Birmingham in 1960s

[I Am Nico]

Nico this is black polished shoes I'm guessing and not make up ?

Sorry the Mac keeps changing things when I send stuff. Second word school should read shoes. We stood out but we never won anything , second place maybe. Great fun though. No one was allowed to wear make up to school unlike now, long hair was tied up, with navy or blue ribbon, nothing else, no bobbles or slides, were permitted no boys' hair must touch their collar , no bright socks, for not adhering to these things we were caned late 60s and seventies. We had to look smart. Though some could not afford to. They were segregated mostly to the school annexe! I was told by older children if their beret was off kilter they got caned I don't know if this was true. We used to rebel and try and get different styles and shades of pullover but in the school colours but not designated for the pullover colour, or not wear a blazer, pull out trousers down over our red socks, which is hard when they are already too short, . Girls had to wear a skirt or a pinafore dress, No trousers. No tights or stockings till you were 15 unless they were exceptionally tall. No coloured bras! No jewellery except sleepers and only on the ears. How times change

 

[Dionysius//88]

Yes I can see the pitfalls of the coloured bra ,mass hysteria no doubt

 

[I Am Nico]

Yes I can see the pitfalls of the coloured bra ,mass hysteria no doubt

The pettiness of it all. Some girls had polo mint hair slides, the senior mistress jokily told the girls to pop them in their mouth and come back with a hair grip, She wasn't normally that pleasant, she was evil but she needed the choristers. For some reason she had the job of how the choir looked, but not sounded. See was the Senior Mistress. The only one allowed to cane the girls but could cane boys. Male House Masters or the head could only cane boys. A lot of our teachers did not agree with corporal punishment. Parents didn't either. I was lined up for the cane with my orange socks but they ran out of time and I was spared. That was 1970. I got it in in 1967 with a plank of wood a giant ruler. Probably for talking. One older lady teacher got a lad to roll his sleeve up and she spanked him by hand. For insubordination. He now runs his own business.

 

[I Am Nico]

I rebelled just before I left during exam time. I came in late, not on purpose but had to walk the proverbial the plank in my black and red platforms with segs on, my non uniform trousers and jacket, shirt and no tie. I suppose we will let you take your exam, said the teacher. probably 1972.