I was just downstairs making myself a bit of breakfast and I was listening to Radio 2.
A song came on that took me right back to my youth.
It was Gordon Lightfoot with 'If you could read my mind'. I had to stay and listen to the very end. And I really mean listen, because this song, along with so many back then actually told a story and you could feel the emotions behind it. It was simple song (with no obcenities), no 'sampling', no electronics, just a vocalist (who could actually sing words you could here and understand) , a guitar (that was played melodically) and subtle backing.
It made me think that at my age I have been priviledged to be around when so many wonderful and innovating things first appeared as well as such varied music.
(btw I am not slating todays music but I do wish they would learn to write new songs instead of ruining other peoples by editing bits into their own)
Some of the things that I am thrilled to have witnessed are......
The 'Swinging Sixties' (nooooo - it wasn't that type of swinging). I was only young. But I can remember my parents taking me to Carnaby Street!!!! Wow it was unbelievable. I remember getting a purple crushed velvet jacket with gold embroidery from there.
The music - Elvis & the Jordanaires, Cliff & the Drifters (name had to be changed to the Shadows because of the American Drifters), the Stones, the Beatles, Hermans Hermits (Feeling Groovy etc), the Who, the Kinks, Fleetwood Mac, T Rex etc etc etc etc. I even remember Tommy Steele (Little White Bull) and Billy Fury (Halfway to Paradise).
The clothes.... mini skirts and hot pants. I remeber having a yellow satin mini dress which was so short it came with matching knickers! I used to wear that with white leather knee length boots. My other favourite outfit at the time was majenta suede hotpants and matching lace up waistcoat. I wore that to work occasionaly at my first job - Tax Officer in Altrincham Tax Office! Then came the time of the afgan coats. I had the cheaper version a cloth brocade one with wooley fur lining - I really loved it till one day I was in a pub and noticed the seats were covered in exactly the same brocade!!!! - I was gutted.
Then was the space race...
First orbit of the earth. I think this was Russian and had a dog called Leika on board.
First man in space - again Russion - Yuri Gregarin
First men on the moon - American Buzz Aldrin et al
Other technological advances.
The computer! These were only just starting to be used and what we have sitting on our desks now would then have taken up the whole floor of an office block!
My first job with computers was as a programmer on an ICL1904 - that was about the size of 2 sideboards and only had a 5mb fixed disk. The 80mb removable disk was about the size of a big hatbox.
For home enthustasts, then came Things like the Acorn Electron, Sinclair ZX80/81/spectrum.
Now PCs and networks are commonplace and where would we be without the internet
Cars.... I rember the first car we had at home was an old 'Sit up and beg' Ford Popular. That was in the days when you could have a car in any colour you liked, so long as it was black! It had 2 little square windows at the back, and the indicators were little plastic orange arrows which flicked out.
Well - I am supposed to be working so I should leave it at this.
These are just a small number of the things which I am proud to have been around for, in my (almost) half century on this planet.
Now this is really a thread only for the oldies on here.
What things can you remember and thought that you were 'glad to be alive when that happened'
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Happy to be an oldie!
Sex God
Quote by Alexandra
These are just a small number of the things which I am proud to have been around for, in my (almost) half century on this planet.
NO WAY ARE YOU THAT AGE. :shock:
:shock: :o :shock: :o I'd have put you at late 30's early 40's at the most.
*heads for Wiggin to find the alixia of youth*
TBH I'm too young to remember the music from the 60's, but my parents are the same kinda age, so I grew up with all the bands you mentioned. Still love The Stones, The Who, Elvis and The Beatles.
seemms i'm not such an oldie as i thought...my first memory is of ...marc bolan and his corkscrew hair.....child of the seventies me...but then moved onto my youth being the eighties...I was loving the New romantic era....human league..duran duran..but still love all the stuff today.....been over to Ibiza for last two years clubbing it and lovin it.....
As young as you feel alex......and given the chance would love to feel you...buts thats another thread for another day !!!!!!!
As young as you feel alex......and given the chance would love to feel you...buts thats another thread for another day !!!!!!!
Alex,
You really have made me feel nostalgic.
Remember going to London to see a new band called the Rolling Stones at the Marquee Club - it was like going abroad those days for a northern lad.
I was a biker, my best mate rode a scooter - he moved to be a "Keaw-Yed" or a "Howfener" and if tha' really is fro' Wiggin, tha'll know wha' a'm on abaat.
If you mum and dad had to take to Carnaby St., someone's right that you can be "nowt but a young lass", although it's nice to know that someone else on this site remembers that great time.
Let me know if you're ever out and about playing in Wiggin.
John
You really have made me feel nostalgic.
Remember going to London to see a new band called the Rolling Stones at the Marquee Club - it was like going abroad those days for a northern lad.
I was a biker, my best mate rode a scooter - he moved to be a "Keaw-Yed" or a "Howfener" and if tha' really is fro' Wiggin, tha'll know wha' a'm on abaat.
If you mum and dad had to take to Carnaby St., someone's right that you can be "nowt but a young lass", although it's nice to know that someone else on this site remembers that great time.
Let me know if you're ever out and about playing in Wiggin.
John
Sex God
I was only 7 when the 60s ended, so I don't remember a great deal about it.
I remember getting our first colour telly and being very disturbed by The Banana Splits.
I also remember the music. Despite being very young then, if I hear a song from the 60s that I haven't heard since, I'll quite often know every word. The music of subsequent decades is immediately forgettable by comparison. Motown, the Beatles, the Stones... and the first record ever bought for me... Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris. (Stop sniggering at the back, he was a major star in those days!
)
I remember getting our first colour telly and being very disturbed by The Banana Splits.
I also remember the music. Despite being very young then, if I hear a song from the 60s that I haven't heard since, I'll quite often know every word. The music of subsequent decades is immediately forgettable by comparison. Motown, the Beatles, the Stones... and the first record ever bought for me... Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris. (Stop sniggering at the back, he was a major star in those days!
) Sex God
Quote by Alexandra
Can you se what it is yet?
OMG those paintings he used to do with the 6" emulsion brush!
"Didja like it? Cooooourse ya did."
OK another music memory
This time from my school years.
Fleetwood Mac's - Green Manolichi (pre the Buckinham Nicks time)
And a bit later - Genesis - fronted by the great Peter Gabriel.
In my 20s I remember seeing Simon & Garfunkel in Wembley Stadium (magical)
Anyway back to the original point of the thread..
What make you really pleased that you were around to witness.
Another thing of mine was the Martin Luther King speech (and later the freeing of Nelson Mandela). This however is marred by the subsequent asasignation of MLK.
I remember the Cuba crisis when it was thought we would be launched into a 3rd World War and this time it would have been nuclear.
The Ban the Bomb marches - I still have my pendant with the logo.
The famines in Sudan and Bob Geldoff & Midge Ure's Live Aid (my god was that so long ago now?)
This time from my school years.
Fleetwood Mac's - Green Manolichi (pre the Buckinham Nicks time)
And a bit later - Genesis - fronted by the great Peter Gabriel.
In my 20s I remember seeing Simon & Garfunkel in Wembley Stadium (magical)
Anyway back to the original point of the thread..
What make you really pleased that you were around to witness.
Another thing of mine was the Martin Luther King speech (and later the freeing of Nelson Mandela). This however is marred by the subsequent asasignation of MLK.
I remember the Cuba crisis when it was thought we would be launched into a 3rd World War and this time it would have been nuclear.
The Ban the Bomb marches - I still have my pendant with the logo.
The famines in Sudan and Bob Geldoff & Midge Ure's Live Aid (my god was that so long ago now?)
Quote by Alexandra
The famines in Sudan and Bob Geldoff & Midge Ure's Live Aid (my god was that so long ago now?)
I remember Live Aid so well. I was 14 and it was my first day at work as Saturday girl in the bakers so I missed the start but rushed home to see it and donated all my wages from my first day.
Orgasminator
Hi Alex,
What a great thread you started!
I was born November 1960 and so it's always been easy for me to get a grip on the decades... My formative decade was the seventies... Marc Bolan, Sweet, Osmonds... Northern Soul (which has lasted with me till now)... Saturday Night Fever and Grease... Star Wars...
Eighties were my growing up, buying a house and getting married decade...
Nineties were getting divorced and was a so so decade...
2000s... Hmmm finding myself and the love of my life
Musically I'm definitely stuck in a time warp of mid sixties to mid seventies soul music... canna beat it!
Have a look at to see what I'm on about...
What a great thread you started!
I was born November 1960 and so it's always been easy for me to get a grip on the decades... My formative decade was the seventies... Marc Bolan, Sweet, Osmonds... Northern Soul (which has lasted with me till now)... Saturday Night Fever and Grease... Star Wars...
Eighties were my growing up, buying a house and getting married decade...
Nineties were getting divorced and was a so so decade...
2000s... Hmmm finding myself and the love of my life
Musically I'm definitely stuck in a time warp of mid sixties to mid seventies soul music... canna beat it!
Have a look at to see what I'm on about...
Sex God
Quote by Alexandra
What make you really pleased that you were around to witness.
July 13th 1985. Wembley Stadium. Live Aid. Freddy Mercury stole the show, and it brings a lump to my throat to think that neither he nor the stadium are still with us. It was a privilege to be there.
Quote by Ice Pie
What make you really pleased that you were around to witness.
July 13th 1985. Wembley Stadium. Live Aid. Freddy Mercury stole the show, and it brings a lump to my throat to think that neither he nor the stadium are still with us. It was a privilege to be there.
When Live Aid was happening I was on a flight to Malta, I was gutted to have missed the live broadcast, I saw it replayed when I got to my hotel.
<----Holiday pic frojm Malta as avatar
(I realise that that won't work when I change my av again)
More memories
No all night TV - when you switched off you watched the white dot dissappear in the middle of the screen. TV companies were Redifusion and ABC. And it was only in Black and White.
Morcambe and Wise (still hilarious onthe reruns)
Robinson Crusoe (the dubbed French one) with the lovely theme music.
Treasure Island (damn - who played Long John Silver?)
The Woodentops
The Invaders (Remember walking round school with your little finger stuck out)
The Prisoner (Who is number 1, - I am number two, you are number 6 - I am not a number I am a free man!
Voyage to the bottom of the sea
The Fugitive
The Monkees (Ice _ I think Banana Splits must have been based on this)
Fireball XL5 (On our way'ome)
Supercar
Dr Who (with Joe Sugden from Emmerdale farm as Jaimie McTavish!)
Sorry this has turned into TV nostalgia for me
OK - what makes you gladyou are an 'oldie' - ie what are you glad to have been around to witness?
Sex God
Ahhh so many memories........
Even thou I as born in the early 1960's I had memories of my mum in her mini skirt and pale lipstick and beehive hair, but the time when I could join in with the music and dress sense was in the 70's.
Being such a stick insect in those days, I really wanted a pair of pvc boots, not any old ones you know but ones that were elasticated at the top..... :D :D
Even when I got them they still didn't stay up very well.
:roll: :roll:
Oh and a lovvvvvverly
:lol: :lol: green yes green jumpsuit. I think back know and 
ops:
I remember the Banana Splits as well, Swop Shop. Was the programe "Monkey" in the 70's? The one that had sub titles as it was Japanese I think> :roll:
Even thou I as born in the early 1960's I had memories of my mum in her mini skirt and pale lipstick and beehive hair, but the time when I could join in with the music and dress sense was in the 70's.
Being such a stick insect in those days, I really wanted a pair of pvc boots, not any old ones you know but ones that were elasticated at the top.....
:D :D Even when I got them they still didn't stay up very well.
:roll: :roll: Oh and a lovvvvvverly
:lol: :lol: green yes green jumpsuit. I think back know and ops: I remember the Banana Splits as well, Swop Shop. Was the programe "Monkey" in the 70's? The one that had sub titles as it was Japanese I think> :roll:
Quote by MrsFC
Oh and a lovvvvvverly
OMG Jumpsuits!!
Why the hell they called them jumpsuits is beyond me - there was no chance of having a jump if you wore one of those.
I had a skin tight psychadelic one with bell-bottoms, cut away shoulders and a zip up the back (Very Emma-Peelish -as most of you know she was my heroine).
Another TV memory - The Avengers!!!!!!! The Kathy Gail & Mrs Peel times
Gosh! ..... So many lasting memories ....... Travelling from London to Harrogate on the Mary Queen of Scots, one of the monster steam engines hauling pullman coaches; my first taste of really fine wine on the lawn of a rather fine restaurant by the Thames; watching Concorde's first flight (and still watching it every time it flew over) ........ So many more great memories to make me smile or even laugh, even if they were scarcely world-shattering
Born '72 here ....
Alex, all those tv programmes you mentioned I am so into :shock: The avengers, The Prisoner (wierd but addictive), the fugitive I could go on.
I adored Emma Peel and Tara King ..... and I also wet myself readng what you put about jumpsuits ....
I'm at the awkward age ... not young enough to be trendy but too young to be mature!
Alex, all those tv programmes you mentioned I am so into :shock: The avengers, The Prisoner (wierd but addictive), the fugitive I could go on.
I adored Emma Peel and Tara King ..... and I also wet myself readng what you put about jumpsuits ....
I'm at the awkward age ... not young enough to be trendy but too young to be mature!
I can remember our first colour TV and the guy telling us to be careful in case the colour ran out with misuse, and my brother crying! I can rememember the strikes of the 70's so well, the candlelit rooms and nothing but books to read, and the times off school with no heating. Also the days BEFORE double glazing, when we would scratch pictures in the ice on the INSIDE of the windows in our bedrooms, and you sometimes had to wear socks in bed! And EVERY boy HAD to wear shorts in the secondary schools even in winter, and our school toilets were outside at the bottom of the playground and when we did PE, we had to change on the field, rain or shine....!
Sex God
Wonderful thread! Hi Alex, did you know you can hear clips of the music from "Robinson Crusoe" by clicking here:
Mike.
Mike.
Sex God
Robinson Crusoe ....loved it.
memories
Running home from school on a Tuesday to hear the new number one.
Spending hours in Rumbelows listening to records in the sampling booths.
Toasting crumpets on open fires.
The tufty club
Sta press trousers.
Crombie's
Two tone suits.
toothpaste with stripes in it...amazing!
stereogram sideboards
linoleum around the edge of the room......no fitted carpets.
stair rods.....lethal in an angry parents hand.
smell of ash.
chimney sweeps.
the Decca record player stack 8 records for auto play
Johny Morris....superb stuff
Whickers world in black and white ....fascinating.
platform shoes
tank tops
party sevens
proper sherbert
all fond memories but on balance I prefer today despite the problems.
memories
Running home from school on a Tuesday to hear the new number one.
Spending hours in Rumbelows listening to records in the sampling booths.
Toasting crumpets on open fires.
The tufty club
Sta press trousers.
Crombie's
Two tone suits.
toothpaste with stripes in it...amazing!
stereogram sideboards
linoleum around the edge of the room......no fitted carpets.
stair rods.....lethal in an angry parents hand.
smell of ash.
chimney sweeps.
the Decca record player stack 8 records for auto play
Johny Morris....superb stuff
Whickers world in black and white ....fascinating.
platform shoes
tank tops
party sevens
proper sherbert
all fond memories but on balance I prefer today despite the problems.
Sex God
Quote by corriefem
I can remember in 1969...
This is mathematically impossible.
