Snippets of memories

Gym slips and Lyle stockings

by isadora101 @ 2008-06-13 – 19:16:17

... were what we wore at my old Grammar school!!

Recently I was reminiscing about my school days again and I came across a name I recognised.
The name was in an old programme which had the cast list of the School Variety Show of 1962.
I was in the show that year acting in a little fantasy play which was set in the roots system of a plant. In this roots system there was a board room and I was playing the part of the Minister for Pollination ..and that is about all I can remember about the plot although I do have one little reminder of the performance and that is this litle ink-stained photo which is the only school photo I actually have in my possesssion (as opposed to finding pics on the net)

..i'll let you guess which one is me.

I digress....the name in the programme was 'Carol Fletcher' who was one year down from me. She was a very pretty but delicate looking girl but one who was highly talented and full of confidence.
In the variety show there was a section which was dedicated to famous American songs (remember it was 1962) and she appeared wearing a frilly dress with ringlets and carrying a parasol. She was about 12 years old at the time and she sang the song 'Sweet Annabel Lee' ..I think she also sang 'Big Rock Candy Mountain' with a few other warblers and the performances were very well received in the school hall.

I never really got to know her but nevertheless, one day, many many years later I was watching tele and I spotted a familiar face and the name in the credits confirmed it...she had gone on to earn a living as a performer although the route she took wasn't exactly as I would have expected as she had joined the troupe Hot Gossip and the tele show I was watching was the Kenny Everett show.
Take a trip down memory lane and watch this videoclip of Hot Gossip in 1978 even though it was rubbish then and is still rubbish now (maybe a little kitsch)
Carol is the zombified blonde one on the right hand side of the still and the one at the very end of the line when they are in single file.

As for me.. I went on to enter the school Christmas talent concert the following year and gave a rendition of 'Silent Night'...I failed on some of the high notes and I heard the giggles in the audience.

This abruptly ended any thoughts of me ever acting or singing in public again!

Button tins

by isadora101 @ 2008-05-27 – 20:04:45

I was rummaging around in the garage looking for the key to an old bicycle lock when I came across this old button tin which I must have had for over thirty years

Do people keep button tins any more?....I mean apart from the ladies who do dress-making professionally or as a hobby. Does the button tin have a place in today's home as remembering to cut buttons off old clothes now seems to be nought but a chore.

I seem to remember mum always had a tin and whenever the clothes which had been passed down from child to child were finally done, then the zips and buttons were cut out for future use. Not only was her button tin a storage container for buttons but it was also a means of keeping us children amused when it was too wet to play outside. Stories could be woven around the various buttons, the military ones, the sparkly ones even the plain shirt buttons.
We learned to add and subtract with buttons.
"How many red buttons?"
"If there are three red buttons and two yellow buttons, how many all told?"
"And if we take a red and a yellow button away, how many left?"

I must have carried on the tradition when I left home but I can't remember ever sewing the buttons which I had cut off from my jumble sale buys on to any other items of clothing
I know people collect interesting buttons as a hobby but I never kept them for this reason...so why have I still got them after all these years

Oh, I remember now..it's because I also throw obsolete keys in the tin too just in case I ever need them again

Down the old school lane

by isadora101 @ 2008-05-05 – 19:13:11

it's been a long day today, whiling way the hours until we depart at 11pm tonight in order to catch our plane to Nimes.
I've had my bath, ive cooked the main meal, i've defrosted the fridge, i've checked the bags in case i've forgotten anything and then inevitably I ended up browsing on the computer.
I wasn't searching for anything in particular but somehow I landed up on a site which an ex-pupil of my old Grammar school has created.
It was fascinating and I have spent a good couple of hours down memory lane as there are plenty of photos from the early 1960's (of which I have none) on the site.
I recalled the chemistry room and how I used to giggle at the back, the gym, the grounds, the school plays...I read articles from the old school magazine and relived many events that I had long forgotten...I found a picture of the long jump pitch which I had jumped the length of many many times ..I saw a photo of the hockey team I was briefly a member of (before they threw me out) and recognised two of my best friends from back then who I haven't seen since, which is nearly 45 years ago...and strangest of all amidst the random selection of form 'class' photos I discovered one which included ME taken in 1962!!

I am the one with the 'sort of' Helen Shapiro haircut second row to the back and fifth from the left

Yes, if you're trying to kill time waiting for an alloted hour then I wholeheartedly recommend a trip down memory Lane
I didn't really excel at school after the second year and was 'rather' disruptive according to my old school report (which I have also delved into just now)
but this unexpected encounter with the past has left me with fond memories of the old place

Only four hours to go now before we lock the doors to the house for five days... what should I do now

Once a hoarder..

by isadora101 @ 2008-04-05 – 18:49:12

So I said to t'old man on a wet April afternoon
"while i'm stuck indoors, i'll wade through all those old programmes and souvenirs that i've got stashed in boxes"
The idea being to free some cupboard space and incorporate a bit of spring cleaning.
So I got them all out, scattered the various 'piles' all around and a spent a lovely couple of hours wallowing in nostagia

"Where's all the waste for the rubbish bin then?" enquired t'old man much later.
"Errr...here it is" I muttered as I handed him a couple of old travel brochures and some scrap bits of paper.

"Is that all ?"..he asked in bemusement

"Well Yes".....after all how can I possibly throw away the special viewers that we were provided with when we went to witness the eclipse in Strasbourg in 1999..or the Arena de Verona tickets to see Carmen in 2003..or the plastic spoon sets we brought home from EuroDisney when I took a 9 year old Bella there in its first year of opening in 1992...or all the programmes from our broadway theatre visits and the folk festivals..........................

"No sorry love...once a hoarder always a hoarder"

Blueberrys and strawberries : no go

by isadora101 @ 2008-03-28 – 14:30:39

When Lulu was just a little girl she was given penicillin to treat a common childhood illness. She developed a rash and very large blisters all over her body so immediately on return to the doctor's surgery it was written in her medical notes that on no account must she be prescribed penicillin.
35 years later and she hasn't been prescribed penicillin since, at times it has been difficult as she often gets slight reactions to other medicines too.
She has suffered with asthma too since childhood although it wasn't diagnosed properly 'til she was a young teenager and took many years for it to be properly controlled....she likes cats and still has two even though she is probably allergic to cat hair.

All well and good as her general health has been stabilised for quite a while now....then last week after spending the day in London with a friend they went to an trendy cafe where Lulu had a delicious piece of blueberry cheesecake, about 20mins later her friend asked what was wrong with her eyes, they were all red, swollen and puffy, then a rash appeared all over her body and large welts appeared, she told me that she also became very wheezy, and felt nauseous for around 4 hours.
I asked her what had triggered the reaction?
She's had cheesecake before with no problems, but not blueberries apart from earlier last week when she bought some fresh ones to try and ate half a dozen.. the following morning she had a tummy upset but thought nothing of it.
But thats how allergies go, the first time you are generally OK, then you develop anti bodies, so when you have them a second time, the reaction is worse, and once you are sensitised, the reactions continue to get worse each time!

She had the foresight to take a snap of the "welt" to show her doctor who confirmed she had a severe allergy reaction to blueberries and even gave her epipen adrenaline in case she has a reaction again.

You're never too old to develop new allergies it seems
So no more blueberries for Lulu!!

Bella on the other hand only has one known allergy...to strawberries... when on consumption she gets little ulcers on her tongue and inside gum.

The Cure

by isadora101 @ 2008-03-22 – 13:32:01

In the early 1980's on the wall, behind my head, in my computer room where I am sitting now, there used to be a huge poster of Robert Smith of the Cure...something like this

It was there because this room used to be Lulu's bedroom and when she was about 14/15 she was a massive fan of The Cure.

Now at age 37 she often reminds me of how I 'robbed' her of the chance of seeing them live.
Now I don't remember too much about this accusation but I can only summise it was because the gig was too far away and we didn't have much money or any transport back then in the early 1980's.

On Friday Morning I received a text from her saying "had a great time at Wembley last night"...yes, she had finally managed to see the 'Cure' in concert at last.

Moral to the story is...ALL THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT!!

Lesson learnt

by isadora101 @ 2008-03-05 – 16:31:14

I wouldn't say that Jane is my best mate but she is probably the one i've known the longest
It was around 1973 when she was about 17 and I was 23, we were hitch-hiking to a camp-site in Dorset..the driver of a 'taupalin covered' lorry stopped to give us a lift.
Jane was a smoker at the time and during the course of a pleasant chatty journey where we were perched at the front of the cab with the driver she tossed her lighted tab end out the window (as you do/did).
Five minutes later, still cruising along, we heard a car horn peeping loudly.
The driver looked into his rear mirror and saw a cloud of smoke.

The tab end had only landed under the taupalin and had set fire to his load which was BALES OF WASTE PAPER!!
He screeched to a halt in what was a relatively quiet country road and we became panicky as we saw flames beginning to lick. the fire brigade was called and Jane apologised profusely.
Lesson learnt!
Fortunately the lorry driver was pretty cool about it and told us not to worry... in fact when a car stopped to see if we needed any assistance the driver insisted we accept the lift to the nearest town that this 'respectable business man' was offering.
Accept we did and the conversation soon veered away from the perils of throwing tab-ends out of moving vehicle windows to lipstick and false eyelashes
It turned out that our Good Samaritan was a closet transvestite and was taking the opportunity to glean some make-up tips from a couple of rather dizzy, giddy young women.

It comes to us all eventually

by isadora101 @ 2007-12-27 – 12:02:33

It wouldn't be funny if it wasn't so true... Julie Andrews turned 69 - To commemorate her 69th birthday on October 1, actress/vocalist, Julie Andrews made a special appearance at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the AARP. One of the musical numbers she
performed was "My Favorite Things" from the legendary movie "Sound Of Music."

Here are the actual lyrics she used:

Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting, Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings, Bundles of magazines tied up in string, These
are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts, and hearing aids and glasses, Polident and
Fixodent and false teeth in glasses, Pacemakers, golf carts and porches
with swings, These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak, When the bones creak, When the knees go bad, I
simply remember my favorite things, And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions, No spicy hot food or
food cooked with onions, Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they
bring, These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pains, confused brains, and no need for sinnin', Thin bones and
fractures and hai r that is thinnin', And we won't mention our short,
shrunken frames, When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache, When the hips break, When the eyes grow dim, Then
I remember the great life I've had, And then I don't feel so bad.

(Ms. Andrews received a standing ovation from the crowd that lasted over four minutes and repeated encores.)

Enjoy

by isadora101 @ 2007-12-10 – 22:19:39

In homage to the millions of novice guitarists who practised and practised Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven'
Take a listen to this
It gets better as the video progresses.

Stairway to Heaven live (Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Some old folks having fun

by isadora101 @ 2007-12-10 – 20:58:10

Some old folks having fun" was the parting line of Jon Snow as he closed the channel 4 news programme tonight.
He was referring to a feature on the Led Zeppellin concert. :p

Did I ever tell you about when I saw Misters Page, Plant and Bonham?
Well...when I saw them I didn't actually attend the concert.. it was October 1969 at the Lyceum in the West end of London and I was living in a squat and was totally skint at the time, so we went to the back of the building and heard the "noise" through the walls.
Until the end of the concert that was, then, on playing the last song the entrance doors were opened to let the audience out and we rushed in just in time to see them do an encore
I don't remember that much about it but I do remember this amazing long-haired God of a figure stood on stage with guitar in hand and the atmosphere was electric.
They sure don't look like that now although i'm sure the gig will be just as electric .

Oh and did you see Joni Mitchell on tv last week?
I saw her in concert in the early 70's and she personified everything I thought a modern young woman should be back then, so pure and natural ...so it was scary seeing her as this post middle-aged lady now dressed all in black wearing a black fedora instead of a bandana, smoking away while being filmed and who revealed that she had been smoking cigarettes since she was nine years old
Joni's comeback album has arrived courtesy of the coffee chain Starbucks's label 'Hear Music'. She was unrepentent when asked if there was any difference between a major record label and a fast-food multinational these days, as there is something a little odd about a woman who complained long and hard about the exploitative nature of the music business throwing in her lot with Starbucks, a company that has, over the years, faced a series of charges of unfair labour practice.
"well", she said "It was a very good deal"
Ah well, as Jon Snow just said "Some old folks having fun"

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