On Malcolm Young R.I.P

This blog isn't a music blog or a blog that has parts to do with music specifically but when an event that is connected with boyhood pasts comes up will be included in it.

The hard rock band AC/DC were a big part of my boyhood who I followed, collected newspaper and magazine clippings and bought their recordings that connected very much with how being a boy felt.
Although Angus Young connected very much with me as the every single inch awkward boy in school uniform complete with shorts strutting his guitar - his boy spirit -  Malcolm provided those necessary rhythm guitar sections and backing vocals on tracks like Problem Child and Shake A Leg and with Angus was the co-founder of the band.
On Saturday November 18 he died after retiring due to dementia. We salute HIM.

Crossing lines

The era in while I spent my childhood compared to today had more overt gender separation although I suspect that widening of it from seven plus remains being primarily child social construct driven.

One thing that did run through it was oddly enough the notion of having 'sweethearts' to which you might walk a girl home from school or when socially a boy was necessary to be with her you were it although you'd never play together at school.

Jacqueline was mine during Junior school to the point we'd both by the age of ten would get ourselves kept out of PE so we we sit together and chat although we would have some work set for us which the other teachers would oversee between their own classes.

We also might share candy but it was a very innocuous thing with no notions around sensuality (or feeling it was 'sexy') at all more a very deep friendship across gender lines where both of you felt carefree.

Junior school uniform

A big part of the life I had centred around being at school, sometimes just that at other times more around the social connections, the friendships that might lead to coming home to another boys house and being fed by their Mommy.

One thing about all the schools I attended was they had some form of uniform or another that naturally every boy (and girl) had to comply with.
At my junior school we boys wore grey long sleeved shirts with thick collars that were fully buttoned, white vests and white 'Y Front' underpants and grey three-quarter length socks.
As well we had  a red and white diagonal striped tie just like the one in this picture and charcoal grey shorts which were lined so they were surprisingly warm  when compared to sports shorts and certainly I felt cooler in long school trousers later on in my schooldays.
Fastening that tie was something I struggled with (and still do) so I made a point of being friendly with at least one boy so if I needed it putting back on after games say, there was someone I could ask to do it for me as like every boy I was subject to full school rules at all times and having on properly fastened was one of them.
I was always happy to wear that tie.

Penny for the guy!

Another month begins in the existence of this blog and there's something I'm interested in sharing.

This time of year in the UK is connected for many of us with marking the attempt by Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 which failed when the plot was discovered.
This is usually marked by a big bonfire where an effigy of Guy Fawkes having been made is burned followed by a celebratory display of fireworks during which sparklers are handed around for people to make shapes and words with in the pitch black sky.
Until fairly recently school boys like myself would spend some time making a such a Guy from waste material such as straw, dressing him in old clothes nobody needed and a hat and we'd taking him around street corners shouting loudly "Penny for the guy".
Making him was a source of pride, showing your boyish ingenuity as people usually grown ups would give you money which came in handy in run up to Christmas eeking our our pocket money.
We learned to work to earn money by our own efforts a valuable lesson for us as we grew up.