Christmas Club Sunday

The year was 1973.  It was December.  I was in the fifth year at school, still having a bit of a crush on David Cassidy, not to mention David Essex and begging my mum to let me have a pair of platform boots to wear for school.  Of course they fitted into the school uniform criteria!  On the whole, I loved my school days, I had a close group of friends to go around with and we were footloose and fancy free. 
It was only a matter of months until we took our O levels and moved up to the Sixth Form where, and this was the main reason for staying on at school, all the gorgeous guys were.  Oh how we giggled and hung around the edges of the rugby pitch to cheer them on in matches {I didn't understand the rules at all}.  How we spent hours perfecting that layered shaggy hair cut, with the top very short and the rest about shoulder length.  Saturdays were spent walking through the Town Park to the town where we would spend hours going through the racks of Chelsea Girl, trying clothes on that we had no intention of buying. 
I can really remember the fact that on the day we had Christmas Dinner at school the 5th formers were allowed to have lunch with the Sixth Form (be still my beating heart) as there were too many people having lunch that day for us to sit in with the rest of the school.  And of course we were far too mature to be mixing with those youngsters! 
In the 6th form block there were two levels, the upper one was closed off by concertina style doors and the lunch was in the lower area.  That day we had really gone to town with our Miners eyeshadow and Rimmell lipstick.  Our skirts were hitched up to an appropriate height, and we were being as 'cool' as we possibly could be.  We collected our Christmas dinner and toyed with it as we waited for the 6th formers to arrive.  All of a sudden, the concertina doors opened and all the sixth formers were standing there.  They paused while someone put some new single on the record player.   The volume was turned up to maximum and those ear shattering words of Noddy Holder's reverberated around the room, 'IT'S CHRISTMAS .....' and that is where I was when I first heard that song 37 years ago.  Who'd have believed Slade's Greatest Hit would still be playing all these years later.  Do you remember where you were when you first heard it?