My Little Bit of Nostalgia

[Paulc]

If like me, you are of a certain age, then I am sure that you will appreciate my little bit of nostalgia and my own trip down memory lane where I recount my childhood of Subbuteo, Panini Stickers and of course Roy of the Rovers!

https://chiddicksfamilytree.com/2021/06/07/childhood-heroes/

[Caroline]

As you know , we disagree over who the greatest player is.

Have you done the interview yet?

[Paulc]

It’s all done sealed in the bag, will post the details up over the weekend

[Lin Fisher]

Will have a good read later. Like to read your posts but feel a bit old now. I grew up in Nottingham and recognise most of the players. I don't follow football but you still know what is going on around you,

I remember having the Bunty comic as a youngster and progressing to Jackie.

[Paulc]

I think it was such a simple life back then Lin, no stress, no hassle, no social media to worry about! Your parents never worried about school performance tables, you just went to the nearest school.

I have so many fond memories of my childhood.

[Lin Fisher]

You are right there Paul. We didn't even have to worry about bus times as we walked everywhere. Shopped daily at the local shop and you were perfectly safe as all the neighbourhood knew everyone and would help you.

I remember my Dad making a farmyard for my brother for christmas one year and the man next door who was about Dads age and unmarried came round to help. All made out of scraps of wood and silver paper for a pond.

[Paulc]

I know what you mean, we could walk five minutes to the butcher, greengrocer, ironmongers etc and you knew every person in the street by name and always called then Mr or Mrs, no first names. Everybody kept their gardens tidy and there was never any litter. I could walk to both sets if grandparents houses as well as my Aunt and three great aunts, all within walking distance of the house we grew up in.

[cbcarolyn]

similar era for me too, but wasn't big footie fans in our house. Jackie comic for me, and did read things like the Beezer, Dandy and Beano from time to time!

[Paulc]

Another hobby I don’t mention much, yes I know I have far too many hobbies, but I collect annuals from my childhood era, Beano, Dandy, Tiger, Scorcher, Roy of the Rovers etc

[Caroline]

There was yet another hobby not mentioned ...... were your LEGO bricks red and white like mine, or had they invented colour by the time you started?

[GallowayLass]

Similar for me too. Our house got the Beano and the Dandy - Daddy’s really so had to wait to get to read them LOL For me it was the Sparky and latterly, Jackie.
I was brought up in a council house in the country. There were eight of them in a cul de sac just off a B road. The effect was that it looked like it had fallen out of the sky and landed in the middle of farm land.
School was a half mile walk away and Granny’s cottage just under a quarter of a mile in the other direction at the crossroad on to the main road which went from the nearest town two miles away and finished in Ayr. The petrol station, phone box and shop were across the road from her house. The mobile library stopped right outside Granny’s too (early beginnings for me ) as did various country delivery vans from town - butcher, baker, Co-op etc. The railway line was across the field and I used to sit outside with Grandad and wave to the train drivers. They always blew the whistle and waved back.
Everybody knew everybody else and whose children were whose and where they ought to be (or not to be in many cases ). We all walked everywhere to do errands or play and never thought twice about it. There were a few cottages up and down the road between Granny’s and school so somebody always saw you go past as did the folks working in their fields. It was common practice to give a lift to hitchers in fact if you saw somebody on a wet day, you usually stopped and asked them if they would like a lift. I did it myself a couple of times in the mid 1970s after I got my driving licence.
You never went out after dark on your own though as a child except to go to another house in our cul de sac. At Halloween, everybody went around in groups accompanied by one or more teenager 16 or older. We would go for miles LOL As time passed, you would become one the responsible teenagers yourself.
I think a big part of staying safe was that I and most of my contemporaries had had it drummed into us from the outset that we always had to tell a parent or a neighbour where we were going before we went even if that meant having to go back in the house first.
Happy Days!

[Paulc]

There was yet another hobby not mentioned ...... were your LEGO bricks red and white like mine, or had they invented colour by the time you started?

Just Red and White, like the telly colour didn’t arrive until later!

[Paulc]

Similar for me too. Our house got the Beano and the Dandy - Daddy’s really so had to wait to get to read them LOL For me it was the Sparky and latterly, Jackie.
I was brought up in a council house in the country. There were eight of them in a cul de sac just off a B road. The effect was that it looked like it had fallen out of the sky and landed in the middle of farm land.
School was a half mile walk away and Granny’s cottage just under a quarter of a mile in the other direction at the crossroad on to the main road which went from the nearest town two miles away and finished in Ayr. The petrol station, phone box and shop were across the road from her house. The mobile library stopped right outside Granny’s too (early beginnings for me ) as did various country delivery vans from town - butcher, baker, Co-op etc. The railway line was across the field and I used to sit outside with Grandad and wave to the train drivers. They always blew the whistle and waved back.
Everybody knew everybody else and whose children were whose and where they ought to be (or not to be in many cases ). We all walked everywhere to do errands or play and never thought twice about it. There were a few cottages up and down the road between Granny’s and school so somebody always saw you go past as did the folks working in their fields. It was common practice to give a lift to hitchers in fact if you saw somebody on a wet day, you usually stopped and asked them if they would like a lift. I did it myself a couple of times in the mid 1970s after I got my driving licence.
You never went out after dark on your own though as a child except to go to another house in our cul de sac. At Halloween, everybody went around in groups accompanied by one or more teenager 16 or older. We would go for miles LOL As time passed, you would become one the responsible teenagers yourself.
I think a big part of staying safe was that I and most of my contemporaries had had it drummed into us from the outset that we always had to tell a parent or a neighbour where we were going before we went even if that meant having to go back in the house first.
Happy Days!

what a wonderful read Galloway Lass I absolutely loved this and I wonder how many of us had similar experiences and upbringings

[GallowayLass]

Just Red and White, like the telly colour didn’t arrive until later!

I never had Lego despite dropping many hints in my letters to Santa over the years. I had Minibrix which were made of hard rubber. My set was the largest of those that came in a tube rather than a flat box. There were even white plastic poles which were meant to be Doric columns for fancy porches and also premade windows of different styles made from something that felt like photographic film but was a bit stiffer.

[GallowayLass]

When did colour telly arrive where you lived? It didn’t reach us till 1972. “Auntie” Jean across the road was the first to get a colour telly just a few days before Princess Anne’s wedding the following November. The whole scheme was crowded in to watch it. It would be another 4 years before my parents got one, rented of course as was the norm back then.

[Lin Fisher]

We had colour TV at parents by the time I married in 1975 but we only had b/w donated by OH's father, it was their old one.

I can't remember lego as a child but had something called Bako (not sure how it was spelt). I had rods and you slid the bricks in to build it. We went to Sudbury childhood museum and they had some in there!!

Sounds as though you had a lovely childhood GL.

[cbcarolyn]

not exactly sure when we got a colour TV, Dad liked cricket and that was a reason why we got it I seem to think. Probably around 1973.

I had hand me down lego from my brother and then got some really new stuff when he worked at an educational supplies place and even had a battery operated engine, must have been about 1974. Cannot for the life of me remember if there were colours, there were a few different bricks I think.

[Paulc]

I don’t think I remember Bako or Minibrix although I did have something else called Stickle Bricks.

i can’t remember when we had a colour telly, although I remember the portable telly in my bedroom as a teenager was black and white.

[Lin Fisher]

Just decided to google it and was spelt BAYKO. Being sold on e-bay.

My grandchildren brought stickle Bricks up last time they visited. Still playing with them