A Child Of Our Time

[Enid]

Anyone else watch this last night? Was anyone else left with the feeling that the experiments they do are trivial and random and that they only show the ones that work? I suppose I want it to be a straightforward developmental show (probably selfishly as dd is the same age as the kids on it), but I always find it disappointing.

Oh dear, yes I do. You don't see many cabbages on children's tv these days do you? I bet your worm was fantastic.

PRETTY PEACH!!! I yearned for it! Also, insisted my mum buy Blue Band margarine because of that advert with all the sunkissed people, and remember my complete disappointment when it tasted like sump oil...

Tiny Tears anyone?

Double or drop!
Fandabeedozee.
Oooh I could crush a grape/rip a tissue.
Or are you talking about when double or drop was on the first time round? That was before my time.
And my mum had one of those "hanging chairs". Not the wicker ones that hung from the ceiling, but a metal one that hung from a metal frame. Made millions of dents in the wall when our friends came round to swing on it.

I had Tiny Tears, but I could never make her wet her nappy...don't really know the attraction of changing a wet nappy, but I was always so disappointed that I seemed to have a 'dry' Tiny Tears.

Tiny Tears.Oh yes,woke up on Xmas day to find her next my bed. Aaww now I fell all sentimental to my parents. Also had Sindy in a hip blue thigh length coat, and later Pippa Dolls that I'd play Charlies Angels with! Don't even go there with Starskey and Hutch!!!

Enid glad I'm not the only dodgy Brownie, Ionly got Hostess badge in my whole time there and that was 'cos they made me "every Brownie should know how to make a pot of tea!" My sister arm was stiff with badges, rebelious, me?!

Oh what a lovely nostaglia fest! My dad had a Hillman Imp too, and I remember Crackerjack: "it's Friday, it's five to five so it's Crackerjack..." Our treat was Butterscotch Angel Delight too Enid, I loved it. I can remember the theme tune to Vision On as I type, it sounds like supermarket music, looking back. And I used to read Jackie magazine and Photo Love (wasn't allowed it so used to read my friends copy) and wonder if I ought to buy Anne French to cleanse...

Blimey, when I think about the things our children have these days! I know we all sound like that Kipper sketch ("you were lucky, shoebox on the M4" etc, can't remember who it was, anyone know what I'm talking about?) but we were only allowed the tv occasionally (it was taken away once when we were apparently watching too much), played in the street all the time and had nylon sheets. And I went to brownies 3 times exactly because my stepdad told me I had to to give it a try and then I could give up if I wanted to. So I gave up after 3 times just to prove him wrong since he thought I'd change my mind (I quite liked it actually) I remember not liking the sound of the sponsored silence either.

Pippa Dolls! Had forgotten all about them

Its Friday, Its 5 to 5 and its.....Crackerjack! I remember the cabbage game too. What about John Noakes and Valerie Singleton on Blue Peter not forgetting (get down) Shep the dog. Then on saturdays there was Swap Shop and Why Don't You (switch off your television set and go and do something less boring instead...)

I always used to get a nylon dressing gown for christmas, if I was lucky it would be a ladybird one with the ladybird buttons. Then there were the brushed nylon nighties and nylon underskirts that stuck to your legs. When we eventually got a car it was a Triumph Herald until my grandad wrote it off when he was driving home from the W M Club (drunk) one night.

I used to camp out in my friend's garden during the summer holidays and we always had competitions at night to see who could wee the furthest, disgusting creatures that we were. Our family holidays were always a week in a flat or guest house in Blackpool where we would visit the tower circus and see the Grumbleweeds on the pier.

You could go to the corner shop in those days with 10p and get a bag full of stuff - my favourites were flying saucers and those sweet necklaces that made you neck all sticky, and bazooka joe bubblegum because I used to send off for all the freebies.

I wasn't allowed Jackie, but once I bought a huge bag of them for 2p from the school fete and mum let me keep them. Bliss! Hundreds of articles about how to get a weeks worth of looks from a tweedy blazer, rust polo neck, cap and long scarf.

My dad got so angry with the cost of our phone calls he installed a payphone at home. I nearly died of shame. Oh, yes, does anyone else remember when the fashion spread in Jackie was illustrations? All rust and air-force blue. I had a rust ribbed shirt with an enormous collar and contrast stitching in air-force blue and an air-force blue coat with a big fat belt, and enormous elasticated waistbands on parallel baggy trousers from Chelsea Girl when it had red heart-shaped poufs to sit on and exposed pipe work and bricks painted black. Groovy! Also remember when Miss Selfridge had pizza restaurants I went to with my friend Catherine on Saturdays. I remember doing graphs for maths homework so did a graph on which magazines were most popular and Jackie just walked it.

Oh, and sherbert fountains! If you accidentally breathed while eating one you nearly choked to death. And lollies that cost 11/2p.

WWW - do you mean the 4 Yorkshiremen "You were lucky..." sketch? That was from Monty Python's Flying Circus. I remember being allowed to stay up late to watch that, also The Sweeney. But we only got a TV when I was 10, and I don't remember being allowed to watch any "classic" children's TV at all.

Did anyone have brushed nylon pyjamas or nightie plus the stiff, scratchy nylon sheets? Talk about a spark-fest - especially if you lay on your back with knees together and rubbed your legs up and down the sheets!!

We had a lock put on our phone but discovered that if you pushed down the little black things that the receiver rested on you could make calls anyway. You just pressed once for 1, twice for 2 and so on. Parents were bewildered and wondered why the phone bill didn't go down at all! Dp bought flying saucers yesterday and they were gross!

Space Dust - remember that ?

They give it away with golden nuggets breakfast cereal these days. Your throat and ears would carry on popping long after you swallowed.

Loved Jackie magazine! Especially the photo lurve stories!!

Had a "home grown" phone lock-my Dad waving an egg timer in my face!!

Blue Peter presenters really put you in an era don't they - I was a Simon Groom, Peter Duncan and Sarah Greene/Janet Ellis girl but DH was Valerie Singleton, Peter Purves and John Noakes. He had Petra and Patch, and then Patch, whereas I had Goldie, and Jack and Jill.

Sindy was my favourite, I'm gutted now that she's had plastic surgery and looks like Barbie gone wrong.

And I loved Jackie, I read it in the early 80's and used to copy the New Romantic clothes and make-up. Then J17 came along -what an eye-opener!

Oops - 2nd Patch should be Shep

Musica, I so loved Goldie!

Do you remember when there was an item on Blue Peter about door knockers and Simon Groom said "what a lovely pair of knockers" ?! ROFL.
And when he said "we're hoping to sponsor a blind dog for the Guides"!? He now says he was doing it on purpose.

I love the direction this has taken!We had nylon sheets in pink stripes and orange and purple pillow cases with a frill trim.Yummy!! And my bedroom was decorated in wall paper covered in huge pink flowers that my mum says were cabbage roses. We used to play out all the time too..especially on our bikes.Choppers and then grifters were the ones to have...(i didn't,sob)
My dad recently made me clear all my stuff out of the attic at my parents house and there was a box of old Jackie and Blue Jeans and Patches annuals!!
Full of photo-love stories and fashion features!
One had an article on doing up your room and it recommended filling demi-johns with dried flowers,and placing them on shelves made from a plank of wood and some bricks.I nearly wet myself laughing!!

I remember when Janet Ellis got pregnant, and had to leave the show - because she wasn't married - and I guess the baby was Sophie Ellis Bextor!

What about Playaway? Brian Cant and Toni Athur.

Pipkins........!

Getting crisps for 2 1/2p and 5p back on lemonade bottles at offy door in the pub!