please empty your brain below
"Went to the best disco I would ever go attend" ???

Late night for our student, now wandering around bleary eyes with his bowl of Coco Pops, talking to his new friends?

Half a physicist | 12.10.13 - 8:58 a.m. | #

I wonder if you still write into your diary every evening now, or maybe the blog has replaced it.
I used to keep a diary during the late 1950,s and up to 1981, when I stopped.
They are a great reminder of younger days.

dg nods: Yes.

John | 12.10.13 - 9:05 a.m. | #

The only thing that St Ivel Five pints was good for was igniting. Ahem.

And yes, keeping milk cool on the outdoor window ledges, to save it getting nicked from the communal fridges. Happy memories.

Blue Witch | Homepage | 12.10.13 - 9:07 a.m. | #

Not knowing the brand I assumed that St Ivel Five Pints was a bloody big bottle of beer. Strange thing is, being an ex student myself, I didn't think it odd at all that it would be eaten with coco-pops. At breakfast.

Antipodean | 12.10.13 - 9:11 a.m. | #

Interesting that in the points you've picked out that there is no sense of missing home, or your previous routine. Must have been a case of duck-to-water in the ivory towers of academe (there's a mixed metaphor for you). And the post was well worth waiting for.

Waterhouse | 12.10.13 - 9:27 a.m. | #

You're two or so years older than me. But what a sheltered life I must have had. I don't remember St Ivel Five Pints at all.

Chris | 12.10.13 - 9:29 a.m. | #

In his 2nd year, my brother, like you, used to keep his milk on the ledge outside his window - with occasional problems when it froze (in winter) or fell off (from 1st floor window ledge.

Veronica | 12.10.13 - 10:04 a.m. | #

We kept our food cool by hanging them in carrier bags, from the windows of our 7 storey block! In my naivety I thought we were the only ones clever enough to think of it!
Having your own TV instantly made you Mr/Miss Popular back then. Can you imagine that now! I had to wait for my 21st birthday before I had my own!!

CornishCockney | 12.10.13 - 10:24 a.m. | #

I wasn't in a hall of residence, I did my degree as a (so-called) mature student in my late 20s, so I already had accommodation and a social life in the area. but keeping food cool on windowsills is standard for bedsitter residents, not just students. and I'm sure I saw 5pints in a supermarket quite recently.

amber | 12.10.13 - 11:07 a.m. | #

Ah, student life. Bet you had a grant too, not one of those ridiculous, pay back for the next . . . Student Loans.
Never actually kept stuff cool on my windowsill - just as well as they were either too narrow, south facing, ground floor level, depending on which rooms I was currently in.

Bronchitikat | 12.10.13 - 12:10 p.m. | #

Don't share much of your student memories but it does bring back memories of my dear old dad helping me to move into my student room which had minimal electric points. He carefully co-wired my radio/casette player into the desk light. I also remember shrinking my woolies in the sink in attempts to keep them clean! I had 'biscuit' wrapped letters from my mother (custard creams, bourbons - all a challenge to Royal Mail and the student mail pigeon holes!) Happy days!

B | 12.10.13 - 12:25 p.m. | #

"Paid £283.17 to cover my first term's accommodation (I hate to imagine what the equivalent cost is today)"

I promise you, you don't want to know.

James | 12.10.13 - 9:23 p.m. | #

Like DG, I was born in 1965, so was at college around the same time. I used to actually go into County Hall and wander (yes, wander) up to the ILEA office to pick up a grant cheque at the beginning of each term. That now seem practically medieval. The big thing on TV was The Tube, I recall.

Richard M | 12.10.13 - 9:29 p.m. | #

@Bronkitchat - I started university in 1997 which was, I believe, the last year of student grants; the idea of being paid to go to university seems very quaint now.

Whiff | 13.10.13 - 1:49 a.m. | #

I'm the same age as DG but screwed up my A levels and thus didn't get to University until 1994. I liked it so much I stayed for ten years, and am now a lecturer myself... But if I had left it another year or two it wouldn't have been possible and I'd still be on the checkout at Sainsbury's. That is scary.

Sarah | Homepage | 13.10.13 - 9:50 a.m. | #

@Sarah, I too timed my student days fairly well, I got a grant, which as I was over 25 wasn't means tested on parents' income. also there were no CNAA degrees then, I got a genuine London University (external) degree which I think looked better on my cv. but of course we had no idea that the grants system would change quite soon, this timing was pure luck.

amber | 13.10.13 - 11:52 a.m. | #

Here, Downunder, we never got grants as such, but they did provide assistance if you were really poor or your parents had a clever accountant. The crucial thing, though, was that the education itself was free. Now, students (or their parents) pay for it directly or through loans. Campus culture has shifted in very sad ways as a result. Students see themselves purely as consumers. Lecturers see themselves as service providers. Knowledge has given way to 'skills' and we are only supposed to teach what is narrowly 'relevant' in the 'I pay for education so that I get a job' equation. I yearn for the old days... but I am also realistic enough to remember that apart from a few class interlopers such as myself education really was the provenance of the rich back them. But still, I'd like to see students have to read actual books now and again in order to graduate...

Antipodean | 13.10.13 - 12:40 p.m. | #

I too still have a tape somewhere that includes 'The Safety Dance' and 'Kissing with Confidence'. Do you have spinach on your teeth?

Jonathan Wadman | 13.10.13 - 3:28 p.m. | #

I miss five pints or the co-op equivalent (Co-op dairy products always much better IMNSHO). I don't use fresh milk and the spray dried stuff without vegetable fat just doesn't give the creamy taste.

Richard | Homepage | 14.10.13 - 10:33 a.m. | #

"how does it feel, to treat me like you do?"
Blue Monday - 30 years old - amazing

Karl, Dover | 14.10.13 - 8:23 p.m. | #

Safety Dance was a good track, I'd left Uni but I helped run a small club in a basement banana warehouse, sadly priced out of it's site on the edge of Covent Garden. The 12" went on a bit, but I would love to get hold of just a few of those 12" disco tracks. Anyone got a copy of Sylvester's 'You make me feel Mighty Real' 12" they don't want?

RicP | 16.10.13 - 7:38 a.m. | #

Occasionally you write a post wondering what your next set of themed posts could be. This entertaining post of yours made me think you could do a series on London's colleges - visit their campuses, look at their history - some of them, like the one I work for, have museum status and their own archives that can be visited. Some of them have moved premises, etc. Just a thought.

Colin | Homepage | 19.10.13 - 7:33 a.m. | #

Only just caught up with this one - that was me 17 years ago. Great days. You'll be pleased to hear that DW is a tea drinker ;)

Gail | 19.10.13 - 5:24 p.m. | #











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