Thoughts and recollections of Autumn term

At least it has actually cooled down this week although with heavy rain apart from maigraine issues I didn't get out as much as much as I wished unfortunately so there's been a bit more washing as I don't know about you but I don't like damp feeling stuff next to my body.

There's been the usual fuss around school uniform, for instance a 12 year old at Acedemy in this district was put in detention for turning up in tailored school shorts but told "he" could wear a skirt instead if he was hot as that was "uniform".

Yes in otherwords it's okay to wear something associated with the other sexes uniform than something linked to your own sex!

At least on this estate for infants and juniors we're not that stupid and actually I have seen more boys in proper school shorts, admittedly longer than those I current have on reflecting the length I wore when I attended the same school but at least they're wearing them.

Perhaps someone has realized it's cheaper to put plasters on knees than try to patch up longs damaged in a game of footy at recess or missing aim when playing scraping knee against tarmac and anyway isn't it better for them to be active playing anyway?

I've enjoyed the Now Yearbook 1973 - a feature was on Monday's "other" blog - taking me back to that time where we were at the old Victorian building for the last full academic year September 1973 through to July of 1974 when we moved into the Twentieth century with a new building with much more modern facilities like a kitchen!

It was the last Autumn of the curse of the bell tower wasps as running low on sugar they'd come out after us and our snacks usually in the infant playground where I'd help out with playground activities for the younger school members.

We left the wasps behind upon moving thank goodness.

Back to school 2022 edition

September,eh? Not so far way now as we think about how the Hols have been for going out with extremes of burning hot sun and heavy showers that are so unusual for our Country and indeed this region that concern me as we look towards next summer.

Looking a bit at the past we have made five years more or less uninterupted at the Uniformed Regressors site although we had our worries  earlier in the week when it looked as it it had gone  but as it happened some wierd techy stuff with servers and Cloud force had knocked out a good number of sites including the users support site at TapaTalk!

We're doing things our own way there, always sfw, always the boys we were and remain intereacting as we are.

Of course September is when school is back as we look back to those days with our new uniform kit and just what our new teachers were going to be like  and at least with some of us who was going to be first standing outside the headteachers door looking sheepish.

In with this terms replacements is this Grey with Royal Blue jumper/sweater from Mr P and I might add photo credits Albert Prendergast Ltd before the fingers beckoning me are waving,lol!

High quality stuff that you feel great to be in as that schoolboy all over again, looking smart.

Toss in suitably short grey shorts and turn over top socks and we're as happy as larry.

Sports bags of the cylindrical shaped short were verboten for putting exercise books in never mind ones text books.  Some of us still recall the chastisment we had for getting our Geography classwork  books covered in oily crisp stains!

Happy new term!

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!!!

Deciding on a uniform scheme

It's a new month no less as we slowly move out of Winter into Spring, listening to some Ravel on the cd player after being out playing in the park, reviewing my usual attire like you do.

Everyone knows what my muse is although to be fair he never is seen with anything over his jersey so I did start thinking about about what he might wear given most secondary and prep schools normally would have some item.

There's been a trend on with me towards royal blue not unconnected to that apart than thinking that it tends to work well on me.

Then there's these royal blue strip turn over socks too so I started looking at my muse around blazers of all things and the first thing I thought was it would not be a elaborate one, more the sort you might associate with a state comprehensive rather than the sort with piping and that you see certainly in this district for grammar schools.

In a change to what I had indicated for a while, I actual decided to buy myself a royal blue blazer from David Luke's Eco boy's range which would certainly fit well on me of otherwise a fairly traditional design.

With any luck I may be able to wear it the next time I meet up with my friends when this lockdown eases.

 

The 2020 Review

I usually write something of a reflective piece on this blog but as this year has been rather messed up whatever the pluses (and there's been a few) and the many minus's it will be of necessity different that what I might of expected to have written.

Covid was our wicked enemy preventing planned meets from happening, limiting even regular travel, dominating conversation and virtually every news program from dawn to dusk and between programs public health information.

All necessary for sure but difficult to escape from swamping us to the point many people found coping a struggle because it was pulling them down more than helping them get by in the circumstances.

For me, I just found solace in this adult but little boy world, yes noting anything I needed to do like following rules but otherwise taking my lead from actual boys to which in so many respects I have that much more in common with.

When mentally you are - and it's less of a choice and more of permanent reality - pretty much a boy the only way to cope is by sticking within your own world and so as the weeks passed by I was going full immersion into that world.

I went out as much as we were allowed and in the first months it was just once a day and just explored and even played imaginary games in the countryside as the playground was shut for a big period but I could make my very own playground when I act out the games we played running, crawling across gravel and grass leaving any passing adults to get on with their own thing.

Many person out saw me as that boy, being treated very much as one, being referred to as "Sonny".

I read comics and got subscription's set to ensure that regardless of what was going on with getting to the newsagents and even if they had a delivery, I'd have mine landing through the letter box the way it did when I was ten.

I had at least something to look forward to that was new and different as much as I watched tv shows like Jamie Johnson, Crackerjack that was restored to the schedules and of course Blue Peter that had gained two new presenters  taking the the complement back up to four.

If an animated film was showing on tv, I made a point of watching it.

Not that surprisingly as I became more and more immersed deeply into this world some outward signs changed so from just before this craziness started when I did get away for boys week of activity while I did dress rather more as school boy in the Lake District, hiking, going trainspotting and riding steam trains I started to feel more full on little.

The Forum became busier as many from our MisterPoll group joined it and ASB returned too on an invite only basis both showing the need of many of us to go back in our differing ways to that life.

It was the point in which I had decide that not just moving as I had done more the previous year to more 'classic' jumpers and turn over socks that from now on my shorts were not only what I'd be wearing nearly all the time but were going to be taken way up to where they were when I was that junior boy of ten allowing for growth.

I just feel so much better seeing my reflection as that boy as much as it only adds to the way in which I feel back in the mindset of him going about my everyday life feeling carefree, yes with some responsibilities but only those I could carry-that of boy of that age.

Losing that thinly papered over adult sense whose cracks not only had caused me major problems in the past but got in the way of just being in reality who I am was the biggest gain arising from the pandemic for me.

I was just me and my community looked after me as such.

I don't talk about my family much on this blog, I don't particularly need to but this year every member accepted the adult boy me. They know how I present.

I was with my parents over Christmas dressed in school uniform with those much shorter grey school shorts on, free to be me and I even had an unexpected present that was for once not rooted in adult interest.

They'd bought me some lego. Not a grown up book, a dvd, a gift voucher but an actual boys present presented to my as that - a gift I discovered on my chair when I'm there upon it.

This year has been challenging, as here in North Staffordshire we are in Tier 4 until at least another month or so according to our Public Health person as of yesterday but one where actually dropping right back to pure boyhood fun and interests has not just been good for coping with the same but for feeling so comfortable in my own skin as that eternal boy. 

Looking into the New Year, as we all hope the vaccination programme gets under way with two vaccines now approved while it may be Spring at least until things can get to something more normal so that like many of you I can be with others having fun together, I'm a in better place to cope with whatever we may have to deal with for the foreseeable future.

The shorts that belong on the real me.

There has always been a bit of debate around how you "present" your little side when it comes to authenticity and things around uniforms.

You can't deny we are living in 2020 when actual boys have a different range of things they can chose to wear and unlike my generation at the very least you are asked today where with us we got what our Mum's considered "right" on their son.

On the other hand we are boys of and very much informed by that era having this past into present life within but nonetheless running alongside it.

Thus some may adopt styles of today such as polo shirts or sweat shirts which were seen as American casual wear in the 1970's but a bigger bone of contention is around shorts because most boys today who wear them have the on the knee Bermuda length or the combat style.

Like a good number of us I've worn them being the easiest often the cheapest available current shorts you can get and that they are seen more can ease acceptance in more conservatively dressed settings such as the funeral send off with family and friends I was at recently.

The thing is such shorts don't feel actually short as while I dislike dogmatic opinions, for most of us shorts are something we visualize as something those length does stop a bit above the knee.

In some ways they are a half way house out of long trousers and yet as one person said they feel very similar and there's a bigger difference in shorts that are typically an inch over the knee at least.

Then a number of us are a few inches or more shorter than today's older boys and men which was normal in our era meaning the area covered in the legs will differ which is why long trousers have different inside leg options and I'm a short one.

Thus while keeping the odd pair for winter or wider family gatherings I'm moving my standard maximum length down to a six inch length which on me gives a classic 30's to early 60's an inch and a bit above the knee look.

It also happens to be the case those pairs are much better made too including being fully lined.

However I am wearing more as a everyday thing shorter pairs that are just a bit longer by a half inch than what I last wore as a junior school boy because they are in so many respects more authentic of a boy - an adult little boy - of my era and so are what I knew wearing shorts full time to be.

Thus I'll have two pairs in a 4 inch inside leg length that still looks pretty respectable on me and to where people here haven't had a problem with since I did going in public settings such as the Barber's.

Wearing them even compared to the 6 inch ones feels a bit different and I echo the feeling that both are much more akin to what it was like than the current popular longer Bermuda or Cargo styles.

While I am happy to compromise in certain contexts to enable me to wear shorts near enough full time no matter what in 2020, I am much more at one with wearing the shorts I wore as that bio-boy then as a LB now and that is what I will be doing.

I am a boy who looks and feels best in shorter shorts: It is my real authentic standard.

More uniform and stuff

It's Friday, it's cooling down so we'll get on to this.

You might remember the grey shirt from that portion of your life we have fond memories of even if for some strange reason my high school didn't do grey thus most of mine today cos I live this life full time were white.

Some academies too seem to have an issue with grey, mind you sometimes you look at their uniforms and think it's more upscale business wear than anything really for children in school too.

That tends to mean bigger collar sizes in grey aren't always stocked by the usual online uniform stores but I found one in the Black Country, here in the Midlands that did and so did get a couple.

Most of my original school shirts were Banner, often brought from Markets in Newcastle Under Lyme and the Potteries and were good, fitting well.

I did pick up an new tie.

Ties are an issue with me as I don't have the dexterity and co-ordination to fasten them so while I agree with the more traditionally minded, reality is unless you going add tie fastening to shoe lace fastening as something you're going to do for me, like with them they have to fasten differently.

That's why it's a clip on, so I can put it on even if that remains difficult so I can be more independant.
That too came from an establishment that sells school wear.

Pix credit Albert Pendergrast

Albert Prendergast just got in stock these UK made grey jumpers with red, white and black trim and turn over cuffs.

So soon no sooner that I'd see the email announcing their arrival, one was promptly ordered and paid for.

I know you can get others and they are not bad value for money but for one thing the styling on some is a crossover between a jumper and a sweatshirt and for another they tend to be synthetics not wool.

These are very good quality and like much of the sector I can remember what I paid in the early 80's for similar UK made jerseys which when you take into account inflation these are close to.

In reality, in the passing decades generic uniform has been driven down for understandable reasons around inclusiveness for the least well off, to becoming less well made and this shows in materials and being made in countries with poor labour conditions.

They may be cheap but they aren't as well finished and don't last as long.

Final thought. On Monday I had reason to meet up with relatives and family friends and I was in toned down schoolboy attire not a million miles removed from how I would of presented back then in grey shirt, tie, grey shorts and a pair of proper turn over top grey socks from A.P

I felt good to be me on what was a sad occasion, that good that I was able to engage in a good twenty minutes of conversation looking very smart with cousins without being me and presenting as such being an issue.

Part of that comes to wearing well made and fitting clothes that having nothing to explain you feel confident and so you just join in.

Respect and a tribute to "H"

Sometimes life at least on Tumblr can seem odd but on a sadly deactivated account there  belonging to "H" aka "olderboyshortshorts" there were a few pictures by  him that actually did touch me .

They were from a actual boy who I inferred went to school where longs ruled and for whatever was looking at wearing shorts instead which is something I can understand as in my era I felt the same way, sometimes getting my way for trips out and the like.

He looks great in them judging by his pictures although I'm not so keen on sports socks  but hey having played the hide your stuff bit myself when I resumed wearing shorts and that around his age you use what you can.

What upset me and may of caused his first deactivation was how a person responded sexually toward him - a child- which isn't just inappropriate but against the law to wholly innocuous posts by him.
There appears to be a number of gay males who want sexual contact and relations on Tumblr with minors as a matter of course.

Our ASB/ALB world is NOT about any or all of this, he should of felt safe on Tumblr talking about how he wanted to present and he wasn't.  

He was a boy who I felt proud of.

Autumn uniform - check and replace

Seeing it is the start of autumn term here I did a bit of stock check of my uniform ready to resume.

The most important thing was my shoes were somewhat worn on the soles and joins so I bought a new pair which as I am unable to fasten shoes needed to be velcro as are a fair number of Junior Boys shoes if our district is anything to go by.

Do not die of shock but I got two pairs of genuine ex Prep school new/old stock pull over grey socks with two green bars in actual children's shoe sizes as I am more 'child sized' and so adult size stockists aren't always able to supply things in my sizes.

That you see is where these others do fit in as plain grey ribbed socks because they are what boys do wear and so are in my size off the peg from school suppliers which is as well as I seldom wear anything other than school shorts all year around.

I also had some new boys slippers which is well overdue as I haven't any for a while actually.

Finally my old Peter Storm weatherbeater/ cagoule is showing it's signs of age so I bought this new red one with white trim around the zip and decent zipped pockets as there is nothing that irritates me more than pockets cut to one side with just a press stud at best to hold them any anything in them still. 
They just don't work especially when scouting or hiking with things easily falling out.

Uniformed and watching B.P!

This week I have been busy finishing some of the tidying up on the Wordpress back up of the main Tumblr as a few people have still been losing accounts and I do want to sure I don't lose what I have posted plus my back ups are with added commentary what somehow when you see something on tumblr doesn't always come to you as you reblog it.

He's a great looking model in his shorts and this week I was out in town in mine but unlike him I had long grey socks on which to me at least looks a bit more presentable when you're in shorts.
I always loathed the short ankle socks with side patterns on that as I got old Mum tried to thrust on me and one the first moves in alb life was going out to buy myself grey ribbed long school socks from the likes of BHS's schoolwear department.

As those who read my Fur Affinity account or odd post on Tumblr know I've always been a big fan of Blue Peter ever since being a boy first time around and this Thursday in 1974, a year I know very well actually, the regular program was off as they were filming that years Summer Adventure but Blue Peter Flys The World was shown instead.
One of editions of the current show I liked with new presenter Richie Driss was the episode from June 13th where he went Landboarding which as the name suggests is a combination sport of Landskiing but on a skateboard, using the wind to propel you.
He did this extremely well and does have the makings of very good presenter adding the extra detail older children (and us) like that keeps us interested without taking away anything from younger viewers as it's official age range of 6 to 15 years is fairly wide.
Yesterday he explained how they cover Wimbledon with over a hundred cameras including some that automatically track and follow the players all by themselves, while Lindsey talked about the history of Westminster Tower and Big Ben helping to cut the transparent glass clock face and organize a new Time Capsule as they found and opened an old one.
That is some achievement.

Past achievements and the present mission

In characteristic back and forth pattern this week I'm looking at the past as I look at my boyhood reconnecting to my masculinity after a period it seemed to get lost and also looking around this present the work in progress featuring being an adult schoolboy.

Something I have mentioned before on the blog is I have disabilities, physical and developmental that played a part in my childhood both when it came to schooling and also when it came things such as play and leisure.
One thing I was strongly encouraged to do back then was to go swimming as as with most juniors we did go as a class every week on a chartered bus to a local swimming pool for lessons where we we told not to eat crisps before  the lesson.
That lead to my teacher encouraging me to join a disabled swimming club nearby that met at a local all boys grammar school that had a lot of adult helpers that met weekly and had competitions although it was partial socially where we'd let off steam in a safe way.

I did gain a number of achievement awards some of which are on on these original swimming trunks and won cups in our competitions which also meant having look after said cups.
One thing about swimming is it is a great equalizer so whatever difficulties you may have there is a way you can swim and so feel more able about from building up strength through exercise.

Back to the present where I have a couple of jumpers the sort Junior schools and regular state high schools comprehensive wear.

Compared to the rounded neck ones they do look that bit smarter and for having a V neck much better suited for wearing with ties

There was a drift a few years back against tie wearing in Juniors probably a follow on from many being a part of a combined Primary with Infants where they had polo shirts (and dresses for girls) but this is starting to come back.
I'm glad of it as I honestly feel you do look better and feel that bit more grown up having been a junior boy for wearing a tie and it is preparation for both high school where you do and more formal social gatherings.

As it has been a while since I reviewed my formal shirts, I bought a number of new boys shirts that can be got in up to 17 1/2 collar sizes that should fit most of us from Schooluniform 24/7 who have their own site in addition to being on British Ebay.
These are Zeco's who do a range of good quality schoolwear such as long socks, jumpers etc and these shirts also can be had in short sleeve, both with white and blue options.
They come very well packed with plastic clips to hold down and stiffeners to keep the collar in shape in transit just like those we bought back in the day (or our folks did for us) and are the real deal when it comes to non logo'd plain school attire.

l mentioned would of been last week on Tumblr about how we had found the measure of the kind of boy I was, that there was little doubting I am masculine but how it was more overtly feminine influences and associated habits and behaviour had crept since then that I had no real need for.
One area was very much around the kinds of plushies I did collect and especially when it came to having a lot of saniotown posters of the likes of Hello Kitty  to exclusion of all else all over the place which I was just staring at feeling they didn't make me actually happy.
It just felt as though I'd wondered into another persons space and so I have decided replace the posters completely.

One difference today is that on the one hand the number of  boys comics and magazines   that tended to have pull out posters are much less then they were when I was originally a boy but a number of companies do reproduction posters using modern digital printing techniques and this was one I bought.

This as you know was a comic that did feature in that original boyhood and this iconic issue front cover was available in poster form and so I thought would help me feel that much better for being connected to that and the things I loved as that boy.
,

I was never big on Sci-Fi probably because I find it hard to remember all the characters and key things about them but I did remember following plus certainly been shown Marvel's comic books during that era.
I saw this promotional poster on offer and thought it would be improvement on what had been on my walls.

I did manage to get a A3 poster of this illustration but with "Instructions for Outfit No.1" presumably from the original negative which both iconic for the product but also just perfect for its portrayal of boyhood. 
In time I'll get a few more suitable posters and postcard sized pictures more in keeping for boys but at least I will have things things to look at that reflect my own masculine self. 
I know freeing myself of those feminine influences that have only taken me away from my true self is the only proper way to get the point of loving the real me. It is something I owe to myself to do from now on.

Autumn Term

Recently on my Tumblr we celebrated the thousandth post and a pretty fair following it must be said which given that was the first time I'd been on anything resembling social media since Two Thousand Five and Friends Reunited which may be known to Brits of the early Two Thousands and means nothing to some of you further afield.
The blogging service it offered briefly is the spiritual home of this blog and why it is that although obviously I had a life between then and August of Twenty-Seventeen there aren't any posts from that time. 
I have a few bits I wrote as word documents around Photography in that period but it would be difficult to stitch that in the main blog and don't have much enthusiasm for trying to write the best part of twelve years of entries about that time in strict chronological order.
That's why we started last August from scratch and in time I'll talk about those interests and events from the past in addition to my current life.

As part of this, my current life as adult schoolboy, I do wear uniform and seeing it was the first month of this academic term I now own a Rawlinsons Jumper made for St. Johns  with gold and orange trim around the v neck.
I love the finish on it.

To go with it, I did pick up a pair of "Sturdy sized" grey shorts which like most shorts worn today at actual schools is longer than those you may recall from the seventies and eighties which while not being fully lined are well put together and do look right on me.

As for me at least this is a regressive experience it's quite fitting  to mention that while you do know a bit about my tastes in comics and those I read officially as a child it wasn't enough to just read them in the pre computer world I and millions of us lived in.
For us 'interaction' meant writing in to competitions, mailing it and waiting weeks for a reply back and also we joined fan clubs run by them too.

I joined the Dennis the Menace Fan Club in the British Beano comic in the Nineteen-seventies, sending off a postal order to Dundee, Scotland and this is what you got. 
We wore our badges with pride.
I might add I still have have mine and the two badges to which I did add a few others over the years.
I also joined the Warlord club with its badges and secret code around the same time where if my memory serves we right the wallet everything came in was a dark brown colour with a secret code encode and decoder.

That's the front of the wallet and the reply to your application to become a Warlord secret Agent.

Inside of it had your Identity Card with a space to put a head and shoulders picture photo booths such as those in Woolworths and many places at the time had, your yellow badge to put on your sweater when playing with other boys and that Code Book
Ciphers were something that interested me as my Junior Head had a passion for things like that sending several lessons teaching us all about them and actual had served WW2 as a spitfire pilot before going into teaching.

You also had the Bronze on Black Fireball badge with the flaming symbol and a survival booklet which did have some real information on making a shelter and first aid.

As you can see they also go how to survive an attack although they cautioned being careful practising them with your pals.

I did also talk briefly about my own battles, how I have changed since being with you all on Tumblr and ASB.org and the journey I am on. Although that is emotionally difficult I do intend to write something about and what it is you can do to help me along the way at some point in the near future.

New longs

I have made few posts around boys uniform on this blog and seeing we are a week after our anniversary post I thought I'd return to that topic.

The initiated  on Tumblr and ASB  know the extent to which longs and I aren't normally at one which goes back to my schooldays being one boy who preferred his shorts and long socks whatever the powers that be or some other boys thought about it.
Part of that is really more I'm a junior fitting well within a Prep School mind at least when it comes to more developmental areas but the other is connected around disability.
I have a curved spine which means apart from having lower back pain most of the time the shape differs so unless I wear at least semi elasticated trousers or a belt, they don't fit well.
Belts tend to gnaw at it if you have them tight enough stay not just up but flush with my waist  apart from being awkward for me to undo.
Recently though I acquired a pair of Trutex  schoolboy classic straight longs that came in a more fuller fit and partial elasticated waist in my size that means while they can take a belt, I can dispense with it knowing they'll stay on properly.
Over a shirt and Y Fronts, they actually fit me perfectly, better even from one pair of  Chino's that also are elasticated with nothing trapped so I not only look smart, I do feel confident wearing them.

Churchtown Farm Field Studies Centre

I talk quite a bit in this blog about disability in my boyhood because it was central to many of my life choices or the choices others made for me in a era where things were either 'normal' or provided for "the handicapped" as the now un PC language put it by various charities presided over by the great and the good.

One thing that remains difficult is finding accessible places to stay that have disability faculities in them and also the kind of role models to help you take control of your life.

At the time a number of charities owned a few places and it was my school send me and a few others to a special centre in June of 1976 and again in 1978.

The place we went  was called Churchtown Field Studies Centre located in the pretty village of  Lanlivery, Lostwithiel, Cornwall which was open from 1975 to 2011 that was owned by the Spastics Society (who became SCOPE as 'Spastic' was a term of abuse they wanted to move away from) and in the period of my first visit it was opened by Royalty so I met them.

As was very much my want, I wore tailored shorts more like a junior boy when I was there even though the other boys had on longs despite being twelve and fourteen respectively at the time.

It was a place build mainly from disused farm buildings carefully converted  into full wheelchair accessible centre with accommodation block where we went on outdoor activities such as learning about nocturnal mammals setting humane traps to see them later, finding out about foxes, moths and butterflies  an rambling around the grounds.

It also served as a base to explore on free days the area so we went to the Wheel Martyn Museum, saw how china clay was made  and sent to Stoke on Trent for pottery production (where my local knowledge proved most useful!), visited Bodmin and saw Cornish street dancing  which was fun.

It was one the things I loved in that era because it helped me come out of my shell more given some of negative experiences of a few years before and not being really encouraged to explore nature as a disabled child, learning to take risks.

About being an Adult School Boy

This week after spending just two days as "Chris_minor" on an asb site that seems to have been stopped, I'm talking a little around what I was so much looking forward to chatting there about.
You see, at one point when I considered writing this blog, I had said in a rather matter of fact way it wasn't going to be about being an adult schoolboy or adult little boy and that is quite true because the bias tends to be on past boyhood.
This said, because the way my life actually is I'm living that way and inevitably I do end mentioning bits of it so I might as well write something about it although my own understanding won't be everyones.
People of all genders do regress to the past in different ways sometimes more by doing things connected to their pasts such as a past-time, interest or hobby or by physically becoming that 'child' by dressing more like they used to.
This generally comes from a state of actually 'being' that little - in this instance a little boy - at a mental and physiological level as it works through how  they play letting out their younger 'inner child' side in a fluid natural way rather than acting out a role play which is more where 'age play'  comes in.
It's just you  letting a side of you that is there all the time out to play.
For some people it is a response to things such as trauma or learning/developmental disabilities for others still it's just calming 'place' to be for a period before returning to any necessary adult chores and responsibilities. It doesn't matter which and none is more virtuous than the other.
Some do play with things such as toys, colouring, play, traditional board games or read sometimes books from childhood or connected to it like stories about school days which at least here in Great Britain is a popular thing.
Like the adult schoolboy shown, when I do this I have clothes that go with it and for me  this does involve both formal clothing such as tailored shorts and grey schoolboy socks as well as t shirts and pe type shorts for play wear I originally experimented with that in hindsight clearly was an indication of my own age regression needs.
It was actual school uniform with a red sweater, white shirt, grey shorts and socks that I last week wore to met a man who let's me be that little boy under his wings.
A combination of a greater interest around wearing school uniform post school leaving age and the need to cater for actual 'plus sized' children and the internet has made it easier to get uniform from suppliers on Ebay, amazon or high street stockists off the shelf  easier.
One doesn't have to use specialist adult school wear suppliers unless you're wanting more bespoke items nor does one doesn't have to trape around Marks ands Spencers or as I did at the time BHS in the uniform department sizing things up. 
The kind of look of a British Schoolboy was one I did emulate at the time rather like that picture  although I would say I took care to remove excess arm and leg hair apart from shaving my face so what I saw was rather more like a  junior version of me rather than looking like an adult male stuffed into a school uniform.
I don't like preaching but I think this does matter.
For some the allure of the return to school days can be strong  which is one area I tend to be a little forthright over which is to say the idea of coupling your regression, your wearing a school uniform and having actual lessons (or following actual school study guides) can be a great one.
Sometimes we forget some of what we have learnt which has everyday import such as letter writing or say times tables or maybe like me you didn't do too well so a 'second chance' would help you.
Some places not least over here do have actual adult schoolboy (and girl) classes run typically at weekends although I'd suggest doing some research first as to exactly what's on offer if it might appeal. It's not uncommon with consent for them to feature corporal and non-corporal punishment which is something some do look for and to which as far as I'm concerned is fine if that's your thing.
What I come down hard on is where it seems the entire point of attending is to get a spanking  and most of the time is taken up with that rather in British terms being a re-run of a pre 1987 class where you would only if you break clear and usually serious rules while actually studying to a syllabus with tests.
To summarize, I feel there is a benefit for a good number in age regressing and letting out their adult schoolboy side that not only may help with might be troubling you for the calm and structure it can bring but also help potentially with things in your more adult life.

Andy

When you move to a new school, it takes time to settle down not just into the formal structures of the school such as school break times, weekly Assemblies, and your years timetable but also the pupils and forming friendships.

 Andy never Andrew who lived near Tarporley soon became my best boy friend to the point we were almost inseparable always being in the sides when it came to joint activities such as games or playing together at recess.

Between us we run the form Chess Club during dinner time recess arranging with the stuff to have classroom access during the period and to share  wall place in the store room to keep or chess sets and help other boys and girls out cos we were very much for treating everyone as a equal.

Andy and I shared something else, we shared a few of our interests and attachments for that era with girls, we were very nurturing  to others especially anyone who we saw as vulnerable and although we were eleven and twelve year olds, we still very much loved cuddles and teddy bears.

We also did manage to borrow the girls skirts a few times trying them on too deciding they weren't us and like me outside formal lessons we both wore shorts so with hindsight we were both boys but just a little less conventional than most.

It was suddenly around April of 1977 after taking a day off, being at home, that I returned to school to start gazing out of the window only to be informed he'd died in his sleep.

I was very very heartbroken to hear this and indeed just typing this today makes me cry because I so loved this boy, a boy who was to use that modern expression a "soul mate" someone who I cared for and it has to be said returned it hundred fold.

This is for him, a boy never forgotten, by way of  tribute.