# Hey, do you remember...?



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

This is a thread for sharing *pop-up memories from your childhood and youth* - entertainers who were common then, but have since sunk without trace - really fashionable clothes that now look ridiculous, or perhaps now look elegant in comparison with today's gear - or maybe you just wondered whatever happened to those people, or why that look was so fashionable then.

Books that you binged on then, but can't see the point of now.

Hairstyles which used to look cool and now would make you look like an idiot.

It would be lovely to have memories from the 1950s or earlier - the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s - even the noughties if you're young.

What did you think of them then? What do you think of them now? How did you react to finding out what happened to them in the end?

I just love reading about others' lives & memories.

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This is my memory for tonight.

A crossword clue tonight had the expression 'fat lady' in it, and I immediately thought of Two-Ton *Tessie O'Shea* - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessie_O'Shea - who regularly appeared on British TV Variety Shows in the 1950s.






Cor blimey, by today's standards she wasn't as fat as all that!

I think she has vitality, but not a lot of talent, though this may not be her best song.

But TV then was dreadful, and the turns who appeared on Variety Shows were pretty amateurish. TV wasn't ubiquitous, and if you were lucky enough that your family had a set in the 1950s, you just lapped it up in delight - my mother had six children, so for our house it was an investment. 

Other surprises - she was *Welsh*! 
Because she sang about Tennessee and played what I thought was a banjo (it was a banjolele, like George Formby) I imagined she was American - though she did die in her home in Florida, so maybe the US was her spiritual home.

Another surprise was that despite my mother's mutterings about fat people always dying prematurely, she made it till 82 before succumbing to congestive heart failure.

I'm glad to have remembered her, but I probably won't be searching out the BBC documentary about her, though I'm sure it would be very interesting if it fell in my way.

Now, what about you? 
Thanks in advance for any replies. :tiphat:
And if not - I'll simply enjoy my own memories...


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

One of the best things on TV, back in the 1960s and '70s - Camberwick Green






I am sure it's dated now, and Windy Miller became a bigoted old Brexiteer, I am sure, but the voice of the irreplaceable Brian Cant is as comforting and reassuring as it was back in my very early days.

Aaaaah! Nostalgia!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

In the 70's, aged 15 or so, I read Lord of the Rings for the first time. I was completely hooked. Kept on reading until late at night (well past what was supposed to be my bed-time). Loved it.

When the movies were released, I decided to read it once more. Could not get through it.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Art Rock said:


> In the 70's, aged 15 or so, I read Lord of the Rings for the first time. I was completely hooked. Kept on reading until late at night (well past what was supposed to be my bed-time). Loved it.
> 
> When the movies were released, I decided to read it once more. Could not get through it.


When the Ring came out, one paperback at a time, I deliberately slowed down my reading of it so that I would only finish a volume when the next was in my hand. _The Silmarillion_ cemented my love of Tolkien's Middle Earth, and ever since, I've made a point of rereading both The Ring and the Silmarillion every roughly ten years or so. Reread the Aubrey/Maturin novels periodically also, along with the glorious literature of my childhood: _The Wind in the Willows_, the Pooh books, _The Jungle Books_, even the Beatrix Potter stories. Great stories never grow old!


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

My grandmother gave me a copy of Tarka the Otter to break my comic book habit. I wish I still had that copy as it was very old. But the story itself haunted me for many years as I became a whitewater paddler and something of an otter lover (hence my screen name on Amazoo). About 20 years ago I hunted down another copy and found it even more fascinating the second time. The pastoral imagery and botanical terms make it a book that is truly for all ages and perspectives. And the illustrations are great too.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

On the other hand, I was never interested in Jack London as a child, but now find his writing to be another irresistable window into a long lost world. Again, if you like boats and old-fashioned boy adventure literature, his Oyster Pirate stories are quite fun to read as an adult. Also with great illustrations.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

*There will never another like our Benny*


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Soupy Sales:


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I couldn't relate to much of the pop culture of the 70s when I was a teenager. Disco, Jaws, Star Wars, bell bottoms, platform shoes... I just wanted it all to go away, along with high school. Luckily it did!


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

Dan Ante said:


> *There will never another like our Benny*


My first wife had been a nurse and worked with Benny's sister; she did meet him - before he became an entertainer.


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

No TV memories from my younger days, wartime BBC radio was a bit of a mixed bag, in the early 1950s still radio plenty of comedy shows, the Goon Show probably the most memorable






plus a number of half hour show Sunday Lunchtime, Round the Horne, Beyond our Ken, Navy Lark among others


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

philoctetes said:


> My grandmother gave me a copy of Tarka the Otter to break my comic book habit. I wish I still had that copy as it was very old. But the story itself haunted me for many years as I became a whitewater paddler and something of an otter lover (hence my screen name on Amazoo). About 20 years ago I hunted down another copy and found it even more fascinating the second time. The pastoral imagery and botanical terms make it a book that is truly for all ages and perspectives. And the illustrations are great too.


A lovely book, and thanks for the explanation of the now-expired avatar. Of course, over here in the UK, Tarka had to play Second fiddle to Mij, the star of Ring of Bright Water....the film of that book is one of the more traumatic memories of those days of extreme youth....

And no exaggeration, we've got otters down on the river here. Yes, the Thames, just above Reading. Saw one last April, had TWA round a few weeks ago, confirmed some of the poop on the landing stage is/was lutrine!


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Ingélou said:


> This is a thread for sharing *pop-up memories from your childhood and youth* - entertainers who were common then, but have since sunk without trace - really fashionable clothes that now look ridiculous, or perhaps now look elegant in comparison with today's gear - or maybe you just wondered whatever happened to those people, or why that look was so fashionable then.


Some fashion comes back every time I see a woman with giant glasses I think that is some middle aged woman who still lives in the eighties. And I don´t get why people wear sixties glasses they look like they are on a masquerade.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

Dorsetmike said:


> No TV memories from my younger days, wartime BBC radio was a bit of a mixed bag, in the early 1950s still radio plenty of comedy shows, the Goon Show probably the most memorable
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeh I remember all of those Mike and Paul Temple, Wilfred Pickles, Dick Barton gee what memories.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

In my early 20s I got caught up reading Edgar Rice Burrows. I read all the space adventure series and every Tarzan book. 

As a small child I remember watching the program Lassie and then when it ended my mother would attempt to put me to bed but I knew better. If I stayed until the commercials were over, they would show some scenes from the next episode. I could not go to bed missing those.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

Fritz Kobus said:


> If I stayed until the commercials were over, they would show some scenes from the next episode. I could not go to bed missing those.


I remember TV before the Commercials oh happy days, On our main TV channel I watch Coro st on one night there was an hour program with 25 min pf commercials  I intend to congratulate them if they ever reach 30 min.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

*Muffin the Mule*, another star of grainy creaky plummy-voiced BBC TV in the 1950s. What a fabulous creature, even though his acting was so *wooden*. 

At the age of five or six, I was mad on him - so much so that my parents bought me a Muffin the Mule annual.






One summer evening, when my mother & 3 elder siblings were out at York City Library, and Dad at home with me & my baby sister, Dad told me I could go out to play in our kid-friendly terraced street while he put the baby to bed.

I was *staying up late* - unfortunately, none of my friends were there to be boasted to, so I told a lady clopping briskly down the lane at the end of the street. She was underwhelmed, but I followed her anyway, till she peeled off from me and I found myself in Marygate, unfamiliar territory, and stood by one of the towers in York City Walls bawling my head off.

Several adults passed, but did nothing to help - the reality of the Good Old Days.

Finally a young boy on a bike asked why I was crying, and when he heard that I was lost, got my address and escorted me back home, where I saw my older siblings crowded into the front yard craning up and down the street. Dad and Mum were out scouring the streets in the family Austin.

When my parents got home, there was a solemn interview at which I promised never to wander off again.

But the real sting was that Dad told me that if I'd been 'good' and come back in for bedtime, he'd have read me a story from my Muffin the Mule Annual.


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

Dorsetmike said:


> ... in the early 1950s still radio plenty of comedy shows, the Goon Show probably the most memorable


I agree. A new radio set appeared in our country pub, though I was the only one who ever listened to the wireless. I played with the dials and occasionally got the ABC.

But I didn't let all that symphonic music daunt me because now and then I had the funniest experiences of my young life. The first episode I can recall was a race around around the world in a zeppelin with view to crossing the International Date Line first, thus getting to turn 21 hours before some rival and taking the prize...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I remember being entranced by the railway stories by Rev. W. Awdry. When I was four or five our primary school teacher used to read them out to us and once she'd finished a page she would show us the illustration opposite. The books were stored high on a shelf and I would eye them covetously. I realised I wanted copies of these for myself, so I fast-tracked learning to read (via the _Peter and Jane_ series of books on Ladybird) so I could persuade my mum to buy them incrementally from W.H. Smiths. Mum agreed, but only if I would ask her to explain all the words I didn't understand, rather than simply 'looking at the pictures'. I enjoyed the stories a lot, but the real clincher was original beautiful artwork by C. Reginald Dalby, John T. Kenney and the husband and wife team of Peter and Gunvor Edwards.










In an indirect sort of way I still go back to that same primary school once a week - where it once stood is now the site of the local branch of Morrisons...


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

I miss these


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

My favourite TV series when I was about 10. Still brings a smile to my face.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

^
^

Is that a TV test card?


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> ^
> ^
> 
> Is that a TV test card?


Philoctetes' attractive design? 
When I googled it, it seemed to say so. Very nice!

It reminded me that in the 1950s Television was always breaking down and/or they left gaps on purpose 'just in case', so there were some well-worn fillers or 'interludes'.
I liked the kaleidoscope best, but I can't find it.

Still, here's 'London to Brighton in Four Minutes'.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

We didn't have all-night TV where I lived. Stations "signed off" every night and signed on every morning. Both events would be accompanied by a test pattern and a scratchy recording of the Star Spangled Banner with video of a waving flag.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Dan Ante said:


> Yeh I remember all of those Mike and Paul Temple, Wilfred Pickles, Dick Barton gee what memories.


Wilfred Pickles, not forgetting, of course, Mabel!


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

While most people loved the Just William stories I was more a Jennings fan. Also Kipling's Just So stories, Treasure Island, The Coral Island and watching the 'fat owl of the remove' Billy Bunter on t.v. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be!!


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Kipling is another I did not appreciate until I discovered his adult stories and poetry and then I understood why Borges loved him so much. There is a vague kind of anti-Kipling sentiment in America that is not unlike the way some misunderstand Faulkner... both unwarranted IMO...


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Round the Horne.
BBC Radio sketch/variety comedy programme. Very funny, very clever, and urbanely subversive.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Pat Fairlea said:


> Round the Horne.
> BBC Radio sketch/variety comedy programme. Very funny, very clever, and urbanely subversive.


Sandy and Julian.  Bona!!


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Barbebleu said:


> Sandy and Julian.  Bona!!


And Betty 'Many...many...times' Marsden, who is rather overlooked but was an essential part of the team.

Oh dear, I'm coming over all nostalgic.


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## Guest (Mar 22, 2019)

"Time for bed." said Florence.

"Boing!"said Zebedee.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Andy Pandy and Woodentops are memories of my childhood


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Judith said:


> Andy Pandy and Woodentops are memories of my childhood


Me too! I loved Spotty Dog, when he raised his ears. The music is very evocative too - rather sad...


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

What have we got for dinner today? Sawdust and hay!

Nah! Pogle's Wood was better than The Woodentops!!!!!


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

Flower pot men






It's rumoured the the reason they talk and walk funny is - too much weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed


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