I notice that a schoolfriend - well I doubt that, I doubt she ever said more than two words to me in seven years - is now back presenting the news on East Midlands Today after being relegated to early morning weather-girling. You can see her at lunchtimes, although the “lovely” Ann Davis still holds court in the evenings, sticking pins in dolls of Kylie Pentelow while wearing twelve different outfits a week.
At school, that girl was the elite of elites, one of a group of about four who only communicated with the socially connected in crowd and who dressed as Greek Goddesses to a school disco once and carried it off as if Athena and Aphrodite themselves were in our presence.
To them I was satanic spittle on the floor, I suspect.
(I was dressed as Woody Allen dressed as a robot in his movie “Sleeper”. Suited me.)
She was a blue girl I think, was The Weathergirl. Our school was divided into four houses, named after famous stately homes, with corresponding coloured jerseys all rendered a brown sludge irrespective of origin during house rugby matches.
Weathergirl was in Clumber, the blue house, if I remember right. To my memory, this is where all the posh kids, sons of daughters of school governors and prominent townsfolk ended up. Rufford was green, and was the sporty house that always won at school sport’s days APART FROM WHEN THE CRICKET TEAM I CAPTAINED MURDERED YOU BY TEN WICKETS!
Welbeck was yellow, and had major problems with obesity. They were the worst at everything. They were paired with us in lessons. Us being Thoresby, the house of crimson. We were weirdoes. Well I know was, but I wasn’t alone. We were the bohemians, us Thoresby types, with generally the coolest musical taste. We were geeks before geeks were cool, nerds before nerds were a thing. We were goths, New York Warholians, Civil War pipe smoking heroes and bespectacled geniuses.
We were (I was) despised, and ourselves and Welbeck were kept well apart from the Clumber and Rufford heroes. Different classes. Different form rooms, I swear to god they were in the nicer parts of the school. Prettier girls. Better looking boys. Richer parents.
But we in Thoresby, we were The Big Bang Theory before it ever existed!
In retrospect, we rule! With hindsight, we conquer!
Si
All text copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.01.16
I loved this post! At school I had a group of friends who I adored and wasn't worried about being popular at all and it's always interesting hearing other people's school stories because there are always The Clumber groups out there! - Tasha
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ReplyDeleteDefinition
ReplyDeleteWeird = not boring
Here's to not being boring and not being bored!
(confusing typo in first attempt)
I am too far removed from school days so that anyone I might meet from those days would be quite unrecognisable now. But I do remember that at Lincoln Girls' High School I was in Fleming House.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not I was in Isis - named after the river in Oxford, not the terrorist organisation, of course!
ReplyDeleteOur houses at Stowmarket Grammar school in the 1960s were named after Suffolk Painters, I was in Gainsborough - yellow - There were house competitions for everything, Music, singing, plays, poetry, sports - very competitive and we loved it because it meant a day off lessons to watch all the various things! Only 500 at the school so we could all fit into one hall. Now schools are so big and competitiveness means beating people up!
ReplyDeleteThanks for enjoying my memories, long time since I thought of a lot of that stuff. Being competitive myself I rather enjoyed winning things. Which happened rarely, and in odd circumstances (e.g. School senior 800m champion in a sort of rigged race)
ReplyDeleteInteresting post Simon. We only had houses at Primary School named after castles Dudley (Green) which I was in, Tamworth (Blue), Kenilworth (Red) and Warwick (Yellow). For some reason (can't remember why now I always yearned to be in Warwick! We didn't have Houses at my Girls' Grammar School as we were encouraged to compete as forms or years. But I do remember how cliquey it became in the Sixth form :(
ReplyDeleteOur shcool houses were named after birds of prey, I was a kestrel
ReplyDeleteOh I would much rather have been a bird of prey. "Merlin House" would be an awesome thing to be in. A black singlet with a sort of German 14th century representation of a flacon on it. In gold.
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