We’re also learning how to skip with a rope, and to play those clapping games.
Yes, they’re a bit girlie…
but at least we’re not being given dolls and prams to play with.
Mum continued to encourage us to play out with our friends but without the option of boy clothes,
we only see them at school where our petticoated state is unknown to all but our teacher, Mrs Brown.
However, our secret life was shattered in the first week of the summer holidays.
Peter and I were sitting in our bedroom practising a clapping game to the rhyme of ‘A Sailor Went To Sea, Sea, Sea’.
We wore lilac dresses with little pink bows printed all over the fabric,
and a wide pink sash that tied in a bow at the back.
Unbeknown to us, John, Michael and Stephen came knocking on our door
and instead of sending them away, Mum sent them all up to our bedroom.
