scribbles tagged ‘1978’

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Saturday, July 9th, 2011 | tags: , , , ,  |

White phone boxMaking sure you got your phone calls was a complicated affair in the days before cell phones and answer machines. Especially for a teenager. This is just one of the problems I encountered – after coming home from a long, fun night practicing with the marching band:

Mumzie: Graham called while you were out

Wendy: Graham! Which Graham? What did he say?

Darn, now mum knows there are several Grahams in my life and he might have told her something personal.

Mumzie: there’s more than one Graham? He didn’t say what it was about dear, just said to let you know he’d called

Double darn

Clearly this is a discreat Graham. Can’t pick one out from the rest based on that description. So now I have to work out in which order to phone them back. Then how to start the conversation without giving away that I don’t know if I’m returning a call, or calling them for the first time? Then I have to work out how to advise mumzie on taking future calls from Grahams, to help her work out which one called without saying “which Graham are you?” which would make each of them feel insignificant, and they’re not. They’re all special in different ways

Life’s so complicated!

 

 

2 bits of fabulous banter »

i’ll do that

Monday, June 14th, 2010 | tags: , , ,  |

 As a 14 year old I found this song really cheerful and bouncy.  I still find it engagingly bouncy and will occassionally pogo around my front room and garden singing the chorus.  The ability to sing repetitive lines, badly while bouncing in the privacy of my own home has always been important to me.  It’s a fettish that my parents gladly indulged. They sniggered.  Now the song features in a traditional ‘bread’ advertisement, prompting bouncing-breaks during advertsing breaks, unexpected bouncing is fabulous.

Plastic Bertrand sang ca plan pour moi

2 bits of fabulous banter »

an artful little caprice

Monday, October 19th, 2009 | tags: , ,  |

John PeelJohn Peel once described ‘another girl, another planet’ as an artful little caprice.

I’ve always rather fancied that the other planet is planet Wendy

Planet Wendy is definitely a good place to be another girl

the only ones sang another girl, another planet

2 bits of fabulous banter »

Jiggling and Jilted

Monday, February 2nd, 2009 | tags: , , , ,  |

In 1978 I was witnessing the dramatic emotional rollercoasters and soap operas stories of my friends while they discovered ‘going out’ with each other. Fascinating. Tearful toilet consultations, betrayals in the school playground, ambushing at the school gates, but worst of all for me – underwear became important. One girlfriend took me aside to provide worldly advice on behalf of my concerned girlfriends. The advice was:

Wendy, you really should wear a bra, they look a disaster

At home I asked mum ˜can I have a bra?, ˜yes dear, if you want. Gosh that was easy. We went to the local M&S   where they measured the relevant pasts of my body and I tried on several   ˜training” bras. Training because evidently I needed to practice bra wearing skills. Even the smallest training bra was less that half empty on me. It seemed silly, mum and I persisted in this pubescently significant purchase, neither of us overtly questioning the need. I wore the elasticated mini-monstrosity to school. At school the straps were twanged by all sundry as we moved between classes. I didn’t wear it again. Disaster was a less painful experience than strap-twang-burns Ever since then I have regularly failed carefully provided training-to-be-female exercises.

Jilted John sang Jilted John the side was going steady (with Susan)

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Lionel Bart of the 70′s

Monday, January 26th, 2009 | tags: , ,  |

In 1978 Peter Cook acting as a ballroom manager remotely compares the unmissable Revolver series where he introduces Ian Dury as the   Lionel Bart of the 70′s. Ian Dury was often stylishly sporting hats and wearing gloves. Clearly a man with both literary and wardrobe talent. New Boots and Panties! walked with me from the childhood suburbs to an adult world of adventures..

Ian Dury played What a waste
(warning: this video includes Sax)

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