Memory Lane

I went to the the vets this morning . The dogs have caught a bout of field mites. When I was waiting, I fell into conversation with a woman who was grateful for the fact that her kids aged 9 and 10 had finally gone back to school. Everyday she had organised something for them to do. Days out, activity afternoons, picnics, trips to museums, sports afternoons, summer school days.
Every minute she said had been organised .
It's a far trip from my ten year old childhood, where my mother opened the back door in July and let us run riot ( and unsupervised) until September!
Ok we didn't spent every moment skipping in fields..... Every morning was spent watching television in our pyjamas ....but when the summer programmes had finished ( was it around 11am?) out we went to play..... Out on the fields, the beach, the local rubbish tip..... Anywhere and everywhere....
When I was waiting to see the vet
I brainstormed some of those 1970 TV series I loved..
How many can you name?

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65 comments:

  1. If pushed, I could probably name three of them. Ah, Johnny Morris's "Animal Magic"! How bizarre that he put words in the mouths of the animals - it was a right laugh. How mollycoddled children are these days! No freedom to simply run wild. Those were the days my friend.

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  2. Follyfoot and Black Beauty.

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  3. back in the day when I used to watch tv...

    2 - mcmillan and wife (sexist title AND rock was NOT OUT)
    4 - space: 1999
    7 - banana splits (fuck yeah!)
    8 - laurel and hardy
    9 - tom & jerry cartoons
    13 - the high chaparral
    14 - the waltons
    16 - the streets of san francisco (a quinn martin production)
    17 - rhoda

    I have 50%; the other shows must be UK stuff cause I don't recognise the pix.

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  4. I only remember 8, 14, and 15. I must have lived a sheltered life!

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  5. Think I can fill in the rest - The Tomorrow People, White Horses, Follyfoot, The Adventures of Black Beauty, The Snoop Sisters, Mr Benn, Animal Magic, Screentest.

    What - no Belle & Sebastian, Robinson Crusoe or the Double Deckers?

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  6. 1 Tomorrow People
    3 Don't know but White horses theme tune. Loved that.
    4 Space 1999
    5 Follyfoot?
    6 Black Beauty
    7 Banana Splits
    8 Laurel and Hardy
    9 Tom and Jerry
    10 Miss Marple? Not sure
    11 Mr Benn
    14 The Waltons
    15 Animal Magic

    I must have watched a lot of telly? Do you remember Mary, Mungo and Midge and the little girl that had a flower on her pocket and when she touched it little Mo the eskimo appeared? No one remembers that except me!!!


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    1. I remember - it was Bizzie Lizzie! I still have an annual that I got at Christmas in the early 1970s

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    2. *shrieks* I remember, I remember - my favourite!!!
      I didn't know there was an annual tho....the annuals we got were my brother's comics - The Beezer, Beano, Dandy, Topper - I was so deprived *sob*.
      x
      PS Not really, sorry bruvs
      PPS Go back further - "Sarah and Hoppity" (scared the bejesus outta me).
      PPPS HATED Squiddley Diddley and Deputy Dawg

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    3. Thank you so much Scarlet! I have wondered for years if I had imagined it!!!

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  7. i grew up before those shows! we would leave the house first thing in the morning with a sack lunch and go into the woods. we played in the woods all day until dinner and then played on our street until the street lights came on which meant bedtime. there was little childhood obesity in those days.

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  8. Over this past Labour Day weekend they were showing a Waltons marathon.... never any smut like in todays programs.

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  9. Animal Magic and Bonanza - after that, I stopped watching T.V. and ran around outside in my pyjamas.

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  10. I know most of them, most of which have been mentioned but a couple that have not been guessed are ;
    10: The Snoop Sisters and
    12: Land of the Giants.
    Loved, loved loved Mr. Benn ........ I think that was more my son's era when he was very little though. That probably means that I could be your mother John !!!! XXXX

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  11. I only recognised Space 1999 and the Banana Splits. And I spotted Fred the flour sifter - I don't remember a show about him but my mother kept flour in a Fred canister.

    Helen

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  12. My goodness I can't name any of those...I need to brush up on TV!!

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  13. I wasn't allowed to watch TV in the daytime.
    "Bout" of field mites...is that the collective noun?!
    Jane x

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  14. The only TV show I remember in the 70's was Sesame Street....in the student's union building at university!!

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  15. 1, The Tomorrow People
    2. Macmillan and Wife
    3. White Horse
    4. Space 1999
    5. Follyfoot
    6. Black Beauty
    7. Banana Splits
    8. Laurel and HArdy
    9. Tom and Jerry
    10. Miss Marple?
    11. Mr Benn
    12. ?
    13. ?
    14. The Waltons
    15. Animal Magic
    16. Streets of San Francisco
    17. ?
    18. ?

    Born in 69 and allowed to play out til dark from around the age of 7. We used to go to the local recreation ground and take bikes out over the fields to the next village where the pub would serve us pop and crisps from the 'outdoor' hatch. No mobile phones to check in with every half and hour. That was life

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  16. Anonymous1:07 pm

    I didn't watch any of those. My faves:

    All in the Family
    Happy Days
    The Partridge Family
    The Brady Bunch
    Little House on the Prairie

    Born in 65

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    1. show off "Look at me. I'm so young."

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  17. Number 3 is Belle and Sebastian, it was all sub titled but I liked it much better than Follyfoot, where dopy Dora was always crying in a stable somewhere.
    Yes we would just run off, pretending to ride horses, or with a neighbours dog Chloe, who bore an uncanny resemblance to my dog Roobarb.

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  18. I know the American ones and loved The Walton's.

    Summer time for me and even for my kids was about being outside having adventures and enjoying childhood. Things have changed so much over the last decade because of fear of everything, and I don't think we will ever return to that world of innocence.

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  19. I'd have hated being organised like that.

    Is 18 John Craven's Newsround? I'm rubbish at face recognition. When my daughter went to Australia for a year at the age of 20, I was quite worried that I might not recognise her when she got back.

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  20. Last one is screen test I think

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  21. Oh, and looking back through the others that haven't been guessed - 12 is Land of the Giants.

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  22. The Waltons is still a great show.
    Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, John.

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  23. 1. The Tomorrow People
    2. Rock Hudson & Susan st James in McMillan and Wife
    3. The Yugoslav dubbed horse opera WHITE HORSES
    4. Space 1999 ( I always fancied the Aussie Nick Tate)
    5. FOLLYFOOT ( an animal rights soap)
    6. BLACK BEAUTY
    7. BANANA SPLITS
    8. Laurel & Hardy( it was always shown on holiday weekday mornings)
    9. Mammy in the 1940s TOM &JERRY
    10 THE SNOOP SISTERS
    11 MR BEN
    12 LAND OF THE GIANTS
    13 THE HIGH CHAPERAL
    14 THE WALTONS ( on Monday evenings)
    15 Jonney Morris ANIMAL MAGIC
    16 THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO
    17 RHODA
    18 SCREEN TEST with Michael Rodd

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    1. ah yes, White horses! I loved the theme music.

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  24. Most of these are much too 'new' for me to remember - though #8 is immortal and priceless.

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  25. Oh no! I was just going to give you my guesses and, bam, there's the answers! Oh well, I only recognized Laurel and Hardy, The Waltons and Rhoda... although I do remember watching Streets of San Francisco (Michael Whatsisname was HOT) and McMillan and Wife... both of them look so different than I remember.

    Funny how a lot of shows are so country-focused. I grew up watching The Friendly Giant, Chez Helene and Mr. Dress-up -- shows I'm sure you've never heard of but were HUGE in Canada! We also watched the American series Flintstones, Bugs Bunny, Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family.

    Cool post!

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  26. How about The Double Deckers ? I did pretty much what you did back then John !

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  27. Two of my top favorite shows - High Chaparral and The Waltons (Blue Boy, sigh! John Boy, not so much). I had a similar childhood in the US- just making sure we were home by dinner.

    Thanks John!

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  28. I don't know most of those, except for Laurel and Hardy. Most of the time we didn't own a TV when I was a kid. My own children preferred to run out and play with their friends, as soon as I would let them. (Nobody likes somebody showing up at seven in the morning.) My youngest son watched educational TV for a while, and then his bike, tire swing, or other things outside called to him. Once we got a computer, though that was over. LOL!

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  29. I recognized 6, but couldn't remember the names of 3 of them!!! Ahhh, lost memories. I grew up in an old subdivision with very little traffic - lot of kids around. We played in the street, ran down to the river, rode our bikes all over the place. At lunchtime Mom let my sister and me eat on "TV trays" so we could watch The Bigtop - a circus show sponsored by Sealtest ice cream. Also watched Howdy Doody at a very early age. Structured summers? No way, except for a week or 2 at Girl Scout or 4-H camp.

    Nancy in Iowa

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    1. Actually, the Bigtop (Big Top?) was on Saturdays, and don't remember if we watched anything during the day the rest of the week.

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  30. How much fun, I love these guessing games.
    I knew all the American shows and somehow I saw Space 1999, so exciting.
    We had great summers. Every morning we had chores that we had to finish. Help out with the yard, we learned to cook, helped with the laundry. We walked to the library, took the bus shopping and just played. It was so much fun even helping out around the house. The Ice Cream truck would come ! We sometimes even stayed up later than usual bedtime... woohoo.

    cheers, parsnip

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  31. I was a kid in the 50's when daytime TV hours were limited anyway. Once chores were done, the day was spent outside during the summer. Picnics under a blanket "tent", berry picking, hula hooping and hiking up the Pike. In the 60's I was a teenager and too cool to play with the kids, joined the WRAC in 65 (no TV) and went overseas. Married in 70 and came to the States. So basically hardly watched summer TV until the 70's. Then I became addicted to soap operas! I still was able to pick out 5 on your list.

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  32. I wouldn't have known any as we weren't allowed tv .
    I don't know if it's a sign of the times or a difference in parenting attitudes . . . My kids were (and are still) allowed out all day during the summer hols in fields/woods/town. They, along with others, go fishing and take a tent to sleep out, they swim in lakes and do all the stuff we did (except they cant play on the tip, like we used to, Health and Safety!)

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  33. None of them thank Goddess as we didn't have TV, in those days we made our own fun. Like Knock Ginger (knocking on doors & running away), making bows and arrows and home made fireworks all good clean fun!

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  34. I got them all (!) But then we arethe same age, John :)

    I used to be out all day, riding , on my bike with friends, swimming or just "hanging around" - none of this organised stuff, then.

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  35. The Tomorrow People,, one of my faves. And I used to go out to the park, and across the road to the other estate,,, and not go home till I was hungry,, or heard my Mum calling us in from the balcony. Lived on the 3rd floor,,and her voice was loud.

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  36. Here's the deal, John. My own kids were out the door and home when the street lights came on, too, back in the seventies. I expected something near the same when I put my grand kids out the door this summer. Guess what. In spite of a 320 home new housing development, completely occupied with children who ride the school bus with my grandchildren, NO ONE COMES OUT TO PLAY! They ride their bikes through miles of streets with children presumable indoors with game boys, or off at some organized outing.

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  37. omg this is my childhood!the tomorrow people-I was completely in love with mike Holloway!thanks for the memories x

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  38. Laurel and Hardy, Tom and Jerry, The Waltons are all I can recognize but then we didn't as many programs in SA as you did in the UK. I think you had more carefree and happier childhood holidays than those children of the mom you met in the vet! Have a great weekend, John. Greetings, Jo

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  39. I've obviously watched way too much tv....there was only one I didn't get! and I love Rhoda so so much.

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  40. I remember several of the American ones; others, I just recognize the faces; and others ring no bells.

    Our niece has three kids (3 to 9) and she books every minute. She's great and so are the kids, but they have no idea how to entertain themselves. Not a good thing.

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  41. Anonymous5:40 pm

    Same here John...get dressed, eat breakfast and get outside. Of course, TV didn't come on until almonst noon back in my day so no time was wasted sitting in front of the small screen. I was an only child but I had seven acres of fun all around me...bush areas, swampy areas, fields of market garden, sheds, animals....kids today are missing so much.

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  42. American born and raised so some shows the same others not.
    I was outside until it got dark and I would sometimes rewind my watch back to try and get more time LOL
    I do not understand all this ridiculous need for scheduling this last decade. Now that I have a toddler, it amazes me how people have brought the way an office or company runs into their homes lives. I think it just downright sucks. Whatever happened to just "playing"? Kids AND adults??

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  43. The Waltons! I also recognized the one with Rock Hudson and Susan St. James, but I can't remember the title and refuse to cheat by looking at other people's responses. Having everything planned just sucks. Those kids will never know how to entertain themselves.

    Love,
    Janie

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  44. I had totally forgotten the Tomorrow People!! And White Horses....Dear me......

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  45. I noticed Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. In Germany the show was actually called 'Dick und Doof' (The fat one and the stupid one). Being politically correct was a term unknown back then.

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    1. The black maid in tomand jerrywould be a no no too

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  46. Talking of TV shows-i saw this today and thought of you.
    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reading-between-the-headlines/201309/the-walking-dead-is-now-college-course

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    1. I would get a degree in one semester

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  47. Anonymous8:51 pm

    I'm surprised. I thought I would have known more than Laurel and Hardy and Streets of San Fran. Maybe one near the end is The Waltons.

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  48. Ah, man, I loved Space: 1999, even if it was the dumbest premise for a TV show. I haven't watched it since I was a kid, I'm kinda hesitant to revisit old shows since seeing Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Battlestar Galactica recently...let's just say they didn't hold up so well.

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  49. enjoy your peaceful weekend.

    :0)

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  50. I um....well....hey, what do you expect from me? I immerse myself in reruns of Criminal Minds and House. And since my memory sucks.......

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  51. I only remember Michael Rodd from his time as a regional reporter for Tyne Tees Television, back in the early 60s, it must have been. I gather he did other things afterwards but I never saw them.

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  52. Oh, The High Chaparral - what a motley crew they were! I always wondered why a beautiful young Mexican woman would marry an old grouch that the Father was!lolI went to pick up my Grandaughter from school for the first time the other day and had to wait in the playground along with the other folk arriving to pick up their children. The school bell rang and her class came out, lined up and waited for their teacher to invidividually 'release' them when she was satisfied that the respective parent/grandparent/childminder was in attendance. A sad indictment on our society today perhaps but also a comfort at the same time. Danger has always been all around, even in the hazy days of summer that you mention - it just wasn't as widely publicised as it is now - and in some cases, was 'taken care of' (in the town where I grew up anyway) before it got completely out of hand. Guarding our childrens'/grandchildrens' lives should never be looked at as a 'chore' and the lady you mentioned at the beginning of your post probably enjoyed every minute that she spent with her children over the school holidays.

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    1. I always liked blue boy with his lovely blue eyes

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  53. Anonymous6:08 pm

    Err..Mr Ben and Johnny Morris is all I knew.

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  54. Yay....Banana Splits, I always wanted to be in a gang that had a bus after watching that show. The nearest we got was making a den in a sinking boat on the canal, I couldn't swim so didn't tell my Mum what I'd been up too.

    But there was little organised entertainment in our day, you watched a bit of tele, which inspired you to get up to adventures for the rest of the day and made sure you were back in time for tea :-)

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  55. Well, I got the Streets of San Francisco, and Rhoda!

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