Close your eyes and go back in time...
Before the Internet...
Before semi-automatics, joyriders and crack....
Before SEGA or Super Nintendo...
Way back........
I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park.
The corner shop.
Hopscotch.
Butterscotch.
Skipping.
Handstands.
Football with an old can.
Fingerbob.
Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the Menace.
Roly Poly.
Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams.
The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass.
Bazooka Joe bubble gum.
An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune.
Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps screwball.
Wait......
Watching Saturday morning cartoons, short commercials or the flicks.
Children's Film Foundation, The Double Deckers, Red Hand Gang, Tomorrow People, Tiswas or Swapshop?, and 'Why Don't You'? - or staying up for Doctor Who.
When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere.
Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings.
Sticky fingers.
Playing Marbles. Ball bearings. Big 'uns and Little 'uns.
Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro.
Climbing trees.
Making igloos out of snow banks.
Walking to school, no matter what the weather.
Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.
Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Spinning around on roundabouts, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles. Being tired from playing.... remember that?
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.
Choppers and Grifters.
Eating raw jelly. Orange squash ice pops.
Vimto and Jubbly lollies
Remember when...
There were two types of trainers - girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash
The only time you wore them at School was for P.E.
And they were called gym shoes or if you are older, plimsoles. Daps if you're from Bristol!
You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents.
It wasn't odd to have two or three 'best' friends.
You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas Eve.
When nobody owned a pure-bred dog.
When 25p was decent pocket money
Curly Wurlys. Space Dust. Toffo's.
Top Trumps.
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving pupil at home.
Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc.
Remember when....
Decisions were made by going "Ip, Dip, Dog Sh*t"
Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in Monopoly
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs.
And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one.
It was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult.
Nobody was prettier than Mum.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.
The WHOOSH Man™
Sweet memories of life in the back streets of Manchester in the 50's and 60's.. marvellous!
Thanks for that!!
What about:
Steve Austin "The six million dollar man"
Evil Kenevil
Stretch Armsrong
Smokey and the Bandit at the Saturday morning flicks
Red Bus Rovers
and when the best thing to shove in yr gob was a Wagon Wheel or a Fizz Gong... does anyone else remember them, so big I could never close my mouth.. yummy...
Ok, can someone please tell me wtf 'fingerbob' is?!?! :shock:
But apart from that- o wish i was a kid again!!!
m xx
Brilliant post Whoosh!
It's my birthday today and speaking as someone now officially half way to death (3 score years and 10) you've made me feel EVEN older!
Mind you..this ol' dog still has a little life left in him :-)
FingerBob was a TV prog where the presenter played the characters using just his fingers and some basic props. eg FingerMouse was a cone of paper stuck on the end of one finger. It was ace..really imaginative and simple (like wot i is!). Not as good as the Flumps tho...
wow !! got goosebumps remembering all this :P :P xj
Things around me may have changed but in MY head I'm just the same..... and will be till they come and fetch me.. :angel:
Its all a state of mind...
Ok... Coming... The fairies want me again sorry xx
Mike xxx
Whoosh, what a brilliant thread, and I remember virtually everything in it, so I think I have lived.
I only hope that today's children can look back on their childhoods the same way we can.
:!: Having posted earlier and thought about it all day, my parents wouldn't buy me a chopper- excuse: "they are dangerous, you will go over the handle-bars" - so what did I do throughout the '70's? - went over the handle-bars of all my friends' choppers! Furthermore I own a fantastic, original 1972 orange chopper now just to spite them!!
Secondly, as I have my 4 year old son a few times a week and sick of the crap he likes to watch, I did what any decent parent would do and bought him a Mr. Benn DVD - and he LOVES it - Result!! ... so to carry this on, for his birthday he's got The Clangers, Captain Pugwash and the best of Basil Brush (boom boom!) - if he won't watch them I will any way.
"As if by magic, the shop keeper appeared".
LOL Dai, i can sympathise with that, I was playing Boney M one day and my kids laughed at my choice of 'olden days' music......till they actually listened and got hooked...and now I no longer have posession of my Boney M cd.
The same with films, my kids have moaned their head off or laughed when I have suggested a film from my youth......I have stuck to my guns and made em watch it, 100% certain in the knowledge they would like it.
Sure enough, my 4 kids aged from 14 to 4 are now hooked on classics such as The Goonies, Michael Jackson Moonwalker, Ferris Buellers day off, The Back to the Future trilogy and Grease and Ghosbusters too!
Cant stand the dross they watch now....cbeebies and Nickolodeon has a lot to answer too......
What nostalgia! This thread has me yearningfor those carefree hours on my purple chopper!
jeez...remember playing football in the street?.....and shouting "Car coming"...and then back to footie or kerbie.....taking a slice of bread and that would be your snack for the whole day
Great post I remember all of that.
Every summer was a scortcher, snowed in every winter.
Waiting for your kid brother/sister to start walking then you could have the pram wheels to make a trolley.
Top cat, noggin the nog.
Lusting after Valerie Singleton on Blue Peter.
Penny bangers at bonfire time.
Learning to ride on your mums bike cos your dads was too big. Getting your first 5 speed bike.
Brilliant
i actually sat with a tear in my eye when i read this excellent thread, not because im soft may i add lol but because life is to busy nowadays with ps3s , wiis and the likes and kids sit in their rooms allday on internet not having a fraction of the life we had when were young. ty for the memories xx
:shock: 
because we couldn't afford to go abroad
ops: xj
