Monday 25 May 2015

Art students, Essex, 1981


23 comments:

  1. Bloody students! They get everywhere, spend their grant money (remember that?) on beer and expect the rest of us to keep them! Well, in *my* day it wasn't like that...oh, hang on...it was exactly like that. Hanging outside Woolies in weird threads. Good times. Nice pic.

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    1. Indeed I do remember grant money! I spent most of mine on records and charity shop clothes... good times for sure.
      What strikes me about the pic is that it looks bloody ancient, not just because it's in b&w but also the characters in the background and of course the Woolies frontage. Then again, I suppose it is bloody ancient...erm...

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    2. 'The past is a foreign country'

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    3. I love that expression SB. How true.

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  2. Picture! I feel a bit sorry for the students of today - they all seem too bloody sensible and serious and looking for jobs that they don't necessarily want in order to pay off their debts. Wasn't like that in *our* day

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    1. Sensible and serious students? What's that all about?! Mind you, I don't know if I'd have coped with a debt situation. We had it good.

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  3. Excellent photo, though your mate's fur coat looks worryingly 'real'!

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    1. It looks worryingly real because it was!. And she did get a lot of stick over it. She'd inherited it from her grandmother or great-aunt or something, and so as it wasn't bought new she felt ok about wearing it. She was stunning too - that coat made her look like a sixties model.
      I remember my coat, like most of our clothes then, was also second-hand, and it had an astrakhan collar.

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  4. That's a wonderful pic, C! I don't know what your schools are called - here, it was public school (kindergarten to 6), Jr. High (7-8) and High School (9-12) - but I was wondering if Art classes are offered throughout the curriculum in England?

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    1. Thanks Marie. We have primary school (age 5 -11), then secondary school (11 - 16 or 18) then after that the chance to go to college/uni. I don't know about now or if it varied regionally, but in my years and area we did art throughout, until the point when we had options for O Levels when you could give up a number of subjects including that. I choose Art as an 'O' Level subject, but I left school after that at 16 and went on to study it at college. Then I gave it all up and got a job in a record shop!

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  5. That is fantastic. You were a coll one weren't you?

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    1. Ah thanks Erik! As with so many things, if only I'd known then that it might appear that way one day in the future, I might have had more confidence at the time.

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  7. Great picture, a real time capsule.

    I think the difference today is that students are paying for it and therefore see the university education as an investment. As a result it is a monetary transaction, the education is a product and they view it as such. We, with our grants, saw it as an end in itself, something to do while we figured what we wanted to do.

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    1. It is a time capsule, isn't it - even just the old Woolworths logo in the background - I've had to step back and view it as if with new eyes and suddenly it seems so many worlds away.

      I hadn't thought of the student thing like that before... very enlightening... yes that's it. We were so fortunate really to have that luxury and we took so much for granted (literally!)

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    2. That's where I was coming from above C - changed days and not for the better

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    3. Yes, you're right, that's why they're sensible and serious... indeed it's a very different situation to the one we knew. I'm glad I was a student when I was.. completely carefree in so many ways. I didn't worry about money... just things like which hair gel to use and how long I'd have to wait for the next bus!

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  8. I remember at the end of my first year actually having money left over from my grant, my daughter is looking at £50,000 worth of debt by the time she finishes, it really is making her wonder if a degree is worth it, except of course the most menial jobs now expect you to have one.(I had a vintage fur coat like that too when I was a student!)

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    1. It was so different for us, wasn't it? I cannot imagine having £50,000 worth of debt at any stage in life, let alone before you've even got a job. I think as SA says above, getting further education is seen now as a monetary transaction. I hope your daughter's degree does prove to be worthwhile.
      Whatever we may think of fur coats in principle, I'm sure you looked lovely in your vintage one!

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    1. Unfortunately, no, we lost touch many years ago and I don't think I've much chance of tracking her down. Unless she sees this photo!

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  10. It was easier to spot the student 30+ years ago, wasn't it? Nowadays there seems to be a bland sort of conformity, maybe because so many more young people are students, maybe because they don't have the great good fortune we had of a grant that meant you could go out and buy ten records then work out how much you had to live on.......As Adam said, they are in effect consumers rather than participants.

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    1. Yep, it's a double whammy for non-conformity... Everyone's a student, but nobody looks like one!
      Brings it home how fortunate we truly were.

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