RRR - Touch my History - Sharpies

Transcript from my interview on RRR Friday 9th July 2010

Ben Birchall: Well this morning, we touch on a peculiarly Melbourne subculture, the Sharpies with former sharpie and author of RAGE a Sharpie’s Journal, Julie Mac. Thanks for being here Julie.

Julie Mac: Thank you

Ben Birchall: Now for the completely, entirely totally uninitiated, what was a sharpie, or what is a sharpie, I suppose we should say

Julie Mac: A teenager, to start off with, and teenagers are a species of their own. Their job description is to be as revolting as possible, to be self centered, selfish and to hurt every one around them that’s close to them,

Ben Birchall: Sure

Fee B-Squared: Pretty much

Julie Mac: That’s their job description. So we were a group of teenagers and we got together and hung out in a gang and it sounds a bit sinister, but it wasn’t it was like our second family some of the kids had problems at home and they would get together and find comfort and security in the gang,

Where sharpies were unique, instead of following overseas fashions, which all of us do like sheep, we created our own. We had a lot of Mediterranean immigrants and the sharps would go to Mr Conti in Northcote or Sam’s Knitwear in Coburg and get their cardigans tailor made and custom made

Fee B-Squared: Like the connies.

Julie Mac: Yeah, the connies - with a certain amount of stripes in places, Lee and Levi jeans as well, but they would buy Staggers from Joseph Saba in Flinders Lane and also get their shoes made from Venus and Acropolis Shoes.

Fee B-Squared: And Batsanis Shoes was pretty big as well

Julie Mac: Yeah, a few different ones. I didn’t get interested in the shoes they were for boys,

Fee B-Squared: Were you wearing treads?

Julie Mac: Yeah, treads and platforms. I could run in platforms

Fee B-Squared: Yeah, you go girl!

Ben Birchall: Round about what time was this

Julie Mac: For me, I was in the thick of it in 1977-1978 but there is evidence of sharpies in 1963. Lenunig the cartoonist, I found an article where he had his corduroy coat slashed by a sharpie in west footscray in ’63 and I have met and spoken to sharpies from ’66. Most of the sharpies from my generation think it sorta petered out round about 1980 but I think part of that is we were all 18 and we were not catching trains anymore, so we were not seeing the sharpies. I have one friend that said he was in the armed forces and he helped a sharpie fight in ’89, so there were still the odd few, but they were just wearing the remnants of the old fashion, there had not been any new fashion included in it.

Ben Birchall: So having a specific kind of look. But what about the sound? Was there a lot of music involved with it as well?

Julie Mac: Definitely. The early sharpies liked the Sunbury sounds, especially Lobby Loyde and The Coloured Balls. My generation I was a little bit too young, and while I liked the music and the sharpies I hung were always playing it at parties, I really got into Rose Tattoo. As far as music is concerned I probably have to admit to being a bit more of a Countdown chick or Countdown sharpie. Friends of mine are really into music and they can talk about it for hours, I just hear a song and think I either like it or I don’t like it. Mostly Aussie music Angels, Rose Tattoo, I really like the glam rock, put a man in a pair of satin pants and put some eye shadow on him and I’m his.

Fee B-Squared: Skyhooks?

Julie Mac: Yeah, probably more Hush

Ben Birchall Bit of Les Gock

Julie Mac: Yeah, and from overseas Sweet and T-Rex.

Fee B-Squared: Yeah, of course. I should mention, because I know we’ve spoken about sharpies before. We have spoken to Tadgh and Larry Jenkins before and there is an element with the sharpies that people were frightened of and I think it would be remiss of us not to mention. But there were a lot of fights and a lot of people have bad memories of this history, but that’s not to say that wasn’t a part of the Melbourne history that shouldn’t be spoken about on a pop culture level. So what was the deal? Like, why the kind of fighting? What was that all about?

Julie Mac: A lot of the fighting was just sort of more territorial and I think when young men grow up and young women, it’s not like we have coming out ceremonies where they have balls or initiation ceremonies like they do in the tribes, and the kids don’t know what to do and they’ve got all these hormones and the boys have got all this testosterone and they just want to punch on and show their territory and try to be the alpha male.

I found that the gangs that had girls in were usually not quite as violent as the all boy gangs. That’s not to say the girls couldn’t be violent, they could just be as nasty, but there was usually a reason, like we all did look after each other within the gang. Usually you would only ever turn on someone if they rooted your boyfriend or something like that, and once one girl did, then the other girls would turn and then the boyfriends would follow along. But most of the violence I ever saw was gang against gang,

Fee B-Squared: What was the difference between skin heads and sharpies,

I am not really sure. The way I understood it, was skin heads usually wore T shirts and Lees and the runners and they had tiny little tails at the back of their head, if they had any at all. Where as the sharpies had longer tails, but I have never really been sure.

Ben Birchall I guess we haven’t talked about the hairstyles. Talk us through, what was it, if you were out looking for a really hot sharpie, what would you look for in a hot sharpie hair cut.

Julie Mac: Like David Bowies.

Ben Birchall Kinda tails?

Julie Mac: Yeah and spiky on top, but then again I responded to the short, very short top and the tails. But I hate the way they compare it to a mullet. It wasn’t, it’s different.

Fee B-Squared: Did girls have Dolly cuts?

Julie Mac: Yes, a Dolly cut was probably a sharpie but they ended up cutting it up further around the ears.


Fee B-Squared: Feathering round the ears, to show off the feather earrings.

Julie Mac: Yeah, and then the blonded tails.

Ben Birchall: Can you see any of these hairstyles of fashion styles coming back today.

Julie Mac: I did see a young man on the train the other day and he had a sharpie cut So…

Fee B-Squared: And I think that, you can certainly buy the retro connies. A lot of people are looking for them and I have certainly seen treads come up in shop windows.

Ben Birchall: What are treads exactly?

Fee B-Squared: Ah, they were, well Julie you can tell us

Julie Mac: Woven suede top, shoes, not sandals, they were open toed with buckles on the side, and they were made out of recycled actually might have been new tyres, because they still had those little pointy bits they have when you buy new tyres.

Fee B-Squared: I desperately wanted a pair and was not allowed. Under no circumstances was I allowed to have a pair of treads!

Julie Mac: See, I let my daughter have everything she wants now, so she doesn’t have that feeling. I’ve created a monster.

Ben Birchall: And Julie you’ve written a book, basically you’ve compiled your diaries from the time and got a whole bunch of old photos. What was that like putting that together?

Julie Mac: A bit scary to start off with, cos I was thinking ‘How’s it gonna be received’ and in the end I changed a bit of it and used a friend’s diary as well, just to help put the story together. It was a roller coaster, some days I’d be so excited about it, I’d be busting and the next minute I’d be waking up the next morning, thinking ‘This is crap, I can’t do it, I can’t put this out there’, but my friends were pushing me saying ‘Well, someone has to do it, to record our history and what it was like for us’, and I just went ahead with it, as I thought it would be really nice to do it from the girly point of view.

Fee B-Squared: Absolutely

Julie Mac: There is a lot out there from the boys, Thomastown Sharps have book coming out, but that will be all boys’ stories, you know, I want to talk about girls stuff.

Fee B-Squared: Well Thomastown, that was boys.

Julie Mac: Yeah, that was boys (gang). And I wanted to talk about girly stuff, like blue eye shadow and blue nail polish and satin baggies and squealing, just stuff that girls do.

Ben Birchall: Well Julie will be launching her book on Sunday at the Skinsnsharps exhibition that’s running at the moment at the Kustom Lane Gallery, 8 Luton Lane Hawthorn, so you’ll be signing and sharing some of your reminiscences?

Julie Mac: Yep, I’ll be bringing out my texta ready to graffiti.

Ben Birchall: Excellent, getting ready to break up any fights that might break out

Julie Mac: Yeah, I always loved doing that, get right in the center of it, Miss Drama Queen.

Ben Birchall: Julie Mac, thank you very much for touching the history of Sharpies this morning.

Julie Mac: Thanks guys, thanks for having me.

McXmas

Usually we have our Mc Thanksgiving one month before Christmas, but this year, with my brother Paul and his family running away from home and then me and my friend Cheryl sneaking off to Cambodia with no adult supervision, we had it today. For the last two years we have chosen to have it at an all-you-can-eat with a children's play area rather than at one of our homes.

Bev adores Christmas. During the year she collects every Christmas decoration that flashes and sings ready to transform her already cluttered loungeroom. But it's not clutter in the loungeroom, it's treasures. Elvis busts and clocks, Elvis painted on black velvet, bird clocks that start tweeting on the hour from five am and the bird show trophies and sashes. Dad makes sure he parades all his Royal Melbourne Show Rosettes. If you are in the bird/dog/cat or any other show world, Rosettes are the coveted item. Dad always sends word to mum when he wins another Rosette cos it pisses her off.

This is Bev's 2010 Christmas outfit. I should carry a digital camera with me for blogging as my mobile camera sucks. Most people cringe at daggy parents, but I celebrate it now. It took me many years and comments from old friends to appreciate how unique they are.

Stalking myself

I admit to being slack at writing my blog, I have been too busy stalking RAGE on the internet. I was a bit scared it would be like eavesdropping - 'Eavesdroppers hear no good news of themselves' but luckily the universe remembered that I am a delicate little petal and I found two lovely reviews...

HotRodLibrarian and YA Author Simmone Howell (I wonder if she is related to Thurston Howell the Third? I always wanted to be in Gilligan's Island)

Today we had McXmas with Bev, Mad, Mum, my brother David and his gorgeous family. Paul at the age of 39 has run away from home and has moved with his family to MacKay in Queensland. (How dare he! What about us?) We had all you can eat (Mum and I call it Pigpen, hose me down with chocolate mouse) at The Manhattan Hotel. I only had roast and managed to sneak three glasses of bubbles, my long suffering second husband prefers it when I don't drink. I don't do anything wrong, just flash my tits or fall over, which I also do when I am sober.

My next post will be about McXmas.

These boots are made for walking

Me : Knocks on the back door of the Post Office at the out of hours parcel collection
Me : Waits patiently. Checks watch to triple check time is within collection hours
Postmistress One : Opens security hatch in fire door "I thought I heard footsteps"
Me : Hands over postal collection card
Postmistress One : Looks through compactors for parcel
Postmistress Two : Helps to look for the parcel
Me : "It's a box with boots in it"
Postmistress One/Two : Looks for boot size parcel
Postmistress One : "Here it is" - places it on the narrow shelf of the security hatch
Me : "Wanna look, they're pretty"
Postmistress One/Two : Both huddle round
Me : Fumbles with tape on box
Postmistress Two : "Let me get some scissors"
Postmistress Two : Returns with scissors and expertly opens box
Me : Opens box "Gasps". Turns the box to face the Postmisstresses
Postmistress One/Two : "Ooohh, Aaaahhh"
Boss Woman : Arrives at work, stops to admire shoes.
Me : "I probably won't be able to walk in them but who cares"
Postmistress One/Two & Boss Woman : All nod knowingly, in moment of true female bonding

The Legend of Tits out Sunday

After the honour of being the Panel 3 Girl in Fred Negro's Famous Pub Strip Cartoon strip last week, I thought I would share the background of Tits out Sunday.
For me, Peter H started it. One workday during the 80s, in my hateful corporate secretary phase, I was in his sales office wearing a white silk blouse with a shot water mark pattern. Hursty walked across the room in a trance. Holding a pencil he walked into our secretarial mensa huddle and started swirling his pencil an inch away from where abouts he thought my nipple was. Suddenly he 'came to'. Embarrassed, he giggled and ran off defending himself 'I don't know what came over me'. Hursty is as camp as a row of boy scout tents and turns 77 this year.

At this Christmas party in December 2002 My mum's friend Jan and I decided to flash our lacy black bras at Hursty and dance around him on the dance floor. Well we had fun.
It was liberating and nice to be past the 'does my bum look fat in this' time of life and celebrate our approaching middle age.

Hursty and Me 1998

It became a party trick. Anytime I got a new bra, I would sneakily flash lucky colleagues and act innocent as they spluttered coffee across their computer monitors. It's no different than a bikini at the pool, but there is something about underwear that can shock people. It's only a bra. According to the Satanist Anton LeVay in the book "The Satanic Witch" (I love leaving that book on my desk at work to intimidate people) it's the 'law of the forbidden', people can't help but become voyeurs.

I created a mantra/chant for work Christmas parties. My husband said it would be funny if it wasn't true.

Yay work Xmas party
Get pissed
Offend my my workmates
Tell the boss to fuck off
Flash my tits
Fall over
Go home
Spew or not spew

I love surprising my friend Ralph, a man in his 60s that has had 22 heart attacks and 50 strokes (according to him) and sleeps with a loaded shotgun beside his bed. I sneak up to his bungalow, open the unlocked door and banging it against the wall, I jump into his kitchen lifting my top and shouting 'Look Ralph, I have a new bra'. My husband tells me it is wrong, on so many different levels. I haven't killed Ralph yet, what's the problem?

Time passes, I find my old mate Andrea and I meet her extended girl network. On one camping adventure, a young mum camping with us said 'It's Sunday, time to get the tits out' and she removed her top to sunbake. She explained that she had trouble with mastitis when she was breast feeding and her wise mother suggested she let her boobs feel the healing power of the sunshine, at least once a week.

And that is what started Tits Out Sunday. Sunday anytime, anywhere, whether we are together or not, it's TITS OUT SUNDAY.

Missing in Action

It has been awhile since I last blogged (November 2009) but I have a good excuse.

I decided to abandon this blog and work on a Sharpie blog (closed and entries posted below), but I failed miserably keeping up with the blog. But I have an excellent excuse! I ended up writing a book instead

RAGE A Sharpie's Journal - Melbourne 1974-1980
Rampage with Julie Mac and the Sharpies on a grouse adventure as they fight, punch and kick through their turbulent teenage years on the unsuspecting streets of 1970s Melbourne. It was a time when bolting from the cops, stooging the ticket inspectors, drinking spewing, pashing and rooting where all in a nights work for this unique Australian sub-culture.

The first print run is currently available from
http://skinsnsharps.com/store

The book would not have been possible without the support from my Sharpies, friends and artistic fairy godfathers from Careless Navigator and Skinsnsharps, well maybe I should call them Tiki Godfathers, they probably wouldn't be comfortable in a pink tutu like our Bobby pictured here during ugly/happy hour on the Gold Coast.

I will attempt to blog regularly, but there are plenty of old posts here to trap new readers.

Or stay in touch via Facebook
Julie Mac or
Sharpies, Sharps and Skins a Melbourne 60-70s Subculture

Finding Jacko

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

When I was 13 the first real Sharpie I met was Jacko from the Box Hill Sharps. I met him out the front of Iceland one night and as hung out of his mates car, he shouted that he would meet me there the following week.

The following week I looked out for him but didn't see him till the end of the night, he was walking past the kiosk and I skated over and said hi. We skated around for awhile and at the end of the night he wrote his phone number on my hand and we arranged to meet at Croydon Flea Market the next day.

We would meet up at Icelands or the market and talk on the phone a few times a week. He introduced me to his friend Iggy (after I spotted him in his photo album and said "I want that one") and Iggy and I went out together over the summer at the end of 78.

In 1981 I started working and in 1984 broke up with my Sharpie boyfriend from St Albans and decided to bury my sharpie days. I had my tattoo removed (two little sharpie stars on my shoulder blade) and got a job as a secretary in the marketing department for a multi national company. Other than the occasional chance meeting, eventually I lost touch with all my old mates.

In the early 2000s I googled Jacko, he has an unusual name but the results were not what I expected, it showed someone with the same name working for a government dept. and the name was mentioned in articles with a politician. Because he was more inclined to be an anarchist, I wasn't sure if it was him, so didn't bother making contact. In 2005, I tried again and found the website of a blues musician, he was thanking Jacko for finding him a copy of a rare blues CD. Given that Jacko was a music snob and collector of rare vinyl LPs, I emailed the musician and asked if it was Jacko from Box Hill and if it was, could he tell him an old mate, Julie Mac says hello.

The next day I got an email from Jacko and surprise surprise, it was him working at the Government Dept. He only lived two suburbs away from me in the Western suburbs so we arranged to meet for dinner. Even though we hadn't seen each other for nearly 30 years, it was like no time had passed. I find with the friends that I made when I was a teenager, because I already knew and trusted them, its very easy to pick up where we left off.

Jacko and I then set about finding Andrea, our other best friend. When we found her and the three of us were together, it was like old times.

Then we set out to see who else we could find.

Sam

After going to the Skinsnsharps exhibition with Jacko, I offered to scan my photos for Sam Biondo. I got the photos together and wrote as many names and dates as I could remember. It bought the memories flooding back as I saw pics of my old mates. I started to scan the photos and they were not coming out as well as I hoped, so then I thought about it. If I died tomorrow, what's the bet my husband and daughter would throw my albums in a dumpster with my poodle, antiques and all my other stuff that they hate - which is pretty much everything I own.

I decided to donate my albums and scrap book to Sam. Partly because the State Library has been interested in his collection and it makes me feel very special thinking that one day my teenage crap will be classed as historically important.

I contacted Sam and organised to meet up at Gloria Jeans in Spencer Street in December 2008. We had a great time going through the pics, ephemera and stories. He gave me a skinsnsharps T shirt/poster and some prints of the sharpie artwork from the exhibition.

Sam asked me to write a bio so he could put it with the pics on his site and with anything he uses in the next exhibition. I found I had trouble writing it, well not so much with the writing, but how it sounds.

My association with the Melbourne Sharps was through my boyfriend, a handsome Eastside Sharp called Skeeta. Then we broke up and I had a summer romance with Billy Idol look alike, Iggy from the Westside Sharps. Summer finished and I started going out with Chap a 6'2" blue eyed hulk from the St Albans Sharps.

What a bio, bloody hell, how does that make me sound? May as well say "Julie Mac was a sharpie from 1976-1978/9. She was a mole that went through three sharpie gangs!"

But seriously, sharpie gangs were really not a place for 'moles', there was a very real danger of the guys using the girl for 'gangies' (gang bang)

I figure after I write a few more entries for this blog, my bio might write itself.

On a mission from God

Post from Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Earlier this year I joined Facebook and slowly started building my friends list. Eventually I got in touch with some kids from my high school and each time I found a new one I would look through their friends list to see if I recognised anyone.

One girl was friends with Craig S, a boy that was a couple of years older than me that lived locally. I first met him when I was 11 and we took an instant dislike to each other, I am pretty sure I started it at the local milk bar. He was trying to open the glass door at the same time as me and I didn't like the look of surprise on his face, so I called him a 'perve' which was a word I had recently learned from No. 96. From that moment on we were mortal enemies and would swear and snarl at each other when our paths crossed, especially smoking under the pine trees next to the railway line at the top of Sherlock Road.

When I had to start high school I was a bit nervous as he already went to that school. Other than throwing yonnies (rocks) at me on the way home from school along the train line and slagging a big greenie on my school dress the battle didn't have time to get too ugly as I started going out with one of the toughest of the Croydon boys and was immediately granted instant respect from the boys at my school and in the area.

I looked through Craig's friends and saw he was friends with Dani and Peter W, a Melbourne Sharpie couple I knew from Iceland in 1976 (when Pete bashed my Croydon Boy boyfriend). I was happy to see that they had married and were still together. Because I didn't think they would remember me, I didn't bother contacting them, but I looked through Dani's photos to see if she was in contact with Deb, I was pretty sure she would remember me as we spent a bit of time together at Rose Tattoo, the footy and a few other places. I found Debs profile and I sent her a message saying "Hi from Julie Mac", I have a picture of you sharpie dancing at Rock on the River in 1977.

She messaged me back and I could feel the paranoia dripping through the monitor. Who are you? How did you find me? Are you sure its me? I sent her the pic and a pic of me and Skeeta my Eastern sharpie boyfriend from that time. She was still really suspicious over the next couple of email/facebook exchanges as she couldn't remember us. She added Jacko because she remembered him and messaged the Whitesides' on Facebook and Pete added me. He got online and started asking after our old mates from 76/77. They had moved to Queensland and hadn't heard much of anyone since. As he listed the names I told him what I knew of each person and which ones I might be able to find. Dani and Pete were due to come to Melbourne in July 2009 and he wanted to organise a re-union with as many old friends as we could find.

Pete started searching for names on facebook and quickly found Donny B so I added him and the three of us started our mission.

Pete asked after Stef and Dave, I passed on Stef's email address which I had after seeing him at a Westside Sharps 40th birthday in 2002 and then inviting him to my 40th in 2003. It was easy to find Stef's apprentices JLK, Jenny, Linda and Caryn as I was still on Caryn's Christmas card list.

He then asked after Skeeta. I had recently found his two sisters on Facebook, so I contacted them, they gave me his mums phone number and she gave me Skeeta's number so I passed that on. That put us in touch with Mick and Kim also.

Then it was Hayden. I rang Katie S, I girl I used to know from Croydon and asked her if she knew Hayden's daughters names as he had married the older sister of our friend Lisa that was murdered. Katie gave me the names and I found one on Facebook, I sent her a message asking if her dad was Hayden and if so, could he please contact Pete on his mobile so he could meet up for dinner. It was his daughter and she said her dad would love to come. One we found Hayden, we then had contact with his brother Darryl and his wife Connie (she gave me my first genuine Conte cardigan when she retired from being a sharpie)

Col Creed was easy to find as he was a legendary tattooist in the Dandenong area.

Bobby had an unusual surname and I remembered the country town he grew up in so we looked to see if any of his family still lived there. After a deliberate red herring by Bobby's sisterinlaw, Don rang his mum and she gave Don Bobby's number.

Col had seen Phil P at his workplace in Fountain Gate, so Deb went there looking for him. He didn't work there anymore, but because Deb is such a sweetie, one of his old workmates gave her Phil's phone number.

It took me five calls before I found Woodsy. I rang Chap from St Albans and asked if he knew where Woodsy was, he said 'no, ring Stef'. I rang Stef and for a change he was nice to me, last time he saw me at a funeral he said "what are you fucken doin here". I looked at the nice car he was locking and said 'get fucked, did you steal that car?' Stef said he didn't know where to find Woodsy, but to ring Cutugno, so I looked up his phone number in the book. I went to their wedding 27 years ago, so I was glad when Cutugno's wife remembered me and she told me the suburb where Woodsy lived. The first number I rang was the wrong one, but the second number I tried, Woodsy answered. I said "Hi Wayne, it's Julie Mac, we are having a reunion for the Melbourne Sharps". Cool as a cucumber he said, "Yeah, I've been thinkin about that"!

Since then we have had five reunions in six months and we are making plans to track down a few more of the gang.

Photos taken of our reunion at Young and Jacksons (before we got thrown out) are on this site
http://skinsnsharps.com/galleries/sharpie-reunion-at-young-and-jackson-2009

Record for posterity

Original posting date Thursday, November 26, 2009

In 2003 I saw a post on www.schoolfriends.com.au from a boy in my class asking for school photos as some of his personal belongings had been destroyed, so I sent him a scanned copy of Croydon High School Year 10D 1978.


He was living in Gympie Qld and was the father of 11 children. His life had been very interesting - he had a couple of near death experiences after being hit by a tram/car and truck on separate occasions and being mugged and left destitute in a foreign land. He was left with an acquired brain injury.

We were not friends at school, my main memory of him was one needlework class. There was a huge huntsman on the wall and the girls were screaming. I went and got a straw broom from the Home Ec room and managed to get the spider on the broom. As I carried the broom and spider through the corridor, he saw me. He made eye contact, walked up to the broom and kicked it. Hard. The spider went flying into the air and then landed on and scurried down behind the lockers. The stupid girls that were following me and the spider started screaming again so I cracked the shits and bashed him repeatedly over the head with the broom, chasing him up the corridor until he escaped down the stairs.

In 2004 I was visiting a friend in nearby Rainbow Beach, so I caught the bus to Gympie to visit him and give him a copy of the Year 12 Year book. It is hard to describe how happy he was to get that book. We discussed our lives and both talked about writing a book, I told him I had a bit of work on the net and he advised me to get hard copies and soft copies of my work and not to entrust it to the net.

A few months later I received an email from his brother. He had suffered a seizure and had passed away as a result. His brother hacked into his hotmail account and sent me a message to let me know. So now he has gone and those stories are left untold.

The recent interest in Australian Sharpies (not to be confused with S.H.A.R.P (Skin heads against racial prejudice) started in 2001 with the exhibition (mentioned in Parliament) by Blackburn South Sharp, Peter Robinson, of his photos from 1971-1977. It prompted me to get out my albums and scrapbooks and I donated them to a very worthy cause. Sam Biondo from www.skinsnsharps.com has been collecting memorabilia from the sharpie days for the last three decades. While Sam was never a sharpie, he was forward thinking and realised the part Sharpies played in Australian youth culture.

Other than my albums/scrapbook, which I had un or subconsciously 'hidden' away, I hadn't kept anything, it was a part of my life that I had deliberately forgotten about.

Over the last few years I have done some cyber detective work and found some old sharpie mates. It dredged up a lot of stuff from the past and it took a few sleepless nights and teary days to process the memories and emotion into some form of adult acceptance. Using Facebook we tracked down other old mates and have had 6 reunions in a 5 month period.

We started a Facebook group and I trawl the net looking for anything of relevance to that period.

Just in case one day Facebook disappears into the black hole of cyber space, I am going to take my classmates advice and record things that I find here and back it up with a soft and a hard copy.

Sam's next exhibition will be :
Sunday 4th of July 2010 at:
The Kustom Lane Gallery
8 Luton Lane, Hawthorn
www.skinsnsharps.com