School daze
At our school there was one blazer for 1st to 4th years and then a different one for 4th years and up. The first was made of that foul, thick, felty blazer material and was a kind of royal blue. The older kids wore a normal cotton, dark navy-blue blazer, both emblazoned with a school badge on the breast pocket [Cheerfulness with Industry - I kid you not].

It would have been the fateful year of 1977 when we finished our fourth year and punk had just launched itself swearing and spitting upon the world. Me and my best mate were North London (sub-urban) punks (don't think green mohicans and bondage trousers, they came later; think drainpipe jeans, torn t-shirts, loads of badges on an army surplus bomber jacket, and 10-hole black D.M. boots).

So...the last day of term, the last day of the dreaded blazer, I had a brain-wave: I tore the school badge off the pocket of my hateful blazer and re-affixed it with safety pins: genius!

I think my 'cool rating' soared from about 5% to nearly 15% that day.

My mum gave me a good telling off though.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:24, Reply)