1994

Welcome to the past! Spring/summer term 1994, in a world where Zig and Zag were cool, 2Unlimited were still in the UK charts and a young Rich prepared to enter adolescence.

This is how I used to spend my lunch hour while at Pentrehafod Comprehensive School. First years were not allowed out of the grounds, but we sneaked off over the railway bridges anyway, leaving our bags in 7S's form room before ducking past the fifth years as they smoked their cigarettes, then into the maze of houses and relative safety from the teachers that nearby Brynhyfryd offered. Wandering the streets after spending our money on rissoles, crisps, chocolate and a can of Pepsi Max quickly became the highlight of the day.

Here we have Chris Angle on the wall, proudly wearing one of the blue school jumpers that were slowly being phased out at the time, Anthony Sullivan, missing a school tie on this particular occasion, and me. Our line-up changed frequently during my five years at Pentrehafod, but me and Anthony left the grounds at lunchtime almost every day without fail until we left the school in 1998.

This picture is loosely based around memories I have of the time - details and specifics are lacking and so i've produced this using the fragments of what I remember.

This is my 1994 - there aren't any real cultural references of the time here (although I do maintain that the cars are authentic) but it's what I was doing at the time. This is what the mid-nineties was to me, as a 12 year old in Swansea. Skipping school at lunchtime, talking about new 16-Bit games and dreading that double lesson of Science we had to endure before the day ended.

I thought it might interest people to see a different perspective of a year that they lived through with their own memories and associations.

Now we have to get back into the grounds before the buzzer goes, or the teachers will nab us on the way in!

© Richard Morgan