60s and 70s re-runs

In the 80s and throughout most of the 90s, when kids woke up at an ungodly hour, they could run downstairs, switch on the TV and treat themselves to classic TV shows like Camberwick Green, The Herbs and The Magic Roundabout. Yes, it's fair to say that the writers of these shows were probably stoned when they wrote the stories or at least had no idea how to be PC. But Political Correctness was still in hiding, still biding it's time, it had yet to bite our heads off if we so much as mentioned someone had a different hair colour. Those were happier times. The 60s and early 70s were still in our midst, still watching over us in the form of kids TV and guiding our thought patterns through the marriage psychedelic idealisms and the stiff-upper-lip of Britishness.

Nowadays, we are most likely greeted with the following if we wake up at 6am:


What happened to Brum? Thomas the Tank Engine? Rainbow? You know, TV that may have encouraged drug usage but didn't promote badly dressed f*cktards as role models. At the very worst, it was suggested that we dress in tight lycra and fight evil, or that puppets were going to be our saviours but these programns atleast had some dignity and imagination. It was about fighting the bad guys, standing up for what was moral and true. The only thing that Big Cook Little Cook promotes is how to be the most boring, yet annoying, person in the playground. In the 90s, you wouldn't have dared dance like that for fear of getting your face smacked in, or at least suffering rejection from your peers. Nowadays, kids are taught to accept stupid behaviour, that attention-seeking f*ckwits are people too. Well, they're not. They're irritating and bring everyone else down.

Bring back good old TV. The songs were much better, back then.

BBC - The Herbs

Smarties

Gone are the days when these delightful little sweets were full of sugary goodness and additives. Today's average tube of smarties looks like it's been left out in the rain instead of being the bold and bright rainbow it once was. Let's consider the facts.

_______Old Smarties* ___________ _________New Smarties*

The Smarties on the right are the new healthier option, they are not chemically coloured but are made using natural products found in plants, minerals and other incredibly boring, 'good4u', sources. They might make my tummy happy but they make my eyes want to cry.

The Smarties on the left are the amazingly artifically coloured smarties. Not only does merely looking at them put you in a good mood but apparently they also promote entertaining behaviour such as temper tantrums and hyperactivity [Mail on Sunday], which is something I personally value seeing as TV programming has turned to sh*t recently. What better way to spend you evening than by watching your seven year old run round and round the room screaming abuse at you and throwing your precious Thai vase against the wall? I can't think of one.

Of course, I recognise that we have to look after kids, that feeding them chemicals and encouraging them to shatter expensive furniture is not the best way to raise them BUT look at it this way:

1. 90s kids were raised on the good kind of smartie, the special welcoming kind that made you feel good and go crazy. And going crazy meant you were EXERCISING. And we turned out alright. Sure, there's the odd one or two of us who is in and out of the psychiatric ward but hey! Better to be insane than boring, right?
   
2. The new brand of 'healthy' smartie looks like some brat has sucked on it for a good 10 minutes then spat it out. It's just not aesthetically pleasing. And that was half the fun of smarties... that they looked happy.
   
3. It's chocolate. And it's sugar. It's not meant to be good for you, it's not one of your 5-a-day, it's a sweet. A pleasant, but occasional change to the monotony of carrots and peas. It's meant to make you excited. It's an escapism, the less artificial rubbish there is in smarties, the more 8 year olds will be turning to cocaine. Mark my words.

So, ladies and gentleman of the jury, I say bring back this little bundle of joy! Let us celebrate the endorphins and highs it gives us and forget about the damage it does!

*Picture property of http://www.smh.com.au/

Nostalgic Niggles - Introductory Post

There are so many things that, even as fairly young adults, we get nostalgic and all 'In-my-day...' about. This blog aims to explore those nostalgic niggles you feel when you walk past modern day toy shops and see robotic pets instead of 2XL, or when you trail the aisles of Sainsbury's only to discover that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pizza still hasn't returned to the production line.

Times are-a-changing but we really wish they weren't.