Well with rheumy eyes I've dug out a few snaps from the Woodsy family album to see what I was doing during the real summers of the Mid-Sixties! All of these shots, as far as I can remember, are at Butlins, my late great parents' favourite summer residence back then [never got to Pontins]! Either Pwhelli or Minehead or Weston Super Mare [?]. I loved all that Butlins stuff - the Redcoats, the Monorail, the Retro lights, the fountains and the chalets! Naff? Yes, probably but back then it was what working class families did from Lancashire and us kids lapped it up! Like all good parents wanting to shut theit little monsters up, mine provided me with all my favourite holiday toys - cap rifles [top photo - dated September 1967 and stamped Kodak!], my plastic silver Knight's helmet and sword - next one down - I had a breastplate too and I think I'm holding onto a string from a boat! 1966?] and most important of all, a whole flotilla of cheap plastic boats for setting sail on the various pools and lakes scattered about Butlins! [bottom four pics. 1966?]. I'll never forget the wonderful smell of roast potatoes in the canteen for the 'happy campers' and everyone got a pot of tea and a bread roll and butter with their meals [pic below with baby Woodsy 1961]! No idea where my Woodsy brothers and sisters are - probably dressed as Pirates ambushing the Redcoats! Ahh, happy happy days.
So very much in honour of all those cheap plastic boats my Folks bought me at Butlins, I treated myself to the modern equivalent, a car ferry, whilst enjoying the Baltic seaside this July! Grand!
Anyone want to send in pics of their Sixties and I'll gladly post them!
WOTAN SAYS:
Well, funny you should mention that Woodsy!
Heres me circa 1973 sat on a boat with my dad in Devon. Im the monster my dad created and its thanks to him that I have such a massive collection of catalogues, toy cars and varying degrees of compulsive behaviours and obsession. It would have been his birthday this month, so its quite apt.
And this rather sullen child has appeared previously, complete with his collection of Teachers Pets and other rubber monsters, plus a small plastic train! This would have been around 1968 and is prior to my discovery of my rubber namesake Wotan, so him and his rubber alien buddies don't appear on my tabletop display! Oddly enough, ive still got 90% of these!
WOTAN SAYS:
Well, funny you should mention that Woodsy!
Heres me circa 1973 sat on a boat with my dad in Devon. Im the monster my dad created and its thanks to him that I have such a massive collection of catalogues, toy cars and varying degrees of compulsive behaviours and obsession. It would have been his birthday this month, so its quite apt.
And this rather sullen child has appeared previously, complete with his collection of Teachers Pets and other rubber monsters, plus a small plastic train! This would have been around 1968 and is prior to my discovery of my rubber namesake Wotan, so him and his rubber alien buddies don't appear on my tabletop display! Oddly enough, ive still got 90% of these!
Wotan, you appear to have a brain-eating...er...lets see what the verification word is...Wishl, you appear to have a brain-eating Wishl on your head, which might explain a few things!!
ReplyDeleteWoodsy, what are you doing wearing my shirt? Or were we all "Arms Up!" put in stripped T's in the 60's. And I bet those shorts are blue!!
'Wishl'...Brain eater!
Your Baltic ferry is fascinating, while the deck has differences, the hull is the same as some I got from Italy about 10 years ago and they both match an Ideal original!! One of those designs which has gone round the world three times and is still going albeit with the odd tweak!
keen eyed observers my also spot the 'Gnomes of Dulwich' in the flower boxes behind me. Anyone remember that ?
ReplyDelete