Nostalgic Meanderings

Hello David McKee sadly died about a month ago.  He was 87, which is a good innings in anybody's book. You're probably thinking... who? To tell the truth, I'd have been doing the same. If you'd mentioned the name "Michael Bond" to me I'd automatically have a mental picture of... "Paddington Bear". Oliver Postgate (good name!)... the Clangers and Bagpuss... oh and Noggin the Nog... and Ivor the Engine... and others (Mr Postgate was prolific!). Gordon Murray... Trumpton, Chigley, Camberwick Green (love 'em!) But David McKee?  I wouldn't have known which progr..

Almost 50 years later this still sends shivers down my spine... and not in a good way. It's in the same category as scraping fingers down the blackboard for many people (which strangely I don't mind that at all, do you?)... Honestly... I feel unforfortable writing this and bringing back the memories... The incredible power of triggers... Anyway... Back in the 70's we had a couple of regular holiday destinations... both of which involved tedious drives along A roads (motorways were a lot fewer and shorter back then)... Mostly single carriageway roads... Lots of the scourg..

As you can probably guess, it's not a bad job to be the person behind the virtual counter in an online sweetshop. Aside from being surrounded by sweets (ahhhh the smell!) and taste-testing a gazillion new ones to see which will make it onto AQuarterOf.co.uk, we also get to embark on the occasional fun project. And that's what we did a smidge over 12 years ago. It was approaching the end of March 2009 and we thought it would be a jolly weez to come up with an April Fools Joke in the spirit of the Panorama one of the 1960s... where they showed Swiss (!) people harvesting pasta off Spa..

As Vic Reeves would have said... "You wouldn't let it lie...". Brace yourself for a nostalgic rant... Don't you find it depressing how many reboots there are... They take something that worked in the past... And "bring it up to date". Uggghhh. It could be a film e.g. Mary Poppins... It could be a television programme e.g. Hawaii-Five-O... And almost without exception the remake is pants, with none of what made the original work. It shows a hideous lack of creativity as far as I'm concerned... and frequently it's an insult to the original. Why oh why? Anyway, ..

I took William, our 13 year old, shopping the other day to buy a new pair of trainers.   The old ones had lasted about 3 months until he grew out of them...  Pesky meddling adolescence! It was an experience... There is a brand... which I refuse to name but I bet you can probably guess which one it is... which makes very stylised trainers which cost a small fortune... To me they look revolting. To William they're cooooool... And they're also cooooool to all of his friends apparently because they all wear this hideous brand too... The power of brainwashin..

As I look out of the window here the sky is grey and it's raining. Back in the day, before there was 24 hour a day entertainment for children (on-demand television so you can watch whatever you like whenever you like, tablets etc etc), it was the sort of day that we'd mope around, bored. At the time being bored seemed to be the worst thing in the world... apart from going to the dentist... and school dinners... and blancmange... and (I'll stop now!). Cue the 1970s parents' regular refrain... "Find something to do!" Time to explore shelves and cupboards to rediscover things tha..

Back at the end of the 70s a new, how did they come up with that idea, programme appeared on BBC2.  I can remember if it was on Sunday afternoon or, and I think I'd probably plump for this if I had to, at about 6.30 on a Wednesday or Thursday evening. It was called "The Great Egg Race". Ring any bells? The premise was simple... There were teams of boffins (engineers probably)... I think 3 per team and probably 3 or 4 teams... As usual this might be a bit out because I refuse to Google anything until I've written most of this blog post because half of the fun is delving as..

As I'm doing mundane stuff around the house and in the garden I spend a whole load of my time trying to think of obscure nuggets of things that I remember from when I was little.  Not the most obvious stuff... that just doesn't have it (whatever "it" is).  But the leftfield stuff which we've probably all almost forgotten about... That's the stuff that triggers the "oh yes, I remember that" reaction which is solid gold. I was thinking about television, as I frequently do. Saturdays. Swap Shop and Tiswas... Grandstand and Dickie Davis (with his silver hair streak..

How many of these childhood Christmas memories can you remember?

The devil is in the detail they say... and that was certainly true when it came to tokens at Christmas.

One, in particular, made my heart sink when I was 9...