Memories of Childhood

Today is GCSE results day for thousands of students and it set me wondering about when we used to have to wait the whole summer to get our results of GCE's/CSE's/CEE's etc. I know I used to dread that day when the little brown envelopes(that you had to provide with a stamp in the first place) came through the letterbox. I was one of those people that was pretty bright but seemed to somehow find the English O'Level exam hard to pass(and god knows I took it and retook it enough times) but I was very suspicious at some of the results of that; my results went D.U.D.E.D.D.D.D. and each time it seemed I missed out-I am still convinced they didn't mark them properly and to get a U and an E was unprecedented as I wasn't that bad. I could have challenged them on it but they used to charge you enough to do a retake. I also remember doing BTEC retake exam in Business Calculations and I had got an E the first time but one day in November I went back into school and retook it and I got a C! The major irony was the English bit, People & Communications I passed with B. I reckon I was royally stitched up!!
Do you remember what it was like to wait for YOUR school exam results? Did it spoil your Summer waiting and did you dream that you had passed them all? What was the reality?

I certainly recall with more than a sense of nostalgia TV programmes of the (very late 70's)eighties and - mostly - nineties (ok not a child by that stage), and the dross of today, with its celebrity, reality, wannabe crap, and the general race to the 'populist bottom. In particular, when a child (and a little older I confess) the greatest programme ever - Thunderbirds. I have no doubt children now who watched the updated version of it were thrilled with the CGI, but for this knarly 'old(er)' cynic, it was completely soulless! Also The best era of music for me was the eighties for sure (with the greatext span being '79 to '84) I recall the first record I (had bought for me) was The Sweet double A - I think - Hellraiser/Blockbuster. To this day, it remains a classic that trumps a lot of the current crop (to be honest, I no longer havde a clue who is succeeding in the charts).

Fashion as a growing boy?? Maybe best not to go there except to mention one pair of trousers I tortured my mum to make for me! They were the Tartan striped number worn by the 'Bay City Rollers' ...yeah I know!! Many are probably thinking ' who the fuck are they??'

My exam results?? Heavily censored!! Oh and the best toy I was ever given - an Audi Quattro RC Rally Car!! Epic!!

Absolutely hated the BCRollers!
Funny you should mention Thunderbirds I will be doing a retrospective on the Animation thread next week covering every detail of it that I know(being a member of Fanderson since 1985 I ought to know a lot )so watch for that shortly.

(22-08-2019 21:01 )GMach1 Wrote:  Absolutely hated the BCRollers!
Funny you should mention Thunderbirds I will be doing a retrospective on the Animation thread next week covering every detail of it that I know(being a member of Fanderson since 1985 I ought to know a lot )so watch for that shortly.

Good man GMach.!! Can't forget to include a much deserved panning for the 'live character' movie. An abomination, which apparently set Gerry Anderson off in private! Should have made his displeasure known to everyone, as I think the vast majority would have agreed with him!! As big an insult to him, as was the remake of Yes Minister/Prime Minister(best british comedy in history) to Paul Eddington/Nigel Hawthorne/Derek Foulds. A slight deviation from topic...sorry, but I had to vent!

On the Fanderson Facebook page it is mixed-the childhood memories of that against the updated version. Some like it some don't -I personally thought it was okay but too American. I will give my overall verdict of it and what I really thought when I do TBirds in all its guises shortly.

I do remember some friends of mine and me (I was about 13 or 14 at the time) decided to visit this old manor a couple of miles outside the village which is now I believe converted into a medical centre - and was reputedly haunted!! I think the old owner whoever they were had apparently, some old German WWII uniforms and there were stories that ghosts made the uniforms walk. We went up to the manor one sunny afternoon when most of our parents had gone out and we managed to find a hole in the side wall and I think the hole was in part of the basement and I didn't go in as it was too dark for me. I stayed outside keeping look out. My friends came out some ten minutes later white as a sheet saying they had heard strange noises and voices!!

So did any of you go to places that had a haunted reputation and swished you hadn't?

I attended a Cub Scout camp once and we were told stories that a nearby house was supposed to be haunted but I don't think many of us believed it and in any case the place was out of bounds to us. It is said that a large Victorian place Halliwick Hospital(now called Princes Park Manor Health Centre) is supposed to be haunted by some ghosts of previous inmates that died there. It was once a lunatic asylum(you would get some people allowed to wander about the street back then) but to be honest it was a soul-destroying, awful place-the place where Spike Milligan took himself when he headed for a nervous breakdown. It is a Grade 2 listed building and couldn't be knocked down so it was redeveloped instead-still an awful place with far too many memories of people stuck there-they had no idea about mental illness back then.

Do you remember when the simplest of things gave us pleasure-like building a 'tank' using an old thread holder, a rubber band, a matchstick to wind it up and watch it fly off the table.? Nature provided some good stuff too like conkers from the horse chestnut tree to play games at school and sycamore seeds that fell when brown to the ground and if you pick them up, separate them and throw them into the air, they would spiral down helicopter-style to the ground-still do that today but they have to be brown not green or it won't work.

Maybe the 2000's should be added to this poll as the 2000 Generation are getting old enough to be on the Forum now.

Nothing to stop you starting a thread for it if you want to