General Chat

Who remembers them?

Unfortunately, yes I do. Shows my age tho. Liz

Oh dear, yes indeed. All of those rubber type thingy buttons that stuck into everywhere they shouldn,t. Perp.

I do too, they were fleecy lined with rubber buttons, kept you pure though as by the time anyone had undone all those buttons they would have lodt interest !!!

Flannelette petticoats also spring to mind. Annie

I remember them well and the saying 'Never cast a clout until may is out' so I wasn't allowed to leave them off until June regardless of the weather. Heather

Me too. My mum even insisted I wore mine when I went to Seniour school. Used to take it off in the loos when I got to school - then put it on again when I got home !! Had to wear it over my vest as well. LOL. I can't get my daughter to even wear her jacket to school at the moment. Doesn't know she's born. !! Libby xx

Do you remember the awful brown stockings they were so thick you had to fasten on to the Liberty Bodices how i detested them. June.

What about knickers, I only had my school ones navy three pairs, my friend was posh she had white airtex ones, I make up for it now always buying nice undies and go on holidays with about 14 pairs . Annabel

Yes, I remember them too and it's funny I was talking about them to my husband the other day. I was born in 1928 and also remember long legged knickers which even had a pocket in them to put a hankie in.Do you remeber combinations or 'coms' as we used to call them. They were all in one things that had a split where you went to the toilet. It sounds so stupid now but we really did wear such things. I also buy myself nice undies now, although I am 78. Sylvia in Perth Western Australia

Yes I remember them. Also had to wear two pairs of knickers to school (white ones underneath and navy ones on top). Think my Mum thought my bottom would turn blue otherwise! Janet :-)

Yes I remember (born 1940). And knee high socks with elastic 'garters', and pixie hoods, gloves on elastic so they wouldn't be lost. And navy knickers with pockets when at grammar school and skirts that had to be just touching the floor when you knelt down, and cardigan sleeves thatw ere not allowed to be rolled up ('like a washerwoman'), and no trousers or jeans until I was about 17, always skirts and dresses. Was allowed to wear sandals when we went back for the summer term but not before (Clarks). Ann Glos

Ann Oh God, you've taken me back! Having to kneel on the floor in Assembly and 'Miss' prowling along the line to see that your skirt touched the floor. Long hair had to be in two plaits, tied with school colour ribbon.Short hair had to be above the collar of your blouse - hair touching the collar resulted in a beautifully hand written note home, requesting that your mother get your hair cut, or put it in plaits. Clark's black lace ups in the winter - completely indestructible, what were they made of? Clark's brown 'daisy pattern' sandals during summer term - with navy blue socks!!' My Dad used to cut the toe off last year's sandals so I could play in them. But most of all how I hated the navy blue barathea coat we had to wear in winter. It was an inch thick, bought big to grow into and if it got wet it didnt dry out till spring. It had a huge wide belt which was fetchingly positioned just under the armholes for some reason. 'Health and hygiene' lessons (conducted by the Domestic Science teacher, for some reason) where a lot of attention was paid to 'keeping yourself fresh and dainty' by washing a lot - probably provoked by those pre-deodorant days and lots of pubescent girls. In the fifth form, summer term just before you left, the District Nurse would come in and give a lecture about 'The Facts of Life' (boys excluded from this lesson, they didn't need to know). The Facts of Life consist of Periods (a bit late for most of us), How A Baby IS Born (but not how it was conceived, lol) and a lecture about 'not getting carried away'. This Getting Carried Away apparently happened if you kissed common boys from the Secondary School, or someone your parents didnt like. Oh, happy, innocent days! OC

Had a laugh at liberty bodices,and school memories.We had to wear berets,rolled up and put in your pocket till we were at the school gate.Had a weekly school Mass,if you forgot your beret,you would have to wear a nuns black veil(had to have head covered for church)What a humiliation that was! As we also were fasting for Communion,we took breakfast of cold toast,and an Oxo cube,that the nuns put boiling water on.UGH!Or cold milk! Long thick black stockings that needed garters,the elastic cutting your thighs.Happy Days. Margaret.

OC, oh yes I remember the coat, or the gabardine 'mac', and the velour hat with elastic that the boys loved to ping. Got rid of that by second form then had to wear berets, with detention for not wearing it. No fun detention as we were a 40 bus ride by school bus away but if we had detention which was for an hour after school we had to get the service bus entailing a bus change and crossing a busy main road which too way over an hour. I got knocked over by a bike doing this one day when I was just eleven, crossing the wide main Portsmouth road at Cosham in the dark. (1956). Ann Glos

OHHH Blimey do i remember Liberty bodices with the rubber buttons. they went on in Oct & you still wore them till June when mum was sure all the cold weather had gone. In the winter Mum sewed tags on them so stockings could be hiked up on them had to wear em till I was 14 at least and well remember the indignity of undressing for PE

I remember the gabardine mac. You had it when you started at secondary school and as it was bought 'for you to grow into' it didn't fit you till five years later. Meanwhile it was round your ankles and turned back five times on the sleeves!! I also remember the berets and having hysterics at some of the different ways people wore them. When I first started senior school, the beehive hairstyle was in and the older girls used to put the beret flat like a pancake on the back of their head, grip it into position and backcomb their hair over it.

Oh yes I remember Liberty bodices! The rubber buttons were so they didn't break in the mangle. They would take ages to dry, even after being put through the mangle. I was at grammar school in the 1960s and remember having to wear navy blue knickers and aertex shirts for games and PE. We also had pale blue tunics (a bit like togas) for dance. All the other uniform was available at Dugans in Sutton, but the tunics had to be made at home. Luckily my Nan was trained as a dressmaker so my tunic was one of the better ones! LOL We had navy velour hats in Winter and straw boaters in Summer, which had to be worn at all times out of school when in uniform. Doug used to come and collect me from school on his motor bike and I used to take off my hat and put my crash helmet on. Our French mistress, Miss Moore, used to stand by the gates to make sure we were all in the correct uniform when leaving school. One day she called across the car park 'Susan, put your hat on'. So I did, over my crash helmet much to the delight of other pupils! I got a detention for the rest of the week:o( We also had to kneel down to make sure our skirts touched the ground - then we'd leave the room and roll the waistband over until we had our mini skirts back! I'm sure my old teachers are turning in their graves when they see my nearly 14 year old grandaughter and her friends in their uniforms! Even their ties are shortened to about 3 or 4 inches long! Sue xx

I wonder why they were called liberty bodices when they were so constricting? Ann Glos

my mum remembers them.