Some Like It Fat! - October Origins

Manningtree Secondary School. It was the most average of secondaries. Local, convenient and at times dull, but often varied. I'd somehow managed to arrive and be placed in the top set and leave with a handful of O'levels and a few to spare.

We had a Physics teacher who kept a rear view mirror next to his blackboard, a French teacher who seemed to want to be your mate, a German teacher with a 12-string guitar and a Maths teacher with a high-tech ZX81 complete with a whopping 16kB RAM pack attached with blue tack.

School buses ran daily and most people used them with no 4x4s blocking the road outside at all. Our history teacher told the best stories (excellent at socialising the curriculum) and had the best catch phrases 'so put that in your pipe and smoke it'. We ran a blue book with the best of the best teacher phrases, but that went missing years ago - as far as I know.

Computer lessons involved REMs, GOTOs and BBC micros, science lessons involved digging over the school garden and the Christmas disco involved Slade. I guess some things don't change.

So here is the first on my series of October Origins, a blip challenge set up by the fabulous PontyCyclops.

Back in the Eighties, school ties had to be worn fat and that meant a windsor knot. The only other compulsory attire was white socks. Class!