Anecdote – Parties in the early sixties

Parties

When I was fourteen Parties began to become extremely important. There were the delicious combination of girls and drink. I had recently discovered both.

School was a social event. You spent your break and lunch-time chatting up the girls, finding where the parties were and sorting out who you might be taking. For the next three or four years this became the norm.

I was aided and abetted in this preoccupation by my good friend Oz. He was a ‘lady’s man’. The girls swooned over him and he treated them badly. The worse he treated them the more they seemed to swoon.

I used to have regular girlfriends but Oz played the field, the estates beyond and the whole of the county. My little book of telephone numbers was thin but Oz’s was thicker than the telephone directory. He’d sort through on Friday to decide who was going to be the lucky girl.

As soon as he arrived at the party he’d be off. He’d leave the girl he’d arrived with standing and be zooming around quickly sizing up who was there and whether there was anyone he fancied more. If there was he would dump the girl he’d come with and be off with the new one.

I was forever consoling broken-hearted girls. But that was OK. I enjoyed that.

I asked Oz why he bothered bringing girls to the parties when nine times out of ten they’d be dumped. ‘Insurance’ he told me.

The next day he’d be on the phone apologizing to the poor girl. He’d eventually talk them back round. I don’t know how he got away with it.

Parties consisted of loud music, plenty of booze and lots of dark corners and rooms. People stood around talking and drinking, paired off and found a quiet place for a bit of snogging and groping. If you didn’t manage to get a girl you just drank a lot more.

Probably the best set of parties was put on by my friend Clarkie. He had a younger sister who went to a girls’ school. So he brought along all his friends and she brought along all her friends. I ended up with a few nice girlfriends out of that arrangement.

The funniest party I ever went to was put on by some girl in the year below. She circulated all these handwritten sheets with time and place. Word soon got round. By the time I arrived the place was heaving. The music was pounding and drink flowing. It was shaping up to be a good one.

It all came to an abrupt end when the girl’s mother came home clutching two great bags. She’d only gone out to do the laundry at the local laundromat and had no idea that her daughter was planning anything. When she arrived back and found the house upside down and full of mad teenagers she went ape-shit. She was shrieking and storming around, turning things off, putting lights on and throwing people out. Her mood wasn’t made any better when she found couples in the bedrooms. She was livid.

We all found it highly amusing though I’m sure she didn’t. I don’t know what was in the girl’s mind. Perhaps it was pay-back time.

It didn’t stop there. The mother went into school to complain and I, as a known party animal, was summoned to the Head’s study to explain. I laughed and told him what had happened. There was nothing he could do.