Deciding on a uniform scheme II

We had last looked at uniform on February 5th where I had come to conclusion the scheme that best fitted my muse was one centred on Royal Blue as that built on the detail colour in his tie and turn over top socks with the very traditional grey.

The start point of the entire exercise for me has always been centred around dealing with the dysphoria being permanently in mindset of schoolboy who doesn't relate to adult life except in the most basic and superficial of ways.

It's really bringing together how I feel as an eternal boy of ten on the inside with how I look on the outside so I see the 'real' me so I feel have the best level of self confidence as that boy especially when lockdown restrictions permitted I can be with others.

We got last time a actual boys plain Royal Blue blazer made by David Luke that fitted a treat but having been at schools that didn't have a formal uniform cap it wasn't a thing I associated with an idea of myself.

I came around to a view however that actually I would of loved one because although it was obviously non uniform I did during the time I was ten through to twelve years did wear a Bay City Rollers cap not just for obvious reasons such as a fanatical devotion the the "tartan terrors" but because actually I like wear a cap!

I decided to buy a Royal Blue cap to match from Albert Prendergast's store because it just makes sense to position myself as that boy who apart from wanting to have to wear a blazer also would of liked to worn an official matching cap.

One things I will say for Albert Prendergast's store is he only stocks good quality mainly british made items so you get high quality and keep UK textiles jobs going and the underside of the cap shows that in the cotton lining and high quality stitching 

This no doubt will be worn the next time I can attend a meet.

Pix credits: Albert Prendergast Ltd.

Not declaring your picture credits is worth at least cornertime!!!

Les McKeown - R.I.P.

 

It was announced yesterday that Leslie McKeown, the frontsman and lead singer who contributed to the sound of the legendary Scottish pop group the Bay City Rollers who were extremely popular in the 1970's had died  on April 20th aged 65.

For many of us who were fortunate to be of an age group in this era that they appealed to this image of the band from 1975 is the one we recognize with Les second left from Eric Faulkner and to the right of Alan Longmuir.

As Alan left at the very end of 1975 the band line up changed into 1976 with Ian Mitchell replacing him for the Love Me As I Love You single and Dedication album of 1976.

Les joined the band in early 1974 appearing on the Shang-a-lang single that confirmed the bands increasing popularity and the top selling lp Rollin' which had re-recorded versions of Saturday Night and Remember whose original singles featured Nobby Clarke on lead vocal.

Some measure of their popularity by April 26, 1975 was as shown in this Record Mirror chart countdown they held the #1 singles slot with Bye Bye Baby,  a cover of the Four Seasons song, and #2 on the albums chart with Rollin.

Many things contributed to it, simple sing along pop songs whose lyrics resonated with 8-14 year olds that were not too long to lose their attention unlike the tracks of the progressive rock albums older siblings bought by people like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Yes, a simple image you could copy (and you did) and Les's own image.

On April 22nd 1975 Shang-A-Lang, the bands own tv show produced by Granada television and shown on the ITV affiliates such as ATV here in the Midlands debuted that showcase them, other artists and had features on car maintenance too.

The first episode featured The Goodies, three well know personalities whose show was massive at the time in the UK and who also had a recording career with hits such as Funky Gibbon. 

Roller music was all pervasive when this charted I sang it on the school bus on school trips out as the teachers turned it up for us cos they knew we loved the Rollers.

We made scrap books from pictures in magazines and newspapers that we kept updated, I had the annuals and naturally the records, both singles and albums that were played at school and home.

I also had my tartan BCR cap that stayed on my head during that era.

We followed them in those pre-internet, pre social media days looking for anything about them, taking an interest in their personal lives.

When I moved to boarding school I talked in my introduction to my form about my love of their music which smoothed my introduction and got me some new friends as changing school always has an effect on such things.

Some indication of Les's popularity as a heartthrob for girls and fashion idol for boys can be gauged by this article from the Daily Mirror newspaper in 1979, a year after he left the band being replaced by Duncan Faure, a South African born singer.

He made a number of solo recordings and had a fair to do with the 2010 Rollermania four cd box set contributing two solo recordings that were otherwise unavailable and assisting with memorabilia and track selection.  

The Bay City Rollers were our first love, the music that was ours not our siblings or parents, their image is an iconic one of our times and for all they did for us during that time I say thanks Les for your part in their story and rest in peace.

That Uniformed Schoolboy on Tumblr week 3rd year

Following on a little from last weeks post we move into what is and would of been the the third anniversary of being on Tumblr continuously had it not been for losing the original accounts this time last year.

Much has changed since that period although the evidence of and the working through the various things that had left me feeling insecure in myself and questioning really who I was have needless to say gone from that site.

Part of that also came the original short lived ASB site  which took me back to all male environment socially where I soon found myself as little different than any or all of them  each being their individual selves with their own interests as indeed I always was being connected to part of the pattern of boyish masculinity others had and I critically had experienced too but had not associated with my gender.

I began to understand that really what made me was my own interests, passions and quirks that I bought to being that boy needing no other label or anything connected with the social world of females because what I had innately was all I needed and that was unquestionably my own identity.

In a sea of females I was happy. content and stable to be a male no more and no less and to be one of boys socially, very comfortable spending more time both in real life and online with males.

I also began to understand that I was rather less an age regressor  so much as a person with Age Dysphoria being very much in the mindset of and having similar needs to that of someone younger - a boy who in reality was hardly a day older than ten - on a permanent basis.

The varying degrees over the years that I engaged with that though play, interests and through just being happy to dress as I did back then seeing the boy I am took away many of the tensions in trying to just be myself.

Through lockdown I embraced myself, working with my boyishness making a life in conditions that were hard for all and coming out feeling more confident and stable  as that eternal little boy in his uniform who loved himself.

The greatest prize three years on is knowing yourself and having the confidence to move on in life as just you.

Going back to 1980

As we make our way through the month it is usually the case the final preparations are made for the production of  this years Beano and Dandy Summer Specials ready to go to the shops or today be ordered online from around late May.

Last year I did write a bit around Dandy and Beano Comic Library editions and Summer Specials and as it happens it's what would be the third anniversary of the Traditional School Boy (TSB) on Tumblr.

Recently I repurchased this, the 1980 Summer Special which was something I bought while away in what was in hindsight to be quite a significant year.

1980 was year where exams loomed across this month and May and with it the widening age dysphoria gap between how I was on the inside and how chronological aged me was being seen by others.

It was across this period that I started to wear much of my older clothes not least shorts, long socks and having discovered it, my younger brothers former cub scout uniform.

This was the summer I refused to wear long trousers while away on hols wearing either an old denim pair or some ultra short blue shorts that Messrs Jonty and James might of approved off so every single family picture shows what on the surface was a young boy, a slightly more mature looking ten or eleven year old as I was less developed physically and rather thin.

Thus it was him that read things like that years summer special Pup Parade, the strip based on the lives of the Bash Street Kid's dogs on the beach and in our accommodation.

Around this time I was still reading comics so issues like April 26th's was a memorable one and an indication of how things were across this period was the fifteen year old going on ten was still playing now having moved on a year (by chronological age) played with that glove puppet even if I could talk about The Jam and Mrs Thatcher's government going on to have afternoon tea with the latter at No. 10. 

I had decided by that point in my life I was not a "young man" nor associated with the term "teenager" but really still that boy in Juniors even if I went to "big school" and started to study for a few more examinations the next year.

So it was as got to the tail end of 1980 that what was now a boy in law who could leave school was still living in most respects as a ten year old with the same house rules, dressed the same would get things like that years Beano Book (it wasn't an annual until later) even if he studied the Constitution and system of Government at school getting the best exam result of the group the next year.

As far as that year book went Gnasher and Dennis were as football mad as us sticking our PE shorts on during midday recess for game on the school fields and Gnasher's teeth dead set on biting the bums of Dennis's opponents as we has in the Summer Special.

1980 was the year the short-lived  spin off Bash Street Kids annual  started as many of us were into Adam Ant and Grange Hill.

Cuthbert was forever the class swat and teachers pet as much as teacher was like mine that year still legally able to swing that cane in our direction and boys like me who got to sit outside the form teachers office were often teased about just what might happen later.  

You took stuff like that in your stride and I was more than capable of dishing it back later!

That was 1980 and why revisiting the Summer Special brought everything back.

Easter Edition

 By jove chaps doesn't it come round soon enough!

Well we are entering the great Easter Weekend today with Good Friday although I had have to remind my Mum it IS easter with schools being off for a fortnight and while I do read the Easter Story over this period even I have to say the other part is just great too.

Easter for me always meant craft things like making Easter Bonnets and cards and naturally although as a good number of you know I lose a good number of days in a year to migraines, Easter Eggs which were things I always had when I was officially younger and being age dysphoric it's just the same today being that eternal boy.

That Dinosaur Egg will be consumed this weekend I am sure.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!