Nostalgia ain't what it used to be

[bungeejumper]

One of my schoolfriends had a dad who was a milkman.

Only one? I'd be surprised.

BJ

[redsturgeon]

One of my schoolfriends had a dad who was a milkman.

Only one? I'd be surprised.

BJ

Oh for a rec system!!!!

John

[UncleEbenezer]

Oh and and ad campaign, was it re: milk. Prominently featuring red and white striped straws, was that about some character stealing your milk?

Watch out, there's a Humphrey about!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjwox430HLQ

Julian F. G. W.

I read Humphrey and thought it must be a reference to some devious episode in Yes Minister.

When does this evidently-much-remembered little scene date from? If it was something on the telly, didn't it feed division between those who had a telly and those who didn't? Or I guess its audience would've been too young to think in those terms.

[bungeejumper]

When does this evidently-much-remembered little scene date from? If it was something on the telly, didn't it feed division between those who had a telly and those who didn't? Or I guess its audience would've been too young to think in those terms.

Blimey, that's a very revealing question. Wikipedia says that Sid James dropped dead (on stage) in 1976, which means that the last 40 years have moved faster than I'd thought. But yes, I was teaching at the time, and the Humphrey theme was everywhere among the kids.

Actually, if you ask me, it was all a government plot designed to conceal the identity of the real milk snatcher: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/on-this-day-m ... 48608.html

BJ

[Clitheroekid]

Blue tits after the milk....

Can't say I ever suffered from this myself ...

[Slarti]

Oh and and ad campaign, was it re: milk. Prominently featuring red and white striped straws, was that about some character stealing your milk?

Watch out, there's a Humphrey about!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjwox430HLQ

Julian F. G. W.

I read Humphrey and thought it must be a reference to some devious episode in Yes Minister.

When does this evidently-much-remembered little scene date from? If it was something on the telly, didn't it feed division between those who had a telly and those who didn't? Or I guess its audience would've been too young to think in those terms.

It was in the 70s and was in both TV and cinema advertising.

All sorts of people were in the adverts which came from one dairy, Unigate.

Slarti

[DiamondEcho]

@JFGW yep that's it, watching that was a genuine blast from the past moment!

Indeed. I can't remember what we paid for what I know as bangers ( squibs? ), but since we bought them as singles and we were all about 9, it can't have been much. That would have been mid 60s.
There was a pedestrian route between two hedges with each end protected by a metal tube ( hollow ) to stop bikes. If you timed the banger just right, you could get it to go off inside the tube just as some hapless soul coming from the other end was passing it.

Around about the mid/+ 70s my school used to go on exchange trips with pupils of a similar age in France, i.e. they spend 2 weeks at your home then the year after you at theirs. I always returned from such trips with a huge amount of plain red French bangers, that came in many sizes, from say 12x2mm to about 12cm x 2cm They came in packs and were woven together with an additional length of fuse, that allowed you to set a whole pack off in one go. But if you unwound the pack into singles, that gave you a whole looong added length of fuse to create a delayed fuse from. The other way was to unravel a fuse and take out most of the black-powder, so it burnt far more slowly. I remember setting off one the big ones between the decks of a multi-story car-park in France, and using a long fuse in order to get clear in time. Youthfully foolish 'fun' back then; but of course it would be utterly reckless in current times.

[DiamondEcho]

Odd how these things stick in the mind.

Isn't it! How about: 'R Whites! R Whites! I'm a secret lemonade drinker', 1973, I wasn't yet 10, yet remember the lyric complete with the 'Elvis warbling'!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hro4AdTYiTA

[Not entirely sure what dark corner of my mind that returned from].

[AleisterCrowley]

Oh and and ad campaign, was it re: milk. Prominently featuring red and white striped straws, was that about some character stealing your milk?

Watch out, there's a Humphrey about!



When does this evidently-much-remembered little scene date from? If it was something on the telly, didn't it feed division between those who had a telly and those who didn't? Or I guess its audience would've been too young to think in those terms.

One of the sticker sets has a competition on the back, closing date June 1975
http://www.stuffwelove.co.uk/images/humphreyback.jpeg
So I was 9.....

[UncleEbenezer]

But yes, I was teaching at the time, and the Humphrey theme was everywhere among the kids.

I was a (comprehensive school) pupil at the time, and never heard of it.

[AleisterCrowley]

Targeted at junior school (7-11) age groups

[Slarti]

But yes, I was teaching at the time, and the Humphrey theme was everywhere among the kids.

I was a (comprehensive school) pupil at the time, and never heard of it.

Perhaps it was a regional thing as although the dairy was big, I don't think that they were national.

I was at college and it was popular to try and Humphrey somebody's beer in the SU bar

Slarti

[brightncheerful]

The agony and ecstasy of being a teenager in Golders Green;

Never a good idea for boy to wait under the clock for his girl-friend. Even if she turned up late, that she wasn't there on time would be interpreted by the wider world as him having been stood up.

[spitting]

Really interesting hearing other peoples' comments. I lived in a 2 room flat when my first was born. No indoor lavatory and only cold running water. Awful trying to wash and dry nappies. A bakelite radio plugged into a light switch. A flat iron heated on a gas jet. I left there when my baby was about 6 months old and moved to a HOUSE with hot and cold water and an indoor lavatory. Luxury. I still hadn't got a fridge or a washing machine, so i go a job as a washing machine' demonstrator 2 days a week, and took all my dirty washing to work. I bought a 'Tangle o matic' twin tub, second hand. I learned how to dress make and cook. Life has moved on, thank God. 3 children and 2 grandchildren, I am old and greatly appreciative of all the wonderful modern things, dyson, freezers, t.v., cars,. I learned a lot , much of it the hard way, but I wouldn't have missed anything of it, it has made me.

[Grumpi]

I was born in the thirties and most of my childhood was in the forties.
Life was certainly simpler with little or no possessions and you could say it was character building.
I never saw a television programme until I was an adult but the nobody else I knew had either and I didn't feel any loss.
I played outdoors a lot and read a lot and had a part-time job delivering milk outside school hours to earn pocket money.

My grandchildren now use TV and computers for entertainment and Google for answers to their homework whereas at their age I used the public library for research and pleasure (and still do.)

It grieves me to see the steady closures of public libraries. I know that is not nostalgia - more of a Grump but until Stooz and Clariman get round to filling my request for a GOLF* board it will have to go in here.

*That's Grumpy Old Lemon Fools rather that a board about ruining a good walk by hitting a ball with sticks until it falls in a hole.

[Clitheroekid]

How about: 'R Whites! R Whites! I'm a secret lemonade drinker', 1973, I wasn't yet 10, yet remember the lyric complete with the 'Elvis warbling'!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hro4AdTYiTA

[Not entirely sure what dark corner of my mind that returned from].

I was saying to someone the other day that the advertising jingle seems to have disappeared to a large extent. Admittedly I nearly always fast forward through the adverts, so it may just be that I don't watch enough of them, but on the odd occasion I'm watching live TV very few of the ads seem to have jingles.

If so, I think it's a serious mistake on the part of the advertisers. I realise that they're probably considered too naff nowadays (though the standard of TV advertising seems to have declined quite dramatically over the past couple of decades) but even if they were irritating they definitely stuck in my mind, and as a large part of advertising is simply promoting the brand it worked extremely well.

Random ones I can immediately recall after a very long time are:

"A sparkle in the middle and a tickle at the top - Corona!"

"Opal Fruits - made to make your mouth water"

"Fry's Turkish Delight"

"Do the Shake and Vac and put the freshness back"

"A million housewives every day pick up a can of beans and say Beanz Meanz (sic!) Heinz"

"Just one Cornetto, breeng eet to me, deeleeshus ice cream from Eetalee"

"If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club"

To mention but a few!

It's always mildly annoyed me that I can remember the entire lyrics of a song without any effort at all, and without even particularly wanting to - "Where do you go to my lovely" is one example - but although I would love to remember the entire text of a poem I can only usually recall the first few lines at best, even when I've read it many times. The one exception is "the Owl and the Pussycat" for some strange reason.

Perhaps I should start putting them to music ...

[UncleEbenezer]

I was born in the thirties and most of my childhood was in the forties.
Life was certainly simpler with little or no possessions and you could say it was character building.
I never saw a television programme until I was an adult but the nobody else I knew had either and I didn't feel any loss.
I played outdoors a lot and read a lot and had a part-time job delivering milk outside school hours to earn pocket money.

My grandchildren now use TV and computers for entertainment and Google for answers to their homework whereas at their age I used the public library for research and pleasure (and still do.)

It grieves me to see the steady closures of public libraries. I know that is not nostalgia - more of a Grump but until Stooz and Clariman get round to filling my request for a GOLF* board it will have to go in here.

*That's Grumpy Old Lemon Fools rather that a board about ruining a good walk by hitting a ball with sticks until it falls in a hole.

The difference between your era and mine (born 1961) was that being without a TV didn't leave you socially excluded from your peers.

But don't knock your grandchildren. Your public library is a tiny subset of what the 'net has to offer. And you were lucky to have access to one: not everyone lives near a library.

If my vote for your GOLF board helps, you have my +1. And another +1 for extra grumpiness in the season of Humbug.

[UncleEbenezer]

The one exception is "the Owl and the Pussycat" for some strange reason.

Perhaps I should start putting them to music ...

I've actually set that to music. Could probably dig it up if you're interested.

[NomoneyNohoney]

It's always mildly annoyed me that I can remember the entire lyrics of a song without any effort at all, and without even particularly wanting to - "Where do you go to my lovely" is one example -

Well, there's a coincidence - I too know all the words of "Where Do you Go To My Lovely" - the long version! - and it's probably the only song I could say that about.

[panamagold]

"I was saying to someone the other day that the advertising jingle seems to have disappeared to a large extent."
and
"but even if they were irritating they definitely stuck in my mind, and as a large part of advertising is simply promoting the brand it worked extremely well".

Random ones I can immediately recall after a very long time are............................

Do you mean to say that you have forgotten:

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony.....bluh, bluh,
bluh, bluh,bluh,bluh,bluh,bluh,...
.............................coca cola.

panamagold