I bought an original paperback copy of Watership Down yesterday from a seller on ebay.
The seller described the book as a " blast from the past" and remined prospective buyers of it's wonderful original 1970s cover illustration.
I remembered the cover very well, the paperback was one of my most treasured possessions as a child, and the whole thing triggered a sort of mental game of collecting visuals from a ten year old's memory.
Dickie Davies introducing wrestling at 4pm Saturday Afternoons
speaks for itself
Food and drink of the 70s
Adventure Novels
Walls waifers
Prestatyn High Street
Jennifer Jones
Crowded Prestatyn Beach ( deserted now)
1970 caravan holidays ( gawd help us)
Tv 's " Magpie
Lead and plastic toy farm animals
Call me sheltered, but I lived through the entire decade of the 70s without ever knowing anyone who drank Head and Shoulders.
ReplyDeleteLMAO was timotei 80's? god I wanted blonde hair... and to look like a goddess.
DeleteTimotei started in the 70s, I remember the ads. along with the Flake lady in the boat, the apple shampoo ad and Norska- so many dippy looking females flicking their hair about!
DeleteOh yes remember many of these...how about the beer shampoo in little barrel shaped bottles ?
ReplyDeleteIt's called 'Linco-beer' and is still available now, but sadly not in lovely little yellow plastic barrels!
DeleteWhy yes it is
DeleteLegaleagle , just googled it, I`m amazed its still around !
This is a very British posting, John. Your International followers will wonder about most of them !
ReplyDeleteI can remember the original Smith's Crisps, way back, with the original blue twist of salt - usually damp ! Bet Weaver and Cro can too !
Did you hear the R4 play on the creation of the Watership Down film soundtrack yesterday?
ReplyDeleteSaturday mornings were spent watching Multicoloured Swap Shop followed by World of Sport. It was also comic day when we got Whizzer and Chips and Cor! and we had French bread pizzas for lunch.
ReplyDeleteI remember French bread pizzas for lunch! They were frozen weren't they? Do you remember Birdseye Mousse? I used to have the orange and lemon one with a Melba type sauce in the bottom! :-)
DeleteAhhhh.....Bird's Eye Mousse! More e numbers than you could shake a stick at, but I could eat ten straight off.....strawberry of course.
DeleteSaturday afternoons, from 4-00, watching the wrestling, hating Jackie Pallo, laughing at Les Kellett, loving tag matches with the Royle brothers, and knowing Kent Walton's voice SO well! Oh, and always wanting someone to tear Kendo Nagasaki's mask off so we'd find out who he was!
ReplyDeleteThen from 5-00, not being allowed to make a sound or walk in front of the TV while dad checked the results for the pools coupon...did we win? Never!
'Nice' kids watched Blue Peter, those of us who liked to live 'dangerously' were Magpie fans!
I even remember crisps only being available in 'plain' with the twisted blue paper of salt, flavoured crisps hadn't been invented!
And never forget, 'Things happen after a Badedas bath'!
Oh crikey, this could have been me writing every bit of that. I remember my dad checking the pools and we daren't squeek.
DeleteAnd me :(
DeleteIt was my mum checking them here... does anyone remember "spot the ball"?
DeleteJo in Auckland, NZ
Bell-bottoms and low rise jeans, guys with very long hair, 35-mm SLR cameras, the first LCD watches - the ones with the red numbers that only lit up if you pressed the button, Jack-Daniels Tennessee Whiskey - I took my grandmother to the distillery . . . strong memories of the 1970's.
ReplyDeletethey still sell salt and shake crisps. they were a rare treat werent they. The little dark blue sachet that in the 80's I wasnt allowed to open only an adult to shake the salty goodness into the bag. and only ever half the sachet. wow really is a blast from the past.
ReplyDeleteDISCO MUSIC! my first apartment. graduation from university. birth control pills.
ReplyDeleteI used to love plastic toy farm animals! I also recall the game Magic Robot, Fuzzy Felt, chocolate cigarettes, Spanish tobacco and a bottle of Cresta (its frothy man) to go with a bag of chips after Saturday swimming at the local baths!
ReplyDeleteCresta......horrible, and yet nice!
DeleteCresta wow! it used to coat your mouth in a strange toxic froth- loved it!
DeleteA lovely trip down memory lane for you John.
ReplyDeleteSpangles, John Noakes and Lesley Judd on Blue Peter, jacked up Ford Capris with leopardskin seat covers and fluffy dice, and ghastly '70's curtains. Oh, and mum & dad always had Babycham and a bottle of Advocaat in the drinks cupboard - what the hell was that stuff?
ReplyDeleteand don't forget 'the great smell of Brut'...... bleurgh
DeleteI loved Jennifer Jones as Emma Bovary and in Duel in the Sun (and Love is a Many Splendored Thing too) and I did work in the department that sold those animals in a famous Sheffield store in the 1970s - but for the rest, I'd swear we were inhabiting different universes.
ReplyDeleteYour childhood looked very much like mine (except Prestatyn would be replaced by Tenby! xxx
ReplyDeleteI just spotted the Hai Karate, that was truly a dreadful smell! X
ReplyDeleteIt was the age of the color orange. Oh, how I hate that color, but I did wear it in the 70s and even bought orange furniture. I was glad for the 80s when the cat scratched it to shreds and it needed to be replaced.
ReplyDeleteOrange and avocado green. Jesus. Why?
ReplyDeleteI adore "Watership Down" -- it's one of the few books I could not put down the first time I read it. I stayed up all night to read it. I was in university at the time so I had that kind of time in those days, LOL!
ReplyDeleteThose shelves look just like my current larder - except that Jim never fixed it for me.
ReplyDeleteI don't share any of these childhood memories (too old and too American), except that is for Jennifer Jones. She was, however, a hell of a lot younger in my memories!
ReplyDeleteAnd who could possibly forget Mary Whitehouse and her endless crusade against sex and violence and all those horrid unpleasant things that apparently were corrupting us all at a rate of knots.
ReplyDeleteNow there's a thought - if Mary Whitehouse was alive today, she'd probably be accused of political correctness....
The one 70s story I hated..lol
ReplyDeleteSalt n Shake crisps were somehow a treat. I remember it all John, and puzzle as to why none of it is still around. That is apart from the Head and Shoulders, which is thankfully still bland and toxic smelling....but effective.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted to watch Magpie, was only allowed to watch Blue Peter. Lord knows why.
ReplyDeleteWhy was everything orange in those days? I'm not sure there was any other decade in the 20th century that had such a strong association with one colour!
ReplyDeleteThose lead toys were a really good idea for the kiddies to play with. What did we call those wafer ice creams. Kreem in Between? Something like that. They were very nice. As if crisps need even more salt!
ReplyDeleteA lot of those things are unfamiliar to me but oh how i loved my plastic farm animals!
ReplyDeleteBritains farm toys. Loved them as a kid. My Nan bought me a new one as a treat every time we passed a toy shop. When I discovered eBay, I started collecting them again as a little act of defiance (I came home one day to discover my mum had given all mine away).
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars either. My little brother decided to "respray" our joint collection, leaving all of them with khaki splodges all over.
The song " Bright Eyes" always makes me cry!
ReplyDeleteThese pictures and memories are great. Made me start to think of things I loved as kid in the US. I sometimes go on YouTube and look up old commercials. Blast from the past indeed!
ReplyDeleteSwap Shop and Spangles, that is all x
ReplyDelete