Little Success

 

It was slim pickins in the sunshine yesterday but I did pick up these inexpensive bits 'n' bobs up at the local boot sale, all from the same basket of oddments. All little figures, some yet to be ID'd. 

I love the header-carded and bagged antiqued American Indian. The standing shooter next to it is from the same range.

The two blister carded figures were originally hung on the necks of Grants whisky bottles! 

Anything you recognise? 

Christmas Drinkies

Christmas in the Sixties and Seventies meant drinks iny parents house. Lots of festive drinks.

As a kid I stuck to my usual beverages: Tizer, dandelion and burdock, sarsaparilla and lemonade float. Some cola too, preferably Pepsi even though Santa seemed to promote Coke.

The adults, my parents and their friends, on the other hand, imbibed in all things Yule. This was the great generation who fought World War Two. They'd lost their youth over those dark five years and needed to party.

Beer was served from small metal barrels with taps hammered in. Watneys Party Four was a favourite. Bottled beers too, with scre in tops, in wooden crates: Mackison, Pale Ale, bitter, Newcastle Brown and Guinness. I don't recall lager back then.

For the ladies was a whole bar full of bottled delights: Sandemans Sherry for the daytime tipples, Cherry B and Babycham ( in labelled glasses) for the early evening and then came the snowballs.

Snowballs were either mixed by hand using Warnings advocat and lemonade or straight from a small green bottle. I think we had labelled Snowball glasses too for the occasion. It's a festive treat I like myself nowadays.

Hard liquor like Bells Whisky, Gordons Gin and Brandy came out later. Mixers where Canada Dry and Schweppes Tonic Water in small bottles. I adored Canada Dry and grabbed a bottle off the drinks table whenever I could! 

I don't recall wine being drunk at all but that maybe just my memory playing up. There must have been wine in the UK in the Sixties.

Whatever the case, for my folks, having just turned 40, Christmas 1960 onwards was a decade for making merry. Everyone had a job, the kids were OK, the big family was round and Santa's sack was bulging. 

What more could you want.

Which festive drinks do you recall readers? 

TYPHOO TEETERS

 

Another sad day for iconic brands from our childhood. Typhoo Tea are about to call in the Administrators.

I remember collecting their tea cards as a kid, along with PG Tips and Brooke Bond.

I've drunk Yorkshire Tea for years now, so I haven't helped Typhoo either.

Will you miss Typhoo Tea?

CREATURES OF LEGEND with Kevin Tipps

 I picked this up for Moonbase Junior ages ago. Sitting down with Grandad sticking stuff in an album is what I had mind.

This particular album and card set, Creatures of Legend, were released by tea makers PG Tips, they of the chimp mascot called Kevin Tipps ( do they still exist?)

Having only a few cards currently, I've ordered a bundle offa eBay for Junior's pleasure.

Among the album's pages of mythical predators is Scylla, a six-headed Sicilian cave hag. Like much of the artwork in this set, Scylla's principle head has been lifted from that classic 1980's Vampire flick, Fright Night, you know,  the one with Roddy McDowell as the failed TV horror host and the screechy kid Evil Ed (who went on to star in much less mainstream fayre!)

The old gruesome twosome Drac and Frankie have to be included. The artwork is inspired by Hammer and Universal respectively.

Perhaps my favourite illustration is King Kong. I would say it's been inspired by the 1976 Kurt Russell Konger, would you?

A Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble New Year; Its 2024!

 

Happy New Year Readers! Thanks for all your continued support! Tune in to MoonBase Central throughout 2024 if you can!

Woodsy

*

and on a complete whim I got this glass the other day for a New Year sherry. Going for a song, a rock song, I couldn't resist it's link to one of my favourite heavy bands in the 1970's, the mighty Uriah Heep.

Yes, those ever so 'eavy rockers took there name from Charles Dickens's famous scribblings no less.

It'll come in handy for my New Year tipple today!

Still in the Seventies I missed out on an old Dutch bone china tea cup , which had the word Vader printed on the side in beautiful script. No idea why I didn't swoop.

I can't find an exact picture of it but here's a similar cup with Vader on the side, along with Moeder, Dutch for Father and Mother.

Have you an interesting New Year glass, vessel, cup or favourite tipple?

BEER IS THE KEY

 

This key ring I saw on Ebay is the same as the Watneys Red Barrel one I had as a kid. Like Terranova47's Red Barrel lorry, this key ring was part of my childhood and a memorable member of my huge key ring collection back in the day.

Did you have any key rings?

READERS SPOTTING TOYS: TERRANOVA'S MINIC WATNEYS PUB LORRY

I haven't seen an old toy in a pub that I wanted but I have a related story,

When in college I met by chance in a pub a school friend of mine that I hadn't seen for a few years. We shared the same birthday, though a year apart. 

In catching up on what we were doing now I mentioned that I had started collecting old toys, specifically the ones I had once had as a child, as well as models of the Austin FX3 taxi that I was driving when an art student. 

In talking old toys I mentioned that the one I had really wanted the most, but never had, was the Tri-ang Minic Watney's Barrel Delivery Lorry. A vehicle that I had seen making deliveries when a child.

A while latter for my 21st birthday he gave me the pictured model. It is somewhat worn but he had seen it in a Watney's pub, on a shelf behind the counter and bought it for me from the landlord.

Now it sits under a plastic case so as not to be further weathered, nearby are my conversions to create 'what if' contemporary toys, 

Brimtoy, 

Crescent, 

and the old Airfix kit, still available from Dapol.

It's interesting that if any toy belonged in a pub it would be a beer delivery vehicle.

Here in the US Budweiser Beer used to give some bars and restaurants three foot long models of their Horse Drawn Beer Wagon which in real life was used as a promotional vehicle.

I might have been interested in owning one if I cared for Budweiser, but I don't.

Maybe Paul in NZ can research the plastic kit once sold of it if he does a piece on horse drawn vehicle kits?

Terranova47

USA

DO YOU STILL GO OUT FOR A DRINK?

Being Sixty plus now I don't go for a drink as much as I did when I was young. I've never been a huge pub fan and I'm not really bothered about drinking but I do appreciate the social side of it.

I went to a bar tonight with the Missus and some mates, another couple. We are all of the same age and the drink was a pre-cinema drink. I had half an IPA, which was very nice. The Missus had lime and soda. We went to see the Miracle Club in an old fashioned cinema in Penistone celebrating 100 years of being open, a huge achievement for a small town picture house these days. Can you imagine the films that have been shown there over the last century!

En route the Missus and me noticed various pubs closed along the 30 minute journey. Shut on a Saturday night! Maybe shut permanently!

So, I wanted to ask two things. In your neck of the world are pubs closing? And do you still go out for a drink?

GOTHAM TIPPLE: BAT IN A BOTTLE

These are Arto's fab and original Finnish Batman bottles with painted interiors.

The recent Heritage Batman auction sold the bottle in this second photo as a vintage Finnish "Batman Day" special, but in reality it is just an original label pasted on a foreign bottle.

Enjoy,

Arto

Helsinki Base

Ein Spezi Please!

Still abroad I've been sampling various local brews. 

One here in Deutschland is Spezi. Sold in bottles and cans, it's a mixture of cola and orange fanta.

It's quite delicious!

Have you a cola drink in your neck of the woods readers!

FIZZ-NIK: THE AMERICAN CREAM

 

I was fascinated by this Fizz Nik.

At first I thought it was a space toy but no, its a straw!

You fill it with ice cream or ice, slot it in your fave pop bottle and away you go!

ha ha!

Love it!

Being a lover of 'floats' myself [I invented my own 'Disco Disaster' - the coke float] this Fizz Nik gets my vote for best straw ever made, easily the winner of Straw Wars!

But did it float your coke readers?

Did it catch on?

MILKY MONDAY

          

Milky Bar Hot Chocolate drink is made by Nestle, and comes in a box with 10 sachets.

The instructions on the back of the box say to empty the contents of a sachet in to a mug, then add hot milk, and enjoy. I add sugar, cold milk, and heat it in the microwave. Very nice on a cold evening!

The Hot Chocolate drink has only been available in NZ for a few years, and is made in Australia. I do not know when it first appeared, or how widely it is sold.

Would you like it Moonbasers?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

The Final Frontier: A Sloe Day in Space

Hello Woodsy

I just passed an expensive antique store on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

The centerpiece of the window should be of interest to readers of the blog.

I'm going to think of it as representing Britain's Space Program.

Stay well,

Terranova47

IS CANADA DRY GINGER ALE?

I'm really enjoying lime juice in my bottled lager again. Lager and Lime! Yes! Its a proper blast from the citric past, which I drank in the Seventies.

Another bottles drink I liked, in the Sixties, was Canada Dry. Now I'm confused about this. I can see it now in my mind's eye stood on my Dad's home-made bar but the taste memory I have is of Ginger Ale.

Was Canada Dry ginger ale?

Did you like it?

Desperately Drinking Chocolate

Hello Woodsy

As I sit in my living room drinking tea I read your post on Hot Chocolate. 

It proved a timely reminder as on checking, supplies are low and I'm not sure this is exported to the US. 

I brought mine back from the last visit to the UK and I'm not sure when the next trip will be.

Over the years I found the US brands are not as good and Roundtree's is just a childhood memory. I'm lazy and need instant gratification! 

Terranova47

USA

HOT CHOCCY ANYONE?

Working in winter means dark setting-offs and even darker homecomings. Its just dark in the UK. Dark dark dark.

The one things that cheers me up and warms my cockles when I get home is a hot chocolate.

There's just something about the creamy rich flavour of a cup of hot chocolate that makes me feel instantly better. Its a winter treat.

I always loved it as a kid and my Mum's brand was Rowntrees Cocoa, always served in a bone china cup. I think the only difference between cocoa and hot chocolate is sugar but Mum's pan-warmed cocoa was wonderful.

I'm not that fussed about the brand nowadays as long as its hot, chocolatey and made at least half with milk. I do it in the microwave and top up with hot water.

Do you partake in a hot choccy readers? What cheers you up on getting home in the dark of winter?

ROSEHIPS AND LULLABIES

Its funny what comes into your head. Personally its a bonus if anything does as my memory is terrible.

A recollection of a sweet drink came back today, a fruity syrup, maybe rosehip, from when I was a kid. 

I can see the glass bottle I think, with a little baby's face on the label. Rosehip syrup maybe? Now how I received this red treat is a mystery. I assume it was in a baby bottle with a teat.

Is this a familiar memory for you?

Along with the syrup I remember a lullaby my Mum used to sing to me as a kid falling asleep. My Dad too. It's a haunting melody, which has stayed with me but the words fade and re-appear in my mind like whispers. It was something like:

Go to sleep my Baby, close your little eyes ........

And after that I'm lost. I wish I knew more about this song. Does it ring any bells with you readers?

These are probably the earliest things I recall but they remain only half-memories, light footprints in the sand. I wish I could bring up more from my earliest years.

IT'S ABOUT LIME!

Nothing can bring back the salty, sandy, sunny feel of my Sixties childhood holidays at the seaside like the taste of ...... lime milkshake!

Yes, lime milkshake was the very essence of a great time on our classic British staycations back in the swinging decade. You could get milkshakes everywhere. Beach cafes, high street cafes, corner cafes and even milk bars dedicated to ... milk.

I know chocolate milkshake was pretty damn fine and banana rocked but lime, lime was just special. The green colour was pale enough to make it look good - an acceptable green, a palatable green - and the taste, my word. Citrusy, a slight tang, the only word for it would be lime. Lime connoisseurs might detect hot orchards, billowing Tuareg tents and the breath of the Nile but I get sand, sea and sunshine in Burnham on Sea!

The good news, no, great news, is that lime milkshake is back!

Crusha, that wonderful milky company, have kindly re-issued it and my daughter got me a bottle for Fathers Day. I've been gurgling the stuff ever since! I've even tried it with ice but haven't yet topped it off with vanilla ice cream as I want the unadulterated taste of limes for now. Garnish comes later.

Lime isn't univerally popular though. I tried a straw poll and gave a friend some this week ... with a straw. Nope, the faced curled up as if she'd eaten a raw lemon and the drink went largely unfinished. It was difficult for me pouring a tall glass of green milk down the drain I can tell you!

But for me lime is King and Queen of milkshakes, the one to ask for whichever cafe you end up in and the one that brings back the memories of marvellous childhood seaside places I've never been back to: Clevelelys, Heysham Head, Great Yarmouth, Ilfracombe, Abersoch and Burnham on Sea.

The sun is out so I think I'll have a glass-full now!

Do you like lime milkshake? Do you have a nostalgic drink?

JAMES BOND VODKA GUN: YOU ONLY BID TWICE

Uhhh, OK what's the stupidest thing you did recently? - for which you are not sorry in the slightest!

Mine was going stupid on eBay for the priciest bit of plastic I've ever bought!

When I was a kid...

I remember going into a closed restaurant with my parents (at least the bar section was closed) and I was looking at all the bottles of booze in the mirrored shelves on the wall. Then I saw a small plastic gun with 007 VODKA embossed on it in gold. 

There were a lot of plastic guns with Mr. Bond's name on them in the sixties, but this one intrigued me because it was a vodka pourer and as such was something a kid could never have!

The memory stayed with me and I've occasionally thought about that little gun over the years, then recently I was in an Antique shop in Blackheath when I thought about it again. The thought struck me, "I wonder if I could find it on eBay?"

Well, I looked and instantly found two from the same seller!

One was un-used "mint" the other, slightly cheaper had seen some action. Neither of them was what I'd call a bargain, but where would I ever see a rare thing like that again? Based on my experience in the Antique shop, I thought "If I saw that in a shop would I buy it at that price?' 

Given my new-found status as a cashed-up retiree, I decided it was one example where I could indulge myself and give myself something I'd always desired but never expected to own...

A bargain? Not really, with a very unreasonable shipping cost it came in at a bit under £80 which only makes any kind of sense in today's world where money has lost a lot of it's meaning and ephemera from half a century ago now invariably commands a premium.

I imagine that some Bond collectors might also see the rarity worth in it, so it may hold it's value.

Pfffft! It's nice and I'd probably never have a chance like this again, so I went stupid!

Do you have a similar tale? Cheers, Lewis, Oz

A STIR OF COCOA

I haven't seen my old Mum for 45 years. I've spent the vast majority of my life without her being around and now I'm approaching 60.

Its a weird feeling trying to remember her from so far back. My ability to recall my childhood and my youth is fading, certainly in any detail. There are just foggy snatches of recollections peppered with the inanimate objects that made up our lives back then.

This blog is an attempt to remember. Its probably to reconnect with my childhood. Dare I say it, its maybe even to reconnect with my Mum, who died when I was 15.

I've survived the loss but I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else, which alas, it does all too often.

Occasionally I half-remember things, stirrings like undeveloped photos which just aren't clear anymore.

For instance this afternoon I made an instant hot chocolate drink.

I had a feeling that I drank them as a kid too.

More than that I saw the flicker of a brown box packet - maybe Rowntrees - and a white china cup and saucer. I think my Mum made me hot chocolate in a proper cup with a saucer.

But it wasn't like the Nesquik I've just quickly made. 

I sense that she warmed milk slowly in a saucepan on the stove and spooned in deep dark scoops of powder, stirring all the time with perhaps a wooden spoon.

It was cocoa I think. I think she called it cocoa too and not hot chocolate. 

The drink itself, swirling in the cup, was a rich gloss brown with a ring of froth on the top like a curl. She must have added sugar because I'm getting sweetness too.

I can almost hear the chink of the cup on the saucer as I sense drinking that delicious hot cocoa. It was quite scrumptious I think.

I may have to try to get a box packet of Rowntrees cocoa.

I have to try to re-create that drink I had 50 years ago!

Do you remember cocoa readers?