ashley dress - I had to have homemade ones (my mum got the material from the LA shop)

I had an LA dress. In fact, I still have it. I haven't tried it on in 20 years. It's lovely though.

I did my university interview in a Laura Ashley dress with a black velvet ribbon in my hair

It was the day John Lennon died. The late 1980s, with no excuse for my attire.

The memory is toe-curlingly embarrassing redeemed only by the fact they gave me a scholarship

I didn't have a Laura Ashley dress. But I did want one. I think at 18 I was aspiring to be 'edgy', as only a home counties girl in Liverpool can be. Cringe.

@ MI.
I have never possessed a Laura Ashley dress. I did all my university interviews in jeans and an excess of earrings, mainly to annoy everyone at the posh girls' boarding school I was sent to for 6th form. Was my feeble act of rebellion.

I was a Mod, so no Laura Ashley for me, black and white only and preferably in dogstooth check. I had white hair for a while too, loved it. I had a very impressive collection of batwing jumpers which I gradually swapped for an impressive colection of waistcoats in the late 80s. After years of so much monochrome, my current enjoyment of print/colour has come as a complete surprise to me.

I was only about 10-12 when I wore my homemade Laura Ashley dress

I did have a white mohair batwing jumper as a teen though

No "shop-bought" dresses for me as a child - as the daughter of a fashion designer I was always togged up in some hideous 70s hi-fashion creation, when all I really wanted was a pair of turquoise glittery hot-pant dungarees like Penelope down the road.

I had one particularly nasty party dress, with a long skirt made out of pale green quilted fabric. It stuck out in a conical shape; I couldn't stand still for too long in case someone tried to store loo-rolls under it.

CV - quilted dresses are quite the fashion ATM so you were truly ahead of your time.

CV

Lol cv
The Laura Ashley in my life was confined to my bedroom curtains and wallpaper - green and white spots etc. mum made them on her old treadle singer . There was quite a bit if fabric left which I still have in an original LA green bag. Been meaning to make a cushion for about 30 years out if that
My interview outfit at Central st M was a pair of white painters dungarees

Complete with Pollock stylee paint splatters ( done by me) a pair of dms and pink hair a la Bananarama
I must have been rocking the right look at the time as they let me in with a shit body of work

I have of course shared with some of you the evidence that my style changed a fair bit in the next few years...

CV, a lovely image. Thank you.

CV - my Auntie made all my cousins' clothes and I was really envious as they got to go to choose the material. I think they were really envious that I got shop bought stuff. Just goes to prove - the grass is always greener.

A bit like my children are about food. Offer DD2 her ultimate choice of tea and she'll opt for burger and oven chips. No hand ground spices for her, oh no

(I was a bit the same about Fray Bentos pie v my mother's exquisite avant-fusion cooking. Come to that, Bought Pie goes down v well in the Inferiority Complex too...)

At primary school, I really, really wanted a slimy nylon v-neck jumper, just like everyone else. Instead I had an itchy hand-knitted one. Little ingrate, I was.

Stropps I had the same misgivings about my school tie which was also hand knitted lovingly in fine cotton by my maternal nana .( she was so proud of me at The Grammar) I desperately desperately wanted a big wide 80s rayon sateen number

A knitted tie

I remember my first foray into Laura Ashley. I was 13 and the dress had been my sisters... It was full length, royal blue patterned needle cord, with two long lace inserts running from the shoulder, over my newly (and very amply) formed bosom it had ruffles too numerous to mention and I wore it to my brothers 21 st birthday party.... It was 1979 and I thought I was the hottest chick in town!

I also lived in home made clothes until I was about 10... Small shifts, that were obscenely short with pants made to match...
Strangely enough, I have all the patterns my mum used under my bed and I can't bear to part with them. They bring back so many memories