Memories of Childhood

I think this week the kids break up for summer holidays and it got me thinking about the last few days we used to have at school. I heard on the radio some pupils had been taken paint balling! Wow! We used to be able to bring in board games and have quizzes when I was at school; a time to relax and reflect on the year and look forward to long lie ins instead of getting up in a rush, and of course the morning shows on the BBC like 'Why Don't You...' and at weekends the Saturday morning shows like Swap Shop and Tiswas. The other thing I remember is leaving school in the afternoon and envariably there would be the eggs and flour fight in the high street(later shampoo!) which leave a hell of a mess on the pavement(but it was environmentally friendly) what mad things did you do?

Televisual heroes - we've all got them. These people that achieved tele-god/goddess status that fired our imaginations, inspired us and influenced us in ways others couldn't. I'd like to list a few and then maybe you could add yours.

1) James Burke - a legend in science programmes from Tomorrow's World to his own series like Connections and The Day the Universe Changed. This man would have made the ideal science teacher, he fired your imagination and explained things simply and easily-as in Connections, where he would take one idea and connect it to something obscure, yet it all seemed to make perfect sense.

2) Gerry Anderson. Now there was a man(along with his gorgeous wife Sylvia) that would go on to create some of the most memorable and exciting puppet series for kids and adults alike. From Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Torchy the Battery Boy to Stingray. Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Terrahawks(among the many series he was involved in) he and his team created a world of brilliant vehicles, daring-do heroes and excitement and adventure. Gerry was a real telegod because he had the vision to invent these series and the TV moghul, Lew Grade had the foresight to see the future was SUPERMARIONATION and FAB!

3) Tony Hart. An artistic genius who could take bits of scrap paper, bits of metal, wood, plastic etc and turn it into something visually stunning. Having started out as a cartoonist and the designer of the Blue Peter ship, Tony, an ex Gurkha officer was perfect for television. He started seriously on Vision On, the world's first children's programme aimed at deaf children along with co-presenter Pat Keysell, herself deaf. Add in the mad professor Wilf Lunn and his extraordinary inventions(some of which ended up exploding) and a mime artist Ben Bennison, who spent half his time flying around the studio chasing a small feather boa creature called the Whiffenpuff, this show was just mad, but allowed kids of all ages to learn how to draw, paint and build things. Later Take Hart appeared giving Tony his own show(along with the annoying caretaker Mr(Colin) Bennett) and later still introducing us to a small, orange plasticine figure called MORPH! He fired my imagination with his brillaint paintings, drawings and art in general and left millions of children inspired.

4) Rolf Harris: I am afraid that I cannot praise him now I know what he was really like, but he was a hero of mine because of his cartooning(I used to sit and watch Cartoon Time and try to emulate his cartooning and painting skills) and his musical side. I was upset to learn of what he had done, but I can't airbrush him out of my life because he played a role in it...if only we knew then, what we know now eh!

5) Brian Cant. Absolute legend in the best sense of the word. Brian's dulcet tones used to bring the stop-motion series of Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley to life with the stories, songs and his own inimitable style. Play School benefited from his unique style of presenting and later he fronted Saturday afternoon childrens' show, Play Away, telling stories, singing songs and telling awful jokes. A man who inspired loads of us and would have been a great teacher too. Television came along just at the right time for him.

^ James Burke has been back on TV recently appearing in the 50th anniversary of the moon landing shows on BBC - he features in the Sky At Night one, being interviewed about his coverage of it at the time and with some old clips . Think it's still on i-player.
(More surprising was the appearance of Tony Hart in the same programme in an clip of some old black & white show, talking about astronauts.)

Oh good I am recording the Sky at Night repeat so will watch for that. Tony Hart eh? Bonus that too.

^ Speaking of Tony Hart,I remember watching a Trev and Simon interview segment on either Going Live or Live & Kicking,anyway their guest was pro wrestler Bret Hart(who has always taken himself too seriously)and one of them said to him something like “What made you give up drawing to become a wrestler?"
I pissed my sides laughing but Bret didn't seem to see the funny side.

Seeing and hearing the excited squeals of Jess & Nicole on their behind the camera 2-4-1 earlier reminded me of my 6th form days doing a BTEC course and being the only boy(there had been two of us but he moved out after a week, in fact I think he went back home somewhere leaving school-the coward!!) in a class of 6 girls, a mixture of four White and two Indian - the four were boisterous and didn't really get on too well with the Indian girls but they were mostly keeping themselves to themselves, but we were ALL friends and workmates. However, it was probably the closest thing to hell imaginable. Now I know what you're thinking, lucky sod, to be in a room full of girls and yes to some extent I was and I fancied a couple of them too and I got the winks and nudge, nudge, say no more thing BUT boy could they talk - they could yak for England and it was always either about an episode of Dallas, or some music thing like Boy George(giving away my age here) but they nearly drove me mad.

How I kept my sanity I don't know but nothing worse than a load of schoolgirls squealing away - I'm still haunted to this day. Mind you I did get ONE up on them one day as they hadn't completed their work assignments and I had, so I was allowed to have a week off homework whilst they had to re-do it So the next time you fantasise about a sleep over with teenage girls(and at your ages that's an arrestable offence ) or a lingerie soiree with women just remember it too could be your own personal nightmare

Anyone have any embarrassing funny stories about experiences with an air rifle/pistol?
My younger brother had one a Webley and we used to shoot at targets. One day my dad changed the back door to the house, and it hsd a pane of plate glass in it from the top to about halfway down. Anyway the old door had been off for about a week and one afternoon my dad allowed us to shoot the air rifle at a target on the door as long as we didn't hit the glass as dad wanted to use it again. We were aiming carefully and had about 3/4 shots and it was my turn again, and my brother loaded it I took aim and the kick from the rifle jerked rifle up slightly and my shot went clean through the centre of the glass cracking it. Needless to say Dad wasn't very happy when he found out!!

I was trying to think of one. My cousin has quite a powerful air rifle and I remember we hung up a plastic container of water and then from his lower flat balcony we shot at it from a distance. It travelled a fair way and a number of the pellets hit the target, but some missed. Soon after that I remember going to a pet shop of all places and buying an air pistol which again packed a punch but soon after the flip-up sight broke and I had to improvise with a paper clip. My Dad and I set up some paper targets in the garden against a back wall and also got some old fizzy drinks cans. One of our neighbours had been a Royal protection officer and one day I looked out of my window down into the garden next door and he was practicing with a small air pistol-damn good shot too.

I hope I'm not repeating myself here but I remember when I was a kid and being heavily influenced by a cartoon called DEVLIN(all episodes of which I found and downloaded some time back at wco.tv) and in particular the stunt stuff he did on his motorcycle. I used to set up a plank of wood on a couple of bricks in the back garden and then have some other bricks laid out to jump over. I used my Chipper bike(I've said in the past we were too poor to have a Chopper, but my sister had the middle one, the Tomahawk) and moved the brake cable levers up level with the handlebars(instead of being underneath) like a real motorcycle and then peddled full tilt to jump over the bricks. It was fun in those days, frowned upon now of course.

^Evel Knievels in training I assume!!!
I remember seeing the ads for the toy of him - did any own one? I also remember the HAVOC dolls ads too