The White Jumpsuit: 1984
I loved 1984. There were lots of firsts and an exciting future to look forward to.
This picture was taken in the hotel room I shared with my friend, Karen, during our two-week break in Pineda, Spain.
Paint was peeling off the walls, insects crawled around the damp, dark bathroom and the beds were like prison bunks. The swimming pool (into which we were ceremoniously dumped after arriving by the travel reps) was no more than a hole dug into a concrete back yard and the Bar was a tiny airless room.
It was perfect. Karen and I had booked the holiday a year earlier and saved every penny for our holiday, our wardrobe and our spending money from the proceeds of our weekend jobs. Karen worked in Tesco and I had three jobs (still working in the sweet shop, a Sunday morning paper round and a Sunday job as a messenger at The Daily Mirror in Manchester).
The whole holiday cost £89 for two weeks, bed and breakfast and coach travel to the resort in the Costa Dorada.
I remember leaving a rain-soaked Manchester on a late August morning and waking to warm sunshine as we twisted through the roads of France. But I digress.
The jumpsuit. I had bought it a few weeks earlier from a small shop near my home. I can't remember how much it was but it wasn't much. I had worn it twice before my holiday when I met my then-boyfriend Andy who worked as a DJ at Radio Piccadilly (he later became a children's TV presenter) at the plush Hotel Piccadily in Manchester. The second time was when I went to see Andy in Edinburgh where he was appearing in our college production "Dogs". One of the other cast members was an ex college student now at drama school who went on to become Dr. Who (Christopher Eccleston). I remember the whole cast shared one room and I remember dancing all night in the jumpsuit, sleeping in it and travelling home the next day. Urgh!
Anyway freshly laundered it was put into my suitcase and came out again in Spain. I had teamed it with a white belt which I can't remember much about and a hat I had bought in Pineda. I am not sure the neutral court shoes went well with it but I think they were the only heels I owned.
Karen and I spent the holiday with a group of boys from Northampton and Essex who looked after us like little sisters. We were after all just 18 and on our first holiday away from home which just happened to be the lion's den of holidays - Club 18-30.
We learned a lot that holiday.
Tomorrow: The Mint Stripe Girl
