School meant so much more to me than learning. In fact, the learning bit was totally boring, in my opinion, but being with my friends more than made up for it. We chatted before, during and after lessons, discussing the latest crazes, pop gossip and what make up we were going to wear to the roller rink at the weekend!
Thinking back, I never did understand why we were made to climb ropes and walk on upturned benches during PE, to test our balance. I, personally, never wanted to join a circus and be an acrobat so it was wasted on me. Here are some wacky images to remind you of school days – gone but not forgotten.
1 Teacher’s Pencil Sharpener
Kept on the teacher’s desk, we had to put our hand up and ask if we could sharpen our pencils. I often did this just to waste time during a boring lesson. With the cheap pencils, you would sharpen them, the point would snap off, you’d try again and the same thing would happen until you were left with an inch of pencil and still no point!
Nowadays, I believe they are quite collectable. Who would have thought a humble pencil sharpener could have made such a huge impact!
2 Simplicity Sewing Patterns
These were the main sewing patterns when you wanted to run up a little outfit on your sewing machine. I would go to town with my grandma to choose a pattern for a summer dress. No matter how complicated it looked, grandma would make it up in about a week and it looked just like the picture on the front.
We used Simplicity patterns at school, where we were asked to make a tennis dress or skirt. Needlecraft was not my specialist subject so I chose the skirt as it was easier. I was still last in the class to finish my garment and it didn’t look great even then.
3 Bubble-Yum
Whilst I was always partial to Bazooka bubble gum, great for blowing bubbles, Bubble-Yum was right up there with the chewy treats. The beauty of the gum was that it was two flavors in one. The flavors included banana split, grape and apple. Such was bubble-yum’s appeal, it overtook the sales of Life Savers candy.
In the mid 70s, rumours were quick to spread about spider eggs being the secret ingredient in making the gum so chewy! Whatever the ingredient actually was, it certainly added to the chewabiity factor.
4 (Boring) Writing Practice
Back in the day, it was of the utmost importance that our handwriting was nothing less than perfect. After all, we had thank you letters to write to relatives, interview letters to apply for jobs and fan letters to pen to our beloved pop stars. We would practice at school with tracing paper until we got every letter of the alphabet just right.
Ask kids today to write a letter and they wouldn’t have a clue where to put the address, date etc. Then again, why would they need to. They probably don’t even know what a postage stamp is?
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6 Plimsoll Whitener
This certainly got well used and what a great invention! Each time I wore my plimsols for school sports, I’d get out the whitener to cover any scuffs and keep them looking like new. I also used it on my white strappy sandals which, incidentally, I wore until only the buckle was left.
It makes me laugh when I think that, at the beginning of a new school term, my plimsolls were soft and flexible but, by the end of it, after using the whitener so many times, they were crispy and stiff!
7 Multi-Colored Pen
Who didn’t just love these chunky pens, with the multi-colored biros. It took stationery to a new, rainbow level like no other pen could do. There were great colors, like lime green and violet which were enough to excite any pen enthusiast!
It was a shame that the colors never lasted long enough. All too soon, after some frantic coloring, the ink was gone and I would be left with brown and yellow!
8 Blasters Roll Caps
Obviously forbidden in school, but my brother took no notice and he and his friends would regularly hide the caps in their blazer pockets and let them off in the cloakroom or the school yard. They always got told off, wold leave it for a week or so, and then do the same again.
The boys would also hit a rock over the caps to make them smoke and smell – I can still smell the gunpowder now!
9 Gummed Stars
The ultimate achievement in a school day would have to be getting a shiny gummed star on your homework. A silver one had you feeling as proud as punch and a GOLD star meant the world. You would make sure you friends knew how intelligent you were by leaving the evidence open on your school desk, until you were sure they were all green with envy at this accolade.
However, things didn’t always happen this way as many of your classmates got gold when you only managed silver. Also, sometimes you got stars for neat handwriting and not having a fantastic IQ!
10 Maybelline Kissing Potion
It might not be the end of the world if you forgot your Trapper Keeper, but if the strawberry Kissing Potion wasn’t in your pencil case, it was panic stations. It was a necessity to have it to hand, at any given time, to keep those lips soft and glossy. The flavors were good enough to eat.
I’d apply it 10 times a day, when the teacher wasn’t looking, often getting out my little mirror (attached to a fold-up hairbrush),
