DOWN MEMORY LANE

This is what I meant by Travolta-style wearing his shirt collar outside his suit lapel, later revived by Brad Pitt in Ocean’s Eleven. A style I could never bring myself to wear. 🤭
 
Have we covered fashions now. How about entertainment.

We all went to the cinema back in the 70s. One of the most cherished memories of earlier, smaller cinemas was the intermission mid-way through the film. Staff would come down to stand in front of the screen or in the aisle and stairways with trays full of ice cream tubs with wooden spoons, along with sugary snacks such as Fantales, Minties or Jaffas, ready for the second half. I had a taste for Choo Choo bars, lemon sherbet eaten with a piece of licorice and Lolly Suckers on a string. True. The more game cinema goer would sit in the back row smooching or roll orange flavored Jaffas down the aisle.

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Have we covered fashions now.

We could say so or we could also go on. There was not only disco style fashion, was there? What were your personal preferences as a teenager or a twenty-something?
I can't talk about fashion and clothes without mentioning my personal trauma and that of my generation. Like anybody else, as a young lad I was craving for Levi's jeans and would have killed to get them! At that age it was all about clothes produced in the West which would be identified at a glance by everyone. But most importantly you needed to be wearing Levi's jeans preferable worn-out, preferably the 507 with a red or orange tab ideally to go with a T-shirt and a genuine US-Army parka or field jacket the most popular being a washed M65... . That's basically all you needed to have to get credibility and to get the girls. And that was hard enough, almost impossible. If you didn't have relatives of the same age and wearing the same size who'd send you stuff or visit you so that you could strip them, you had a problem being accepted.
Finally, I got the Levi's but never had a genuine US parka or field jacket ....
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That was a shame all the more so because besides being a fashion statement, such an outfit also was a most welcome and first -rate political statement telling everyone that you cherish Western values and despise the political system of the East complete with its anti-Americanism and its home-made clothes that were actually being manufactured to satisfy the needs of young people but were a cheap copy of Western clothes at best. They should be shoved where the sun never shines.
As odd as all that may sound to you, there's an episode that underlines the accuracy of my statement and shows to the world, if you like, how relevant fashion, Western clothes and Levi's jeans in particular, were to my generation because they embodied the dream of liberty and were proof of the superiority of the Western system. I'm thinking of our ex-head of state Angela Merkel, whom I had met in the 70s, who also considered that topic so significant that she couldn't resist talking about exactly that desire of all desires which she had as a young girl for the same reason when giving her first speech to the US Congress. Listening to her, I could fully understand why she had chosen not to leave that out. I'd have done the same.
 
We could say so or we could also go on. There was not only disco style fashion, was there? What were your personal preferences as a teenager or a twenty-something?
I can't talk about fashion and clothes without mentioning my personal trauma and that of my generation. Like anybody else, as a young lad I was craving for Levi's jeans and would have killed to get them! At that age it was all about clothes produced in the West which would be identified at a glance by everyone. But most importantly you needed to be wearing Levi's jeans preferable worn-out, preferably the 507 with a red or orange tab ideally to go with a T-shirt and a genuine US-Army parka or field jacket the most popular being a washed M65... . That's basically all you needed to have to get credibility and to get the girls. And that was hard enough, almost impossible. If you didn't have relatives of the same age and wearing the same size who'd send you stuff or visit you so that you could strip them, you had a problem being accepted.
Finally, I got the Levi's but never had a genuine US parka or field jacket ....
https://www.esellersolutions.com/eS...litaryops/product_image_114_1_12_17_22_31.gif

That was a shame all the more so because besides being a fashion statement, such an outfit also was a most welcome and first -rate political statement telling everyone that you cherish Western values and despise the political system of the East complete with its anti-Americanism and its home-made clothes that were actually being manufactured to satisfy the needs of young people but were a cheap copy of Western clothes at best. They should be shoved where the sun never shines.
As odd as all that may sound to you, there's an episode that underlines the accuracy of my statement and shows to the world, if you like, how relevant fashion, Western clothes and Levi's jeans in particular, were to my generation because they embodied the dream of liberty and were proof of the superiority of the Western system. I'm thinking of our ex-head of state Angela Merkel, whom I had met in the 70s, who also considered that topic so significant that she couldn't resist talking about exactly that desire of all desires which she had as a young girl for the same reason when giving her first speech to the US Congress. Listening to her, I could fully understand why she had chosen not to leave that out. I'd have done the same.
Does it upset you if I say I never craved Levis jeans, probably as, unlike you and Angela Merkel, I had access to them. I never saw them as a status symbol as other westerners did.
As I spent much of my pre and teen years in a boarding school wearing a school uniform 24/7 I craved wearing anything but at holiday time. Simple shorts/T shirt and bare feet gave me a feeling of freedom after the draconian lifestyle of the school. Dressing up when older, I was content wearing a sport coat and trousers, usually with a scarf, rather than a suit.
 
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Does it upset you if I say I never craved Levis jeans, probably as, unlike you and Angela Merkel, I had access to them. I never saw them as a status symbol as other westerners did.
No, not all all. It's an East bloc thing. Westerners were telling me at the time that they couldn't understand the fuss. Many of them were anti-American then anyway.
I also lost interest in them in the 90s but couldn't resist buying a last pair of 507 in Carnaby Street which I then donated to charity soon after. I did, however, enjoy the experience of being advised by the shop assistant until I finally bought them. 😎
Slinging my hook and going shopping for clothes now. :p
 
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Slinging my hook and going shopping for clothes now. :p
I did go but didn't find anything. Saw this shop in a department store and thought I'd show it to you. This is exactly what I dreamt of as a young man. The pair not washed-out looks like the one you could buy in the 70s before things got insane with industry itself giving jeans that used look .



Ritchie, as I said, people growing up in the West take a different view. My daughters are an example. Today they flew to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria , after they had booked the trip blindly and didn't explicitly exclude Sofia and some other cities in Eastern Europe. I 'd have done that, you bet. That's the difference.
 
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I spent the first decade of my life growing up in outer Sydney where my parents had purchased land. We lived in a garage while our house (similar to above pic) was being built. I had a happy early childhood until my teacher father died suddenly and my mother sent my older brother and I to a Mason-run boarding school (below pic) where I was to spend almost a a full lonely decade. Where the discipline was strict, entertainment little more than a monthly film and family visits only if you had behaved yourself. Any major misdemenors and you would find yourself polishing the hall floors while your parents were on the school grounds. As for sport we kids had to make our own amusement, with our sporting fields being where cows grazed, so before we could play a game of cricket or footy we first had to shoo away the bovines then remove the fresh cow dung...🤢..
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Cropley House Senior School.
 
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After boarding school we settled firstly in Cronulla then Coogee (see below) both seaside suburbs in southern Sydney. After the strict confines of the boarding school I finally got to spread my wings and spent many hours at each beach. I purchased my first car shortly after moving to Coogee and after leaving school and I also almost killed myself in it when my brakes failed on that steep hill (see pic) which we called the Alps of Coogee. I must have gone thru two, maybe three red lites but somehow managed to bring the out of control mini to a stop at the bottom. I escaped without a scratch. My guardian angel was watching over me that day. I did not drive again for two years after my terrifying brush with death.

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Wow I have found a video of the boarding school at time I was there. Must have a been a promotion film by the Masons. Look 46 seconds into the video, almost certain that the small blond boy next to the dark tall boy are myself and my older brother. Fairly certain too that is me 3m.50 seconds, small blond boy looking at the camera, taken at the Annual School Sports Day probably a couple of years after we arrived.
 
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Wow I have found of the boarding school at time I was there. Must have a been a promotion film by the Masons. Look 46 seconds into the video, almost certain that the small blond boy next to the dark tall boy are myself and my older brother. Fairly certain too that is me 3m.50 seconds, small blond boy looking at the camera, taken at the Annual School Sports Day probably a couple of years after we arrived.

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Great vid Ritchie, it looks very staged though, bet it wasn't as good as it's made to look?
 
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