Twelve

Sometimes I feel like writing about a part of my life as if it was in the 'modern era' rather than being based very much in the past using more of what we have rather than what I had back then as in many ways our lives had more in common with the sixties and much of that continued through to the eighties.

You see computing was for most of us was very much offline with programs run from machines and only business had limited web content such as Prestel which we used in the travel business for offers and booking and generally we used things like word processing and limited gaming at the end of the eighties. In the seventies you pretty much had to type on to stencils and use a duplicator to run of copies of the school magazine.

Today the new 12 year old me would us my smartphone to take the pictures  that we'd edit using a photo editing program before adding to with text to a web page of our school magazine which would be on a part of our schools site.

We'd read it using our laptops or on our smartphones so when any of us were poorly or in hospital we'd have instant access to it.

In much the same way we'd send texts to each other enquiring about each other and what we thought of Miss Penrose's Geography class and Mr Smith's new car or add pictures when we're away which like sending a postcard but it's a image we took ourselves.

That's what the new 12 year old me would be doing today.

Where I had a old fashioned wooden wardrobe, in this era I'd of had a walk-in one with a lot draws to keep socks underwear etc in which didn't really have being given just what I needed for that day.

Another thing about twelve was the differences between my feminine gurl side and many of my peers were showing more with many of them in long trousers at school and jeans while I was okay with wearing short trousers but would loved to had gone to school wearing a skirt.

Twelve too was when I started to realize I was still very much that child compared to my peers who always appeared to be the 'older' girls to me even though we were the same age because they had matured in  away as that girl I hadn't even though this was just before the major developmental changes.

Ideally I'd of flown up from Brownies to being a Guide too

I don't think you can have a successful new future unless you feel comfortable with your own past. 

Scouting and me part 3

Here be the third themed instalment!

If you were a cub in the 1970's and 80's you most likely would of received an annual like this to go with your Blue Peter, Beano and Dandy ones full of stories and information about being a Cub that would inspire you to go further gaining your awards.

The many annuals and their differing presentations over the years designed to appeal to boys

Thing was and is I'm a gurl so not surprisingly this was more my thing as much as I liked boys in Cubs and saw the value that was to them.

These were the annuals I would of wanted back then.

For me I needed to be in Brownies being the feminine gurl I was back then as that was a much better fit genderwise for me and so really that's more what what I aspire to today.

Boom! Boom! Time for Basil Brush

There always was one show on at the Weekends as a child I loved watching that no matter who was with him, I'd be in stitches.

Basil Brush lives on in today's world as it did back in the mid 1970's with Roy North hearing Basil's Conkers joke and Roy himself too over from Mr. Derek who was on from 1970 to 1973 although we didn't have colour until until after 1975.
Basil always gets reinvented in the way Sooty and Sweep do, very much British Institutions.

That is an original Wendy Boston Basil brush which as it happens I still own from the 1970's rather than the latest 2000's series made in Abergavenny, South Wales and is quite collectible

Corgi cars were a big thing as a 8 to 10 year old back then although I no longer have mine.

Basil Brush had a few records out of which this one dates from 1970 in the Mr Derek era with some of songs written by George Martin based on traditional tunes and themes like Basil de Farmer set in the time of the Norman Conquest.

This was a later one, from November 1977 actually that had his First day at School  and monologues about being at camp featured.

I still have these records and love to play them.

Out with the old and in with the new!

 

I've always loved to watch movies ever since I was a little kid so when they started come out on video tape I jumped at the chance to watch them, surrounded by my teddies and dolls because it's a way of getting into that child-like frame of mind where I feel happy and  carefree, safe sipping a glass of milk. 

That's why as technology changes I just had to act starting first on my favourite cartoons such as the Pink Panther and various Disney titles since first starting to buy DVD's in 2002.

It was only those titles that went straight to first time DVD release, those cartoons plus a few classic TV and Music releases I bought leaving a legacy of titles I had to use my trusty S-VHS recorder for.

At long long last I have been replacing a good many of my VHS tapes of movies with DVD versions since updating my DVD player a short while back.

I replaced recently the following:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The Wiz

Flash Gordon

ET

Staying Alive

Two Of A Kind

Streets Of Fire

Top Gun

Labyrinth

Cocktail

Days Of Thunder

The improvement over the tapes is hard to describe but they are sharper with better colour rendition and contrast.

One of favourite movies of all time is a modern day musical from 1980 called Zanadu that featured Olivia

Newton-John with music by her, the Electric Light Orchestra and the Tubes.

It has a  good recreation of a 40's big band which something I grew up listening to on record.

Although panned by critics I loved it for the skating songs and feel good factor as it lodged in my head as part of the soundtrack of summer vacation in 1980.

I recently upgraded this to Dvd.