Memories of Childhood

^ That sounds like the catering at Slade prison. Two of my schools had truly rank food ( I took packed lunch ) but my middle school had amazing food, hot dogs with fried onions, chips and the best milkshakes ever tasted.

(19-01-2019 22:28 )Tractor boy Wrote:  ^ That sounds like the catering at Slade prison. Two of my schools had truly rank food ( I took packed lunch ) but my middle school had amazing food, hot dogs with fried onions, chips and the best milkshakes ever tasted.

Slade Prison

Nah..it was terrible fare...no bloody wonder there were no overweight kids in our school then, not a single one. You got lucky in your middle school I’ll say that.

I had school dinners at primary school but it was always jelly & custard(well what looked like custard but more like nuclear waste) and those very small squares of pudding, usually jam and sponge which I did rather like. Later at bigger school we had a canteen system where you could have beefburgers,chips, spaghetti hoops, beans, etc. I remember one meal I had. It was two beefburgers and chips and someone came along(so called friend!!) and nicked one of them off my plate. Another incident was someone left the vingear holder's top loose so when I came to pick it up, you've guessed it, it saturated my food-yeah really funny lads!

One of my main downfalls at school later was the tuck shop. Remember that Aladdin's Cave of confectionery- Chewits, Refreshers, MARS Bars, Curly-Wurlys, and other sweets plus CRISPS!

You’re a mid 60’s Generation X kid alright.

Now for some music memories...

The early to mid 70s, of course dominated by the glam rock bands, the Sweet, (who had a big following in Wrexham at that time partly because one of the band members was from here) Slade, who I was a big fan of during 1973 and 1974 in particular, there was Wizzard, Bowie and the leather clad Alvin Stardust who I always thought at that time had something a bit sinister about him. Whenever I saw him standing there with the microphone held at a funny angle to his face, I’d freak out slightly inside..

Little did we know that it was another singer who was huge at that time who was (along with a certain Top of the Pops presenter) the really sinister one...

I had the trauma of having female cousins as well as my sister who became fanatics of the Bay City Rollers..I don’t to this day know what it was about them in particular that I found particularly detestable but the minute one of their songs came on, I just wanted to escape in the general direction of away as quickly as possible...

Them, combined with the appalling Osmond family who dominated the charts for what seemed like an eternity between 1972 and 1975 made TOTP viewing at times quite a painful and torturous experience....and that’s without mentioning the nightmare of Little Jimmy Osmond’s ‘Long Haired Lover from Liverpool’...probably one of the top 5 worst songs of the 70s

My childhood really kicked in around the age of 7 so more 1972 odd. Hated the Bay City Rollers, liked the Osmosi, my sister was more a fan of David Cassidy but she used to record the Top Twenty as it was onto tapes. Used to find it strange how Stardust held his microphone sideways and that leather thing didn't appeal to me-remember when he did the Green Cross Code Ads "You lot must be out of your tiny minds..." Didn't really listen to real music(I have a love of classical to this day) until 1979 with yours and mine fav The Police.

Late 70s...and the mod revival. Two-tone bands started coming to prominence, rocksteady and ska bands, The Specials who I liked listening to because their brand of ska had a harder edge to it than what the likes of Madness were putting out.

I’ve already mentioned Debbie Harry so yes Blondie had my ear as well for quite some time, she was one of the posters on my wall, along with the latest Liverpool FC team photo, a Liverpool scarf, and posters of The Police, Kate Bush and Gary Numan.

Gary Numan was the first live act I saw, in 1979 at the Liverpool Empire..three of us from school went there and it was all we talked about for about a week afterwards..the buzz from seeing him in the flesh as a wide eyed awe struck 13 year old was incredible...

(19-01-2019 17:41 )babelover48 Wrote:  i voted seventies because for me that is a golden era of kids' TV and pre TISWAS i enjoyed Blue Peter HOW/ Magpie (One for sorrow, two for joy) and Michael bentine's potty time was one favourite!!

Loved HOW! I liked to watch Blue Peter-I wanted a BP badge-still do as I collect badges and it would crown my collection. Michael Bentine's Potty Time, ah yes that I have a memory sitting in a friends' kitchen and my sister and I, just before we had to go off to Hebrew Classes on a Wednesday afternoon, would watch that and Time Tunnel sipping chocolate milkshake(I preferred strawberry myself) Bentine would record the voices(same as Ken Dodd did with the Diddy Men) and then it would be synched with the puppets and he would interact with them. Got some on DVD.

I dipped into MAGPIE-rather fancied ex-Bond girl (OHMSS)Jenny Hanley.
The song if I remember correctly went:
1 for sorrow, 2 for joy, 3 for a girl and 4 for a boy, 5 for silver 6 for gold 7 for a secret never to be told - the rest of it was 8's a wish, 9's a kiss, 10 is a bird you must not miss(repeat) Maaaaagggggggggggggggggggggggggggggpieeeeeeeee!

Someone mentioned comics. Here are some I used to get:
BEEZER-a broadsheet comic once
WHIZZER and CHIPS
WHOOPEE!
THE BEANO-probably the most famous along with the DANDY
ACTION Comic featured Hookjaw the shark and Three Men In A Jeep adventure stories.
THE CRUNCH
WARLORD
BULLET featuring super spy 'FIREBALL'
STARLORD

(19-01-2019 22:17 )Carl_HoneyLover Wrote:  School Dinners!

Oh my God....one of the more horrific memories of Junior School. You could smell it before dinner time. The sense of dread building in the pit of my stomach was almost enough to kill my appetite before I even got my plate of muck.

What culinary delights we had. Liver and an igloo shaped mashed potato which would have black lumpy bits in it which for some reason at the time had me convinced were peanuts. Absolutely hideous, another day we’d have some sort of fish with a thin layer of soft icky batter on it. Gruesome. The monstrosity that was called ‘Chicken Supreme’. Supreme it certainly was not. To say it was awful is being kind. The peas were like bullets, we used to joke in the mid 70s that the peas were bionic because we were convinced they would break windows being as rock hard as they were.


The puddings were just as bad...custard with skin on it..yuk...the revolting sago (which we would call frogspawn) - and no..putting a blob of jam in the middle of it does not make it any more appetising..ugh...and the worst of the lot...semolina...was like heated wallpaper paste which had milk added to it...strewth!

semolina probably was wallpaper paste heated up mate...yuck! i think school dinners were on a par with NHS food at the time!! we had a tuck shop at school too even crisps were cheap then (30p) I think it was and always loved the salt and shake ones. if I buy them now i usually put my own salt in and use the packets on my dinners at night!!