Ladybird books - childhood favourites

When I was little, I loved Ladybird books. I had a big collection, ranging from fairy stories to natural history. We used to buy them at Woolworths in Barnsley, it was a treat to finish reading one book and then go to town on a Saturday morning to choose another one.

I liked the Aesop's Fables books and had all the Ladybird editions. Another favourite was "Bunney Fluff's Moving Day". One of my favourite fairy tales was "Beauty and the Beast".

My original Ladybird books are now all long gone, but I have bought a few on ebay and in local second hand bookshops. I just wish I had room for more!

For those interested in collecting vintage Ladybird books, or wanting to enjoy the nostalgia, there are site for enthusiasts here (Official Vintage Ladybird), here (Ladybird Fly Away Home), here (Nicole's Website for Collectors), here (Easy on the Eye) and here (The Wee Web).

My collection of vintage Ladybird books.

Childrens TV: Barnaby Bear ("Colargol")

In the 1970s I remember watching a programme on BBC1 called "Barnaby Bear". The series was about a small bear who wanted to sing and travel round the world, and it was on early on Sunday morning the last time I remember it being shown.
The series was originally a French story called "Colargol" - which was made by Polish animators.

"Barnaby" is largely forgotten now, and rarely seems to appear in lists of favourite old childrens programmes, which is a shame.


The French opening titles for "Colargol".


The British opening sequence for "Barnaby".


"Colargol" in Polish.

A Barnaby Bear site for anyone who wants to enjoy the nostalgia :-)

The Viewmaster toy

In the late 1970s, I was given a Viewmaster as a present. The Viewmaster was a plastic stereo viewing device which came with card discs containing pictures, which you put into the viewer and could then view the photo in 3D.

The discs contained pictures on many themes - beautiful scenes (I had a lovely one of Mount Fuji), cartoons (I had The Rescuers, 101 Dalmatians, Water Babies), TV programmes (Famous Five) and films (Tron and Annie). I remember some of the sets had better 3D than others. Other kids often had a Viewmaster, so we used to get together and swap the discs round so I saw loads more than I had in my own collection.

Unlike many other old toys, I still have the Viewmaster and a couple of sets in the original packaging.

Home computers in the early 1980s

In the early 1980s, the thing every kid wanted for Christmas was a home computer. In those days, the computers had tiny memories compared to what you see in a PC today. We thought it was great if you had a ZX Spectrum 48K, then there was a Spectrum 16K and other computers such as the Commodore 64, the Dragon 32 and the BBC Computers by Acorn, which you used to find mostly in schools.

The early home computers would use the ordinary TV as a monitor, which was a bit of a pain if someone wanted to watch TV and you wanted to use the computer.

The Sinclair ZX80 was a British-made computer with a touch sensitive keyboard. It was the first of the popular ZX computers by Sinclair Research. This photo is by Editorsthocp.

The ZX80 was followed by the ZX81, another touch key computer. I remember a friend having one, and it was the first home computer I ever had a go on. The display was in black and white and, like other home computers, you needed to plug it into the TV to use it.

At Christmas 1983, I got my first computer, the legendary (and legendarily temperamental in my experience!) ZX Spectrum. My Spectrum was the 16K version, and I also received a few games to play on it. These were "Heathrow" air traffic control sim, "Slippery Sid" snake game and "Haunted Hedges" - a Pac Man type game. The Spectrum had colour, so games looked better, and also a rubber keyboard. The games took ages to load though, accompanied by a high pitched sound and coloured bars up and down the screen.

The ZX Spectrum, photo by Bill Bertram.

My Spectrum worked well for a couple of weeks, then totally crashed. We joined the queue of people at the shop who had also returned a crashed Spectrum. We were given a replacement, which worked relatively OK, except that more and more games would crash on loading, which meant that I could only play a very limited number which did not crash. Most of my games ended up being given to cousins, as shops would not exchange or refund games.

We had the 16K Spectrum upgraded to a 48K, and a couple more games joined my favourites list - Atic Atac, where you explore a haunted house looking for parts of a key to allow you to escape, and Jet Set Willy, a sequel to Manic Miner where you have to guide the character round his weird house collecting objects.

For the patient, here is the loading sequence to Manic Miner:


I can imagine that many people today who had an early (and temperamental!) home computer are pleased that they don't make them like that anymore!

Secret Army

Between 1977 and 1979, the BBC showed a series called "Secret Army", which was made in association with the Belgian company BRT.
"Secret Army" featured the Brussels-based escape line "Lifeline", which would guide Allied airmen from Belgium down into Spain where they could be returned to active service. Of course, things didn't always go smoothly for Lifeline, and they were constantly having to worry about the possibility of the Gestapo or Luftwaffe finding out about their activities.
"Secret Army" was repeated (in edited form) on UKTV History but has not been shown on the BBC in full for many years.
In my opinion, "Secret Army" was the best BBC drama series ever.

The opening sequence to series three.


Major Reinhardt, the best character in the series, works out who was running Lifeline.
 For fans of "Secret Army" I am building this Facebook page tribute to the series: Secret Army

Favourite crisps you never see now

When I was at school, crisps were part of my daily packed lunch, I adored them! I remember the only flavours I never liked much were salt and vinegar and prawn cocktail (which never tasted much like prawn cocktail in my opinion!) Sadly, alot of the crisps I used to enjoy are no longer available.

Walkers made a range of pizza-flavoured crisps called "Bitza Pizza" and I loved them. I don't know exactly when they were discontinued though. Below you can see one of the TV adverts for the Bitza Pizza crisps.




I remember Walkers briefly producing spicy sausage flavoured crisps, which were among my favourites along with roast chicken and smoky bacon flavours.

In the 1980s, Holland and Barrett health food shops used to sell a range called Wheateats, another favourite. They were available in cheese, peanut butter, spring onion and natural flavours. The cheese ones were my favourite, they were bright orange and had a great taste.

Rail Travel

When I was younger we lived in Barnsley, which, like many other areas, had lost railway stations owing to Beeching's mass closures. So instead of being able to catch a train in Cudworth, Royston or Monk Bretton, we had to go from Barnsley. At that time, you could either catch a train to Leeds or to Sheffield. The train I remember most from those trips to Leeds and Sheffield was the Class 101 DMU, which, at that time, were all in British Rail blue liveries (much better than the various train companies we have now, and certainly these British-built trains were preferable to many running on our rails in the present day!)

I remember holidays in Scotland, which invariably meant a change in Leeds onto the Inter City 125 train, which, when I was a kid, I loved travelling on. Travelling onwards to Aviemore, Inverness or Oban was a real delight, train travel in Scotland was always good, as I loved the scenery and the places.

Catching a train from Leeds to Scarborough would involve travelling on a long train, hauled by a locomotive. On those long trains you were almost certain to be able to find a seat and the journey would be enjoyable, as, once past York, the ride to Scarborough is very pleasant and through rural areas. Nowadays, the ride from Leeds to Scarborough involves getting on a three carriage, cramped thing which will have a huge number of reserved seats and could well involve standing up for most, if not all of the journey.

Rail travel is one thing which has certainly NOT improved over the years.