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08 Oct 02 - 08:51 PM (#799218) Subject: BS: Childhood memories From: C-flat Reading Jerry Rasmussens thread on sweets/candies from your childhood brought back lots of memories of the toys and novelties that were around when I was growing up. I'm talking about the days before "Action Man" when the nearest thing to it was "Johnny Combat". Johnny didn't have jointed knees and elbows, he couldn't hold his gun without an elastic band to hold it in place and, because his feet were at permanent right-angles to his legs, getting his boots on and off was a lengthy proceedure. He came with a choice of one camouflage outfit and had a definate squint. I played with my "Johnny Combat" for hours on end until he lost his head to our dog who had mistaken him for a bone. There was another toy about the same time called a "Combat 5", or was it 7? I can't remember now, a multi-functioned rifle-come-grenade launcher which made a machine gun rat-a-tat-tat noise quite similar to the sound I used to get by fastening a lolly stick to the front forks of my bike so that it caught in the spokes as the wheels turned. I think the Combat 5 lasted about a week before the spring went on the grenade launcher and the bits were lost but no matter, by then I was the proud owner of a pair of "Tuf Trackers"! These were the latest shoes on the market. A selection of animal footprints on the sole meant that you could identify and track all manner of exotic wildlife, from Deer to Badgers and Otters! The problem was that in the industrial landscape of North-East England the nearest thing to "wild-life" we ever saw was the mangey dogs on the estate. (We used to say if you saw a dog with both ears it was a stranger.) Another great feature of the "Trackers" was the useful compass hidden inside the insole, under your heel. Great! apart from the fact that you had to take your shoes off to use it and, as we barely knew our Left from our Right, figuring out North and South was beyond us but that didn't stop us from feeling intrepid as we ventured off the estate and into previously undiscovered building sites and back fields. The comics would have "give-aways" inside them, as they do today, but they would be those cardboard triangles with a piece of folded brown paper tucked in. When you swung the triangular card in a rapid downwards motion the brown paper would catch the air and pop out with a BANG!..........Fantastic! I'll bet there's someone sitting on a warehouse full of those just waiting for the right time. Probably next to the one full of "Clackers". Remember them? I don't know about life being simpler then but I'm sure we must have been! Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. C-flat. |
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08 Oct 02 - 08:55 PM (#799219) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull times were hard in them days, we used to live in a cardboard box in the middle of the road! |
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08 Oct 02 - 08:59 PM (#799221) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: C-flat luxury! |
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08 Oct 02 - 09:08 PM (#799226) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Bill D prizes in cereal boxes....listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio while lying on the floor beside it....10ยข comic books....Tinker Toys....reading under the covers with a flashlight..... and..playing all day with few cares or worries (barely understanding that there WAS a WWII and rationing going on... |
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08 Oct 02 - 10:16 PM (#799245) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: khandu Strange...tonight I have been working on a new song with a similar theme as this thread. I hit a snag, decided to take abreak and check into the Cafe and find this thread. It's astrange world! k |
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08 Oct 02 - 10:55 PM (#799261) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Sorcha No computers, but we had Lincoln Logs, sandboxes, telescopes, chemistry kits, neighbors, backyard circuses, on and on.......used to catch stray cats for fun! |
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08 Oct 02 - 11:03 PM (#799262) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: khandu My brothers and I made sling-shots and had ferocious battles. Our fun was catching lizards. We would rub their bellies and the lizards would go to sleep. Oops, sometimes we rubbed them longer than we should and the lizard would die from relaxation. (Or, perhaps from being held upside-down for too long!) We were poor and relied on one another for our entertainment rather than a lot of toys and stuff. It was a good childhood!. I miss my brothers. k |
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08 Oct 02 - 11:10 PM (#799268) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Rick Fielding The MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!!?? Oh John, you lucky sod. We grew up on the BAD side of the road. Oh what I would have given to grow up in the MIDDLE....or even CLOSE to the middle of the road...and by the way, it must have been nice in that cardboard box.....we just had a PAPER bag....and it was RE-CYCLED paper at that.....boy were you ever priveleged. Oh, and we got run over by cars and foxes every day. Poor Richard |
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08 Oct 02 - 11:11 PM (#799271) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Lepus Rex I remember sticking a bobby-pin into an electrical outlet. The rest is a blur... Frogs, bike accidents, Kenny Rogers, *shudder* ----Lepus Rex |
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08 Oct 02 - 11:49 PM (#799287) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: catspaw49 A Paper Bag? What luxury!!! Hell we lived in a half of a rolled up newspaper in a sewer, all 27 of us! Had to get up at 5:00 AM to go to the mines and work a 26 hour day,9 days a week, for for a take home wage of 18 cents.....a month! When we got home we'd have to sweep the newsprint and do schoolwork til the cows came home and shit on the newspaper which forced us all to get up and have breakfast before going back to the mine. Next......... Spaw |
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09 Oct 02 - 12:11 AM (#799297) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Jeri Spaw, you had a NEWSPAPER??!! We had a discarded gum wrapper that had landed in our ditch. Wouldn't have been too bad except there was a hunk of used gum in it and our family's pet fly kept getting stuck. Ah, how I miss ol' Stumpy. Creepy Crawlers made out of Plastigoop and trolls (the first-run trolls, not the remake whatever-they-were-called ones.) Since John of Hull mentioned cardboard boxes: one Christmas, my parents didn't have enough money to buy presents and I was too young (maybe around 3 years old?) to be influenced by monetary value or social acceptabilty of Stuff. They got a whole bunch of different sized boxes - real big refrigerator boxes and smaller ones. I had a ball with them, and I actually remember that Christmas. |
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09 Oct 02 - 12:14 AM (#799300) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Spaw, 27 of you? There were 106 of us in our cardboard box, 'n' our dad used to slice us in half with an axe. Breakfast? we had to survive on a handful of sawdust a week, and that was to feed 106 of us .But, if you try to tell todays kids that, they wouldn't believe you! |
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09 Oct 02 - 12:56 AM (#799325) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Kaleea The big excitement for me was when there was video of a Barbie commercial being shown on TV & the audio was the well known commercial for G. I. JOE! I'll never forget Barbie meeting up with Ken to the lyrics of "...got one joe, get some more!" We laughed for a long time over that one! Then there was the Christmas when Daddy was laid up, we had the hand-me-down Christmas tree from our next door neighbors who left our lovely Denver cul-de-sac & went "back home" to Nebraska. I didn't understand why the tree was all white, & there were only shiny blue ornaments--all exactly the same--on the tree. That year, all of our presents were either from green stamps, or from relatives. I got an E-Z Bake Oven, but my brothers complained because the goodies were too little--I had already been baking cookies & cakes, & since my mother had to work, I cooked the evening meal for our family at the ripe old age of 7 years old. No matter what toys we got, or how many, we always ended up playing in all the boxes which they came in. Maybe "John from Hull" found one of the boxes we tossed & used it for his home. Nice to know that we could help! |
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09 Oct 02 - 09:18 AM (#799392) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: GUEST Hours of hockey on outdoor ponds, baseball on Radio, trout fishing, swimming in the nude, and home made ketchup. |
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09 Oct 02 - 11:25 AM (#799498) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Trevor John, I bet your sawdust was dry... |
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09 Oct 02 - 11:43 AM (#799516) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Kim C I remember when "Jane you ignorant slut" was scandalous talk on television. |
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09 Oct 02 - 07:06 PM (#799878) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Liz the Squeak being able to walk down to the river without worrying that my parents would worry. LTS |
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09 Oct 02 - 07:19 PM (#799889) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Leadfingers Television??? I must admit I Can remember next door but one got a 9 inch T V in time for the coronation King George looked great-or was it Liz ? And collecting the numbers off STEAM Trains |
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09 Oct 02 - 07:28 PM (#799896) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Sorcha I have so many good memories, it's hard to choose. One of my faves is actually not childhood, but early marriage. I went to spend a weekend with Mr.'s grandmother; neat, neat lady. We stayed up until the wee hours making elder-berry jelly. First time I had ever made jelly of any kind. I think it was after midnight when we finally finished. She is 98 now, in a care home 800 miles from here with no memory. I miss her a lot. |
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09 Oct 02 - 07:28 PM (#799897) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: wilco Cardboard boces, paper bagc, cadisct, jobc, minec. Prifileged life u led. I co poor coold'n afford all of he ledders in the alphabed. I hab no idea had come afder R/r. Premendouc affecd on mi cpelling abilide. ilco in OSA |
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10 Oct 02 - 02:13 PM (#800500) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Les from Hull It am S Eber helpfil, me! |
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10 Oct 02 - 02:32 PM (#800506) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: MairSea What a wonderful thread. I remember a lot of the above but we had a wonderful cupboard in parent's room full of treaseures - crystal radio sets - needing mended but dad always said 'Leave it alone - I'll fix it!'. One of those magical 'things' in there was a wind-up record player that played 78's! It had a horn and no volume control save two doors at the front! Great fun on a wet day in the city! No fun on those days in cardboard boxes or newspapers etc eh? The Beano, Dandy and the Topper used to give away those noisy cardboard - gosh I nearly had the name for them there! Best times were though when mum sang to us. |
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10 Oct 02 - 02:34 PM (#800508) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Ivan I remember a playground song from when I was about six or seven years old which began "The German officers crossed the line" but it is way too filthy and mysogynistic to repeat here. A slightly more wholesome memory is listening to Dan Dare Pilot of the Future on Radio Luxembourg. I wonder if the disks it was recoreded on still exist. |
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10 Oct 02 - 03:55 PM (#800568) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Jerry Rasmussen Hi, C... a chance for me to contribute to one of your threads. The names of the toys may have been different on the other side of the pond, but messing around was, is and always will be messing around. I remember making rafts out of discarded lumber and playing Huck Fin at an abandoned gravel pit just outside of town. We then played battleship (or destory the other's hastily tied together raft. Great fun, until the rafts came completely apart and none of us could swim. Our arms were windmilling so fast, I'm surprised we didn't skip across the water.. Jerry |
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10 Oct 02 - 04:00 PM (#800573) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: GUEST and to yez all who grew up in boxes, bags, paper and string in various locations of the roadway, I'm reminded of Flann O'Brian's 'The Poor Mouth' which if yez haven't read you should run out and get, if yez can run after such a hard time as children, '...the likes of which will not be seen again...' |
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10 Oct 02 - 04:01 PM (#800574) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Amos One thing I remember well is the great mystery of what adults were actually doing! I would watch the occasional headlights sweep the bedroom window late at night, listening to that singing sound the old fat-tired Hudsons and Chevrolets would make chugging up the country road, and just be mystified as to who could possibly be in those cars, going where and doing what? The gatherings of adults were equally unintelligible -- they would say things that made each other heehaw with laughter, helped along with the mystic ritual of drink, and just be totally inexplicable. The idea of standing around in a room heehawing back and forth for hours just escaped me! :>) A |
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10 Oct 02 - 07:00 PM (#800696) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Gareth AaaaaH ! Leadfingers. Hours spent at at Cardiff General, Gloucester Central, and Faversham. Ian Allen Notebooks at the ready. Oh the sounds and the smells. And to think that I was thrilled at the sight of a Brand New Geen Desiel. Thought - In York Railway Museam (UK) D8000 is there Stuffed and mounted and with her side cut away. I've dug an old Ian Allen book out from the 60's D8000 seen 1964, carridge shunting at Euston ! God it makes you feel very, very old. Gareth For non UK and non anoraks. Ian Allen note books. Cheap pocket directories of British Locamotives, descriptions, names and numbers, and shed allocations, you ticked them off when you saw them !!!! |
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10 Oct 02 - 07:31 PM (#800715) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Leadfingers I lived in Birmingham just off the main London line from Snow Hill, the old GWR-(Gods Wonderful Railway)and the cry would go up'A double on the main' ie BOTH signal arms dropped to indicate an express on the main line.Please let it be a King (a 6000 starting number) The GWR king class were the top locos in those days.Before British Rail and boring old Diesel engines. |
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10 Oct 02 - 07:38 PM (#800721) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Sorcha It's the smells more than anything that take you back. And it was a long time ago!! |
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10 Oct 02 - 07:38 PM (#800722) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Gareth Ah STEAM, REAL ALE & FOLK MUSIC. My defenition of heaven - Well throw in SAIL as well !! Gareth |
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10 Oct 02 - 07:51 PM (#800731) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: toadfrog We had a wind-up phonograph too. And the records that came with it. Like Oh, Miss Hanna, with Dinah on the flip side,, by the Revellers. Tenting Tonight, and a whole slew of Souza marches. All on 78's, of course, with the inimitable 78 sound. My mom sang all kinds of songs, unfortunately not certifiable folk songs, but hymns (scadalizing my grandma) and popular songs from her childhood, and her mother's childhood (like I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard and even her mother's childhood, like . How many Mudcatters remember The Revellers? |
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10 Oct 02 - 08:28 PM (#800741) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Sorcha (never heard of them but we had Julie London--no wind up phonograph though) Sorcha, born in 51 |
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10 Oct 02 - 08:31 PM (#800742) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Thomas the Rhymer Toy guns... I couldn't have em 'cause the parents were right about the signals... but all my friends had 'em and we faught wars... epic wars. Lotsa sound effects, we made'em up, and some of the toys made noises... which sounded 'hokey', but it made them feel more real! GI Joe was a mighty serious dude... and he had almost as much apparel and 'gear' as Barbie... Spirograph! Many pens went by the wayside for those beautiful products of gears and holes... Oh, and Fred Argobast lures... for Bass! Stingray bicycles, that needed rewelding 'cause we jumped 'em so high... Hot Wheels, Erector sets, forts, and the cardboard (especially the waxed kind) was used by us kids in the late summer to side at high speed down the grassy hills nearby... Darts, Monty Python, Microscopes, Card games... war, crazy eights, canasta, hearts, and later bridge... 52 pickup... tonka sandloader! Elden slot cars... endless hours of Elden slot cars... always wishing I could someday get 'aurora' slot cars... But the legions of pets were the most entertaining of all!!! It was thier interactions amoungst themselves that so often made us roar with laughter! ttr |
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10 Oct 02 - 08:40 PM (#800751) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Leadfingers Only the rich kids had REAL toy guns,most of us managed with bits of privet stick that was more or less the right shape. |
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10 Oct 02 - 08:48 PM (#800755) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Mr Red Troach, Old Joes and Pontefract Cakes & Sherbert Dabs. Sweets Tizer and "Dandelion & Burdoch" fizzy drinks. probably unique to UK , and traoch & Old Joes were pretty unique to the Black Country. You can still get Traoch if you know where to go - the flavour is "paragoric" not aniseed - whatever they tell you. Teddy Gray says so that's who - or his decendants anyway who still make the sweets. |
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10 Oct 02 - 10:25 PM (#800793) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Jerry Rasmussen During the second World War, they made a lot of toys out of pressed sawdust, instead of metal. This was before plastics were common. You could buy a pressed sawdust army 45 at the dime store for cheap, but they chipped, and after you played with them awhile, you could see the sawdust. They made dolls heads out of pressed sawdust, too... for the gurl types (I notice this is mostly guys in this thread.) The problem with pressed sawdust was that if it got wet, it expanded exponentially. Leave your army 45 out in the rain and it became this ugly, misshapen chunk of oatmeal. Leave your doll out in the rain, and it became Stephen King's worst nightmare. I'm surprised he hasn't written a book about it yet. Jerry |
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10 Oct 02 - 11:54 PM (#800840) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: khandu Sorcha, how right you are about the smells! When I was in the first grade in Zama, MS, (a one-store town) our school bus would stop at the store in the afternoons. The store had the most wonderful aroma inside. Thirty years later, I went back to Zama to revisit my childhood. The store was still there, and when I went in, and it still had the same smell! There were more memories in that smell than in any of the old sights I had seen! khandu |
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11 Oct 02 - 07:18 AM (#800948) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Jerry Rasmussen I grew up in a small town on the Rock River in southern Wisconsin. The river had a distinctive smell... mix dead carp with algae, and you'd get close. I had been gone from home for about ten years, and the first night back, I walked downtown to see the old place. About a block from the river, I could smell it. I swear that if I was a thousand miles away and someone gave me twenty different bottles of river water to smell, I could identify my home town river with ease. Jerry |
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11 Oct 02 - 08:03 AM (#800956) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Gareth Jerry - Salmon can do that too ! Gareth |
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11 Oct 02 - 09:35 AM (#801009) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Jerry Rasmussen Good to hear, Gareth, but at least Salmon tastes good. Carp are the fish they sell as gold fish (although most carp are not gold.) Most people won't eat carp... even the guys who fish for them. They're kinda like river pigs (the fish.) Someone gave me a good recipe for carp, though. You season the carp, and bake it slowly on a board. When the carp is done to a golden brown, you take it out of the oven, throw it in the garbage and eat the board. Jerry |
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11 Oct 02 - 11:02 AM (#801105) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Gareth No Jerry - Salmon can detect the smell of thier home river many miles away, in Mid Ocean. Gareth :-) |
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11 Oct 02 - 12:05 PM (#801152) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Jerry Rasmussen But, I bet that if they were lying dead in the shallows, they'd smell just like less-romantic, but dead fish... :-) Jerry |
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11 Oct 02 - 05:39 PM (#801380) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: C-flat The smell of spent "caps", as used in cap guns brings back vivid memories for me. We used to buy them on a roll, little dots of gunpowder on pale blue paper. They were made to fit into a toy gun and you could fire off a whole roll, tearing off the spent ones as you went. We often used to make our own "bangers" using two bolts threaded into each side of one nut, the middle of the nut packed with caps. We would throw them into the air and they would BANG on impact. And speaking of smells, "Stink Bombs" were always popular. I'm sure they must still be around but, fortunately, I haven't noticed them. In the days when public transport in the U.K. was actually popular, we would wait for the queue to build up at the bus stand and then, walking innocently past, one of us would stop to tie an imaginary lace while dropping a couple of "stinkies". Despite the awful smell, no-one would want to give up their place in the queue, so there they all stood, paragons of British stoicism, with handkerchiefs over their faces. I'm so glad I have a daughter. Girls are much nicer than boys. |
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12 Oct 02 - 10:35 AM (#801720) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Bullfrog Jones Saturday morning pictures (The Alhambra on the Moseley Road in Birmingham), sixpence downstairs and ninepence upstairs (where you were able to lob your empty ice cream tubs onto unsuspecting heads below). ABC Minors club badges (I've still got mine), hula hoop and yo-yo competitions up on the stage, then coming out into (always) blinding sunlight and recreating the films on the way home. Here's a song I wrote not long ago, inspired by those memories (sorry about the caps -- it's the way I write 'em): FLASH GORDON SAVED THE UNIVERSE FROM CERTAIN DEATH OR EVEN WORSE AT LEAST A DOZEN TIMES THAT I RECALL AND BATMAN OFTEN NEARLY DIED THROUGH DRIVING OFF SOME MOUNTAINSIDE BUT ALWAYS JUST ESCAPED THAT FATAL FALL AND WE WOULD SHOUT IN DISBELIEF OR HEAVE A HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF AS THE CAVALRY CAME CHARGING DOWN THE HILL AND TARZAN SWUNG FROM TREE TO TREE TO RESCUE JANE AND SET HER FREE AS THE ALLIGATORS CLOSED IN FOR THE KILL SATURDAY MORNING MAGIC, FLICKERING ON A SILVER SCREEN WHEN WE STILL KNEW WRONG FROM RIGHT WHEN EVERYTHING WAS BLACK AND WHITE AND WE COULD ALL BE HEROES IN OUR CELLULOID DREAMS CHARLIE CHAN WAS ON THE RUN TO TRY TO SAVE SON NUMBER ONE BEFORE THE TRAIN COULD SEND HIM OFF THE RAILS ROY ROGERS SANG AND KISSED HIS HORSE AND CAUGHT THE BAD MEN TOO OF COURSE DALE EVANS WAVED AND WARBLED 'HAPPY TRAILS' WE LAUGHED AT CHAPLIN'S FUNNY WALK AND WONDERED WHY HE COULDN'T TALK WE HAD TO READ HIS WORDS BETWEEN THE SCENES WE CHEERED THE GOODIES AND BOOED THE BAD BUT WE NEVER CRIED WHEN THINGS WERE SAD WE USUALLY THREW OUR ICE CREAMS AT THE SCREENS SATURDAY MORNING MAGIC, FLICKERING ON A SILVER SCREEN WHEN WE STILL KNEW WRONG FROM RIGHT WHEN EVERYTHING WAS BLACK AND WHITE AND WE COULD ALL BE HEROES IN OUR CELLULOID DREAMS NOW THE ODEON'S A BINGO HALL THE ALHAMBRA ISN'T THERE AT ALL THE ROXY'S SHOWING ADULT FILMS TODAY SO NOW THE KIDS ALL WATCH TV WITH VIDEO GAMES TO SET THEM FREE THE SATURDAY MORNING MAGIC WENT AWAY PERHAPS THE GHOST OF MICKEY MOUSE HAUNTS THE LOCAL PICTURE HOUSE AND WONDERS WHY THE MINORS DON'T RETURN AND MAYBE LASSIE SHEDS A TEAR AND SADLY THINKS OF BETTER YEARS DAYS WHEN THERE WERE STILL NEW TRICKS TO LEARN SATURDAY MORNING MAGIC, FLICKERING ON A SILVER SCREEN WHEN WE STILL KNEW WRONG FROM RIGHT WHEN EVERYTHING WAS BLACK AND WHITE AND WE COULD ALL BE HEROES IN OUR CELLULOID DREAMS |
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12 Oct 02 - 12:31 PM (#801773) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: C-flat I really like that Bullfrog! Is there anywhere/way of getting the melody? I was also an ABC minor, remember the song? I recall the tune but I can only remember the last couple of lines; "We're all pals together, We're minors of the ABC" and another line "and every Saturday we line up" It was common practice to allow any child who's birthday it was to come forward on to the stage while the rest sang Happy Birthday. Then the compare or cinema manager, who always seemed to be a large, silver haired, frustrated thespian type would go along the line, holding a microphone, while the Birthday boys and girls said thankyou; "Thankyou very much, minors" "thankyou very much minors" "THANKYOU VERY MUCH MINORS" and on it went down the line. As you say, after the show, which was usually two feature films plus fillers long, we all poured out into the daylight riding imaginary horses and shooting with our fingers! It's so long since I thought about that, Bullfrog, that I'd just like to say; "Thank-you very much, minor!" |
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12 Oct 02 - 12:52 PM (#801787) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Jerry Rasmussen Good song, Bullfrog! I wrote a song from very similar memories. We had an old movie theater in town called The Hitching Post, that showed double feature "B" westerns, with a serial every week... Nyoka, Queen of The Jungle, Gangbusters and all the others you mentioned. The Hitching Post had been a vaudeville theater, and it had a very low balcony. When you walked in front of the projector, the silhouette of your head (or other body parts) was projected onto the screen, with a roar of insults and catcalls.. We would bring our cap guns, and when there was a shoot out, all the kids fired their cap guns. When the smoke cleared on screen, it still hung low in the air in the theater.. THE HITCHING POST Bob, you take the left side, and I'll take the right My gun is ready-loaded and I'm itching to fight There'll be a few less hombres going to live to see tonight When we get down to the Hitching Post Better load up your guns and tie your holsters down Round up all the boys, we're heading in to town And the first man that moves, we're going to cut him down When we get down to the Hitching Post We'll meet Hoppalong Cassidy and Lash LaRue Roy and Gabby said that they would be there, too And when we get together, nothing we can't do When we get down to the Hitching Post With our cap guns blazing, it gets hard to hear But when the shootings over and the smoke has cleared We'll have Jordan Almonds and a cold root beer When we get down to the Hitching Post When we're back at the bunkhouse and the battle is done We'll all be swapping stories, how the battle was won And though the fighting gets tough, we've never lost a man When we go down to the Hitching Post When the sun goes down and all the Mothers call You better hang your holster back up on the wall 'Cause you never know when you're going to get the call To go down to the Hitching Post C... some things are the same all over. We used two bolts and a nut for a bomb, too, although we used the head of what we called "Kitchen" matches... the big wooden stick matches. We'd pop the heads off with our thumb nail, and load up the space in the nut, and then screw 'er down tight. Made a Hell of a bang... better than caps, and a lot cheaper... a whole box of Kitchen matches only cost a nickle, so you had a few afternoons of delightfully wasted time in one box. Anyone for mumblety-peg? Jerry |
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13 Oct 02 - 12:28 AM (#802072) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Bert The war was nearly over and us evacuees were returned to our parents. That year Granddad made me a model battleship, it must have been nearly two feet long and the top was built in pieces. The bottom contained a mousetrap which you set before assembling the rest of the ship. When it was finished you fired marbles at a button in the side. If you hit the button it tripped the mousetrap and the ship 'exploded'. And those battles with toy guns. "Lie down dead and count to twenty" If only was was really like that. |
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13 Oct 02 - 07:21 AM (#802155) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Jerry Rasmussen When you were "dead" in a toy gunfight and one of your partners could get to you and touch you, you were brought back to life. Just like Lazarus. Jerry |
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13 Oct 02 - 10:12 AM (#802202) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: C-flat If, during the heat of battle, one of the kids had a problem; his shoe had come off/Mother called him in for dinner/hurt himself, the instant response was to cross your fingers, hold them up in the air and shout "KINGS". This action gave the person immunity from whatever was about to be inflicted on him. To this day I've never understood the significance of the word "KINGS". |
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13 Oct 02 - 10:47 AM (#802210) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Micca C-Flat according to the Opies " Lore and language of School children" that is "Kings Cross" and like "fainites" and other cries and signalled a "truce", quote "kings was used mainly in Eastern England, from Leighton Buzzard to the Tees" earliest record in the "dialect of Northamptonshire" in 1851. |
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14 Oct 02 - 04:19 AM (#802651) Subject: RE: BS: Childhood memories From: Bullfrog Jones We (in Brum) used "barley", which I presume was a corruption of "parley". BJ |