Memories of Childhood

I am sure like many kids at the time we all, at some point, made LEGO models, either bought and followed by instructions or using our own imagination to build fantastic things. I remember one dark 5th November night as a young kid I'd been given a LEGO Technic Tractor to build and my Dad decided this was the night to sit and do it. Now those of you who have seen my recent posts will know this is not my favourite time of year and I was to put it mildly nervous. However, my Dad was eager to help me so we sat in the dining room(then a single room) and started to build. Luckily for me there weren't a lot of bangs around and we finally finished it over an hour later. It was great, it worked a treat with the rack and pinion steering that when you turned a wheel the main big wheels moved side to side. The next thing I built was a massive Thunderbird 1 and a launch pad complete with holders-I didn't have enough to build a giant swimming pool and it sat proudly on my drawer until one day my Mum came up to my room and moved towards it and her dressing gown swished past-crash! the whole thing fell apart-cue a look of aghast, annoyance and almost close to tears. She apologised profusely but it took me ages to put it back together.

I also remember my friend and I building houses with secret garages for cars or aircraft and discovered that if you take the rotor bit of a helicopter, attach a flat surface piece to it and then add an elastic band under it and then stretch it to wrap around a small brick, you could twist that brick and create a turntable or swing bridge. Fascinating stuff LEGO and even today I still build things including a London scene-which I have a pic of somewhere.

Completed last year.

When you got into trouble mostly it was your Mum that might do it, were you ever hit or scolded with gaps into the punishment such as 'I've...told...you...before...don't...answer...me...back' and in rhythm as she did it. Or did you get the thing where you knew you were in real trouble when she used your full name like "Philip Michael Johnson, get in here now!" My mum never did those but I do remember my friends suffering like that.

(19-02-2019 14:05 )GreenMachine Wrote:  When you got into trouble mostly it was your Mum that might do it, were you ever hit or scolded with gaps into the punishment such as 'I've...told...you...before...don't...answer...me...back' and in rhythm as she did it. Or did you get the thing where you knew you were in real trouble when she used your full name like "Philip Michael Johnson, get in here now!" My mum never did those but I do remember my friends suffering like that.

The daft things my parents said to us growing up...

‘I’ll make you smile on the other side of your face’
‘I’ll burst you in a minute’
‘Don’t make that face, if the wind changes you’ll stay like that’
‘There’s no such word as ‘Can’t’
‘Don’t sit so close to the telly, you’ll get square eyes’
‘You’ll take someone’s eye out with that’

Oh yes some absolute pearlers there. I think they were just to frighten the kids into being good. One incident I remember(completely different btw) My friend finally got a television and his mum had gone out for the evening and his two older brothers were away so to celebrate I and another friend went down the road to see him and to watch Miss Universe beauty contest, which of course no self-respecting young man would miss. It was fine until there was a news item(local for this area) saying that someone had escaped from the local asylum(we had one near to us) and that he might be dangerous. Now considering this place was supposed to be secure for both the 'inmates' and the public this worried my friend and he asked us to stay a bit longer.

I rang my Mum and told her and she was fine with it because it was just literally a few houses down from ours. We sat and played some games and then he thought he could hear something so all the lights were put out and we sat in darkness for a bit. In the end it was getting late and I had to go home as did my other friend. As we left there was a crash and he moved like lightning into the house. He asked us to check, so knowing that two is better than one we decided to get a torch and check the garden. What had made that sound? Was it a mad axe man or escaped lunatic? No it was a bloody cat!! We had to laugh and finally we went home. Oh and we did enjoy Miss Universe.

(17-02-2019 19:18 )stowman Wrote:  The other Airfix product I remember were the packets of small soldiers. They came attached to branch like bits of plastic within the packet and had to be cut off. If you twisted them off you tended to get a lump of plastic on the stands so they stood at an angle. Again WW2 armies were my favourite and I fought many "battles" with them.

I found if you use a nail file on the base it did the trick. The first set I bought were the Afrika Korps and it remained one of my favourite sets. My least favourite was probably the US Marines. Most of the figures didn't even have guns and just seemed to be running about, waving their arms in the air. They were pretty poorly sculpted as well. Loads of information on all of these Airfix model soldier kits at http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Manu....aspx?id=3
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I was thinking about what girls/women you might have been attracted to as a teen. In my case definitely :
Charlie's Angels-all three originals(Farah-Fawcett & Kate Jackson but loved that brunette Jaclyn Smith as Kelly Garrett.)
Benny Hill girls(or Hill's Angels),and including Jenny Lee Wright,
Diana Darvey and Sue Upton.
Marilu Henner from TAXI series,
Little blonde girl dancer from Hot Gossip and Cleo Rocos(Kenny Everett Show)
My first crush-Kim Richards(Escape To/Return From Witch Mountain films/Nanny and the Professor series)
Actress Tracey Childs-Howard's Way

Page 3 girls Samantha Fox, Maria Whittaker & Linda Lusardi(to name but three)
The sexy blonde girl Natasha England that sang Iko Iko song on Top of The Pops

Kim Wilde & Carol Decker(T'Pau) great legs
Suzanne Dando

& Suzanne Danielle(legs up to her armpits)

(20-02-2019 02:44 )GreenMachine Wrote:  I was thinking about what girls/women you might have been attracted to as a teen.

Marilu Henner - good shout!

Page 3 girls:
Christine Stone; Ruth Gordon; Jane Warner

Actresses:
Sue Lloyd (only reason to watch Crossroads)
Jacqueline Pearce (Blakes 7)
Pamela Salem (played a witch in some fantasy programme I can't remember the name of)

In no particular order

Debbie Harry (Blondie)
Jacqueline Smith (Charlie’s Angels)
Maria Whittaker (Page 3 girl)
Sue Upton (Hill’s Angel)
Delvene Delaney (The Paul Hogan Show)

The 3 lovely ladies that I had a crush on back in the day was:
Kim Basinger, I remember watching the 1989 Batman movie starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson and I remember being a bit mesmerized by her beauty at the time, after that when ever I was in my local VHS store, I'd always have a quick look to see if I could hire out anything she was in, no matter how crap the movie was .




Another was Rebecca de Mornay from the movie Risky Business (1983).





....and Amanda de Cadenet.



Those were the days!!