Schooldaze

[darren_stranger]

Decided to do that 'final year of high school' meme thing.


What year was it?
1985

What were your favorite bands or musical artists?
Mainly the "Modern R&B" of the time - Michael Jackson, Kool & The Gang etc, and especially Prince.

What was your favorite outfit?
Nicking my dad's bomber jacket that had a vaguely Michael Jackson / Beat It look.  And yes, i did wear one fingerless glove on occasion and think it was cool.  Now shut up about it.

What was up with your hair?
Probably no kind of style at all, just greasy and wherever it hung, though i might have tried for that over-one-eye Prince look later on.

Who were your best friends?
The main group i saw out of school probably was Jeff, Michael, Lyndon, Jenny, Harvey, Dr Crutch, Dave and Lynda.  (Had to think hard for names there).   I was always much more comfortable with a group of close friends than one 'best friend' (which tended to make me claustrophobic).

Where did you work?
Did some holiday work cutting trees in the bush north of Maryborough.

Did you take the bus?
Every day.  I think by year 12 the daily bullying routine had subsided and it was just a tedious crushed ride.

Who did you have a crush on?
There were many idle and fruitless crushes that i had no idea what you were supposed to do about - some names i can remember were Tanya, Kerryn, Lisa, Angeline.. probably half the female population from year 10 up, truth be told.

Did you fight with your parents?
Not much - too big a suck.

Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on?
Kate Ceberano.  Totally.

Did you smoke cigarettes?
Nuh.

Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack because you were too nervous to find your locker?
Huh?  Why?  No, not at all.  And we didn't have backpacks in those days, just the old backbreaker schooolbags with a board in the bottom to make it as uncomfortable as possible to carry.  I'm sure that's half the reason so many of my generation have bad backs.

Did you have a 'clique'?
Absolutely - the nerds and geeks (in the old sense), probably the biggest group in the school.

Did you have "The Max" like Zach, Kelly, and Slater?
Huh?  If it's some sort of coffee-shop hangout, no such luck.  That was probably something i would have liked more in my later 'trendy' and 'alternative' days, but it didn't eventuate then either.  (Hell, i still like the idea of taking over a pub or cafe with a bunch of friends and making it our hangout, but it remains a daydream). 

Admit it, were you popular?
Fuck no.  I was the school joke but just didn't know it.  I think i was just lucky to have a bunch of friends that didn't seem to care that i was a dickhead who thought he was actually very cool.

Who did you want to be just like?
Probably Prince was my biggest influence at the time.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Probably had no idea, just wanted to ride a big motorbike and have a cool house, parties, dancing and lots of sex.

It's funny reading most people's answers to this, even other '80s kids, who were already into the 'alternative' thing in one way or another by this age, whereas for me it was only on leaving high school that my tastes, ideas and self-image started changing drastically.  I hardly even think of myself as the same person i was at high school, though some character traits linger on from that embryonic phase (probably more that i'd care to admit).