Weird Womble Epiphany

[Wherearemyminions]

The other day I was driving to Solihull and noticed that it was twinned with Cholet. Hmm I thought, like the womble....

Bit later in the day I had this huge lightbulb moment OMG all the wombles have names of places, how did I not know this before??

Then it got more weird, I was in the shower this morning and remembered that Great Uncle Bulgaria names the wombles from an atlas, I clearly recall reading this aged about 6 or 7.

The only explanation I can come up with is that 6/7 year old me had never heard of these places so thought that GU Bulgaria used a special womble atlas with made up place names in

I may be overthinking this....

I thought this might have been another "are Wimbledon real or not thread?"

It wasn't until I was all grown that I wondered where all the baby Wombles in the nursery came from given that there was only one properly grown-up female womble.

oooh I used to love the Womblies, I used to have a huge Orinoco cuddly toy when I was a kid, honestly it was bigger than me (when I was 4 or 5) and I had a womble themed birthday party complete with a Womble cake and Womble iced biscuits once when I was a child (bragging)

I had womble jeans, loved them to bits, had a patch on the pocket with Orinoco on. Was wearing them when I got run over and I remember the anguish of pleading with the ambulance man not to cut them off more than the fact that my femur was broken

@Tobee I remember the "Are Wombles real?" thread too (I am guessing Wimbledon was a typo?)

Are Wombles real www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/a3247697-are-wombles-real#77989446?

It appears that HebeMN must be something of a Womble fan!!

Cholet (in France) is famous for its handkerchiefs. Madame Cholet was often seen using a handkerchief. I knew this, but double-checked with Mr Google just to be sure. At the top of the Wiki page for Cholet the town is this: "This article is about the French town. For Madame Cholet the Womble, see The Wombles"

I was going to say that MacWomble is not a placename, but I have just discovered that his first name was Cairngorm.

I had a Wellington womble, bought on holiday in Dolgellau when I was very small; and a Madame Cholet womble, made by my Mum! I cannot be doing with these more modern wombles like Alderney - I'm a classicist

I confess as well as mishearing the theme song I also thought they were common

Boom! I didn't realise either!
I also used to sing the Wombles of Wimbledon, common are we 😱

@ItsAllGone19

Me too! I thought it was very mean of the song to call the lovely Wombles common

To all the PP who, until they were much older, thought it was "Wombles of Wimbledon, common are we" - so did DH.
He was raised in Croydon.

Lol didn't rtft- realise it was a 'common' mistake 🤣

OP I totally misread your first post and thought you said Solihull rhymed with Cholet. And was thinking I don't remember it been said like that and trying to mangle Cholet to rhyme with Solihull!

But yes, I hadn't clicked they were all place names.

Cholet-hull

I thought Alderney was an original womble, no? There was also Miss Adelaide so M. Cholet wasn't the only female.

I used to live near Wimbledon Common, but I never saw one.

Two things spring to mind
One. Gavin and stacey- the one ball of Wimbledon common
Two- Orinoco sail away sail away sail away
Sorry. Ill leave now.

I watched the Wombles as child, too , and because of this thread I had an earworm all day and was singing at work.

"Umwelt fängt an vor der eigenen Tür,
Wombles sind Wesen, die tun was dafür!
Leise und freundlich und sauber sind sie,
jeder muß wombeln, denn sonst klappt das nie!"

I think I'm always going to call her Madame Cholet-Hull now.

Isn’t the theme tune a play on words? As in, the Wombles live in burrows on Wimbledon Common but there are freakin’ loads of them in them there burrows, so they are also common?

I loved the wombles! I had a cassette tape that I played on a loop! I can still remember the songs now.
"Madame Cholet, don't go away si vous plais. we couldn't survive without you that's no lie. when we wonder home in the evening you'll be there by the kitchen door. we like to say yes please madam Cholet"
I could go on

I met a real live Womble at the bus stop two years ago in Scotland!

I can actually hear Mme Cholet’s voice as I’m reading this thread. How brilliant is Bernard Cribbins? ! Underrated genius imho

I met someone that knew the actor who played Uncle Bulgaria the other day.