This picture would have been taken at the start of my last year in primary school. I still have a memory of being in an end of year (1979) assembly and knowing that when I came back to school for the next term, that the year was going to have a whole new number (8 rather than 7). When you have only ever lived in one decade for nine years of your life, the change of decade seemed like a big thing. This would be my first experience of being ‘one of the old guard’, the pupils who had been around the block and who knew everything...or who thought they knew everything. There were four years worth of younger pupils, who would look up at us 5th years with a mixture of awe and respect. This would of course all change (later the same year) when we took the big step up to ‘middle school’ and became first years all over again.

My hair has started to darken in this picture and the eighties would see me lose those locks of blonde hair, to be replaced with more of a mousey-brown shade. The two front teeth (with requisite gap between them) gave me the appearance of a chipmunk. I appear to have quite a cheeky smirk about my face which strikes me as a little unusual; I usually think of myself being more of the shy, retiring type back then. I guess I was still happy that I only needed one digit to represent my age.

I recall that I first starting wearing glasses about this time, but I obviously had decided not to wear them in school portraits (as some following blog entries in this series will attest to). I think I should add that it was around this time that I first started taking notice of popular music. One song that stood out in this particular year was Babooshka by Kate Bush. A couple of years earlier, I had been positively terrified by another song by the same artist. I have very strong memories of the wailing chorus of Wuthering heights causing me go wild with displeasure. On one occasion (presumably when we watching Top of the Pops), her performance literally made me beg my parents to turn the TV to another channel (and this was an era when you really did have to turn a dial in order to change a channel). I'm happy to say that I very much like the song now. I guess Kate Bush was the Lady Gaga of her age. All together now: "Heathcliff, it’s me, I’m Cathy...”