Chronicles of a Vicarage Childhood

Eluned Rees continues her adventures in retail therapy

As teenagers, when we were given pocket money, we would wander the streets of the town after school, before catching the bus home. This was a chance to buy make-up for the first time, ‘false eyelashes’ and bright pink lipstick, and Sheer Genius to put on our faces. Our heroine was Twiggy, though I was by no means the same shape. Buying magazines, Honey and Cosmopolitan also opened our innocent eyes to a world beyond our village! And of course, we used to love browsing in Woolworths!

Buying school clothes to go to the Gram was a huge step. We had to go to a special shop that had a monopoly on the special blazer and tunic, and itchy navy-blue knickers. This came at a great cost to families, especially as children grew so quickly. We usually only had two pairs of shoes, school shoes and play shoes, but to go to the big school you had to have daps and hockey boots. A complete waste of money for someone as clueless as I was at the time!

But to get fancy clothes, Swansea was the exciting destination, as our Gran lived in Morriston. There was a special card which gave you access to J.T.Morgan's warehouse, and there we’d choose and buy a new dress ready for Whitsun - a dress, sandals, a straw hat with flowers and on one occasion, a pair of dainty lace gloves. I remember the excitement of getting a pair of corduroy trousers for the first time and buying high heel shoes when I was a bridesmaid.

This was the time when children, especially teenagers, stopped wearing the same things as their parents. I think the influence of magazines, movies and TV gave us the ‘teenagers’ our own fashion. And this is when everyday clothes like jeans became popular. It was also the time when boys moved away from wearing shorts and woollen socks that were always slipping down untidily.

In the Quadrant shopping centre there were trendy clothes in shops such as Etam, Richard Shops and C&A. We'd both rush past Evans, the Outsize shop in case people thought we were thinking of buying something! In the warehouse, Enfys got a suede coat, and before going to college I was given a black leather coat, a faithful companion throughout my three years in Aberystwyth.

Looking at towns nowadays, I remember with surprise that we didn't have the huge numbers of charity shops selling clothes that we have today – maybe we didn’t need them. The world, and shops, have changed.