School & Other Uniforms

Imagine the scene! It's the late summer of '67-the summer of love, flower power is at it's zenith, San Francisco, Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair is top of the charts, everyone's wearing tie dyes and flares, and Dave, Geoff and I return to start the 2nd year at Salvo wearing our green blazers and caps ???

The school uniform was just as disgusting as the school dinners. In our day, there was a rule that you had to wear your cap on your journey to and from school until the end of the 2nd year. This was of course consistently flouted by most boys including myself.

Some boys even came to school wearing short trousers in the first couple of years, but there was no way I was going to join them.

Our progression to the 4th and 5th year coincided with the birth of the skinhead cult, and it didn't take long for boys inclined to this culture to start bending the uniform rules to sport the many articles of clothing which were adopted by "skins".

A typical "uniform" would have been as follows:
A Crombie overcoat for the winter or a Harrington jacket for the autumn, spring and summer.Ben Sherman or Brutus button down collar shirts with a pleat at the back. For the really daring, thin braces would be worn. Trousers were Levi sta-prest, usually in subtle colours, although I do recall one boy wearing an ice-blue pair - Cool!

White socks along with Oxford flat tops, brogues or loafers with a tassel on would complete the set. Funnily enough, I don't recall any Dr Martens, which were the article of clothing probably most associated with the skinhead culture. Oh! And I forgot to mention the No 1 crop haircut, of which Reg Carroll in Dave and Geoff's class was the leading exponent.

Of course there were regular purges by teachers and prefects. I had an extremely unlucky experience in that the very first day I wore my brand new, green Brutus shirt to school, I was caught by no less than Fr Dominic and ordered never to wear it again. I lay low for a few weeks, but then gradually reintroduced it to my school uniform wardrobe along with a matching pair of sta-prest trousers!
(John T 66-71)