Blue Peter Part II - 60 years!

On Tuesday October 16th at five o' clock in the afternoon I sat to watch the 60th Anniversary of the British children's tv show, Blue Peter on its current CBBC channel home where it has been since 2012.
60 years is quite an achievement in terms of broadcasting  for a single program and does in fact now hold a Guinness book of records certified award for the worlds longest running children's program.
My own involvement with the program stems from childhood where it was always on with having a sibling which was born just at the right time for its launch in 1958 watching and becoming a half hour show later on for my parents to just put it on.
Saying that then it is clear I saw it from as soon as I was able to take in tv and my first hand recollections tend to be from around the age of six getting stronger from about a year and half on where I recall whole adventures and appeals for various good causes that in various ways I was involved in of which a later example was the 1979 bring and buy for Cambodia which was done at boarding school and also on release I took part in my own community.

In that respect the show was very much a integral part of my own childhood and an influence for the good.
Not unsurprisingly for a boy who adored the show, every year in my Christmas stocking there was a Annual which had features on the highlights of the previous 12 months  shows, cartoons, features around history and the 'makes' where using everyday items craftwork was encouraged.
It isn't so odd then that I still have those annuals when some other effects from the same era I had end no doubt enjoyed have gone although things like some of Top Trumps from the late 70's are still here.
Looking at it this way, the adult-boy in 2018 who sat watching todays special edition  intently as presenters who he knew well and others just more aware of talked about their roles, presented various awards to today's children and showed footage of current challenges felt like that boy in 1974.
Moreover he sat watching just as he did from junior school in his grey shorts, ribbed socks and blue sweater enjoying it just as much even if the stage set was different to that that he'd grown up with and the style of presentation from Radzi and Lindsey the current presenter is different.
I saw the same show I loved and am glad today's children are getting from it what I did at the time.

Happy Sixtieth birthday, Blue Peter!

Schooldays

There was much howling of wind around here from Friday onward as I remarked to Sammy so I got a few things done that I might of delayed as I wasn't able to be until later on on Sunday.

The origins of the this post go back to 2005 and Friends Reunited because one core aspect of that site was links to schools and other places you'd been that just didn't allow you to contact people you knew but also included sharing otherwise scattered artifacts of that time.
I am feeling very brave today and am sharing something with you.
That school picture is my Infant/Reception class would of been sometime probably early 1970 as in reception we didn't have to wear a uniform although you can tell those who already were going down that route.
Staring from the back row at the far right was Mrs Bell, our Reception teacher who did give me some extra tuition as I wasn't good at speaking then, and the boy in  a grey sweater and tie actually next to her is me. Third from me is Mark one of several children of the 'big cheeses' of the Methodist Chapel.
Back then much of what as children we took part in was organized by them and a prominent landowner so we were very much connected to that form of Christianity and its moral teachings. It wasn't sufficient  to learn academically for us it involved moral education too.
Second row from the back on the far right was a boy who was only with us a couple of years who was blind in one eye and to whom we absolutely did take care of and next to him was 'Tich' from another prominent family.
You'll note the back and second row are nearly all boys and that was not just pretty normal for the era but also because the boys of our class were a pack, a unit and a tight one at that would look out for each other.
Dead centre on the front row was Karen another of the families of prominent Methodists who were involved in running the chapel and a farmstead.
The building wasn't untypical of country districts being late Victorian with Boys and Girls entrances originally  but in practice we had Infants and Juniors with matching playgrounds.
The building ceased to be a school at end of Summer Term 1974 because it was too small for our needs with us needing to use a community hall for things such as French, P.E (not Games) and school canteen for lunch sharing the building with a parent run Preschool, mobile child welfare clinics and so on.
We moved into a new purpose built school for Autumn Term 1974 which had more space although it was of the trendy open plan sort with each year having its own 'homebay' to which we moved across the building for art, and science.
It had a hall for all school assemblies held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday which were Christian centred, games with climbing frames and store areas for static equipment and music.
At the time we didn't use it for eating  as instead we finished in time to clear are desks which had changed from wooden ones with matching chairs to Gopak tm triangular ones and grey plastic backed chairs to eat off and as we were 'top class' juniors, we were expected to head tables for our younger children, looking after them.
Games was always played in the new building outside with much more space and grassed areas for Soccer and other ball games.
Today as a former governor there I know they eat in the hall and much of the open plan design has been converted into defined classrooms with doors which while I understand does keep noise distractions down that can be an issue I did feel personally was claustrophobic taking out much of the spaciousness of the original design.

Math studies

Following on from Wednesday post, much of what I have been writing about so far in has been about childhood pasts, the nature of age regression as it applies to me, school uniform, personal development and being an adult school boy.

With me the notion of being an adult school boy or an adult little boy while covering all of that isn't a question of donning a uniform or play outfit and playing as if I was chronologically that age although that is part of it as for me in age regression that 'inner boy' comes out but also contextual.

With the exception of holidays (Vacations to North American readers), the life we lived was set with two days complete free time subject to whatever our families customs were and any restriction that may of been put on because of our behaviour.
The remaining five were taken up mainly by school where we worked on various subjects which in my country meant at the ages of five through eleven mainly a single teacher who taught Math, English, Humanities, Science, French (we had a dedicated French teacher) and Games with P.E. (physical exercise).

It happens I do have difficulties with Math being dyslexic some of which today would of been picked up within school but at the time were not such as difficulties with multiplication and division but were not.

It probably wasn't helped too much by the tendency to teach at the average class level and then change topic rather than dealing with my specific problems.

One thing I am doing now is working through the equivalent today of the Math we were taught in that era but using a modern study book with explanations and questions to answer to go over the concepts again so hopefully I'll get a better grounding on number work, angles and so on.

The Traditional Schoolboy 2

In April of this year I talked of my arrival at the social media site, Tumblr and at the same time introduced myself to a group of people usually in the adult little boy or Adult Schoolboy communities that I had spotted prior to joining it
So far in I have around one thousand two hundred fifty posts on it, a good proportion being originals with commentary  too and have over two hundred fifty followers which you may say is actually pretty good going for a completely fresh account and tumblr blog.
Being on Tumblr has given me a number of opportunities to get to know more people, lead to me joining one site even though that's on a hiatus as of now and starting one of my own up.
Recently however, I had the opportunity of taking over another's underused blog on Tumblr and after some negotiation last week I have taken that over and it's that I wish to talk a little about.
There were a number of things that lead to it of one was in becoming a group blog even if group participation is low and usually amounts to the odd submission and having it minded when I'm away, being a group blog leads to problems on tumblr.
For reasons best known to itself they remove the ability for the  blog to send 'Asks' to other blogs and to send and receive streamed messaging which on the face of it would actually be jolly useful between people on a group tumblr nevermind anything else.
Getting it gives me the means now of interacting more with people onsite because I can send an ask and message a blog whereas before I could only receive asks.
The other thing is I can use it to post the odd more cuter post on there as well as some discussion around topics without getting the main tumbler being too discourse heavy.
That blog has needless to say been retitled by me to The Traditional Schoolboy 2 after my main one and while I have kept their  header which I quite like I have added my blog description on and change the avatar over to mine which unless forced into it I have no intentions of changing. 
One thing you will find in that description is clear cut statement about it being being the blog of masculine gendered adult schoolboy with no ifs and maybes in there which was not in that blogs original and was added a short while back to my original one.
Some of that ties in with the changes in my life over the time of both this blog and being on tumblr and some is also connected to own views around how men and boys  are seen and treated in society.
In general I have a lot of time for the Men's Movement in their work helping men and boys find the joy of being themselves in a male body, in looking a better ways to work together that include respect the rights of men and boys to be themselves and for the things that make us different to be recognized and respected. 
To be different is not to be inferior or 'a problem' but a strength not least in the business of raising boys and helping men to be the best they can when having that first hand knowledge of what makes a lad or a bloke 'tick' is a lot more useful having just done a course on 'gender studies' particularly if the person is a female cos ultimately she can't know 'us' anymore than we know what it means to be a girl or a woman. It's an experienced thing she can't have.

You may also of seen this around sign around as well and that also is a for a reason namely that there is a lot be said for having spaces for and spending time in slots that are just for boys to talk and bond as boys together.
It's certainly not to suggest there is anything wrong with mixing with females but to recognizes as some women and female organizations themselves do that single gender spots have a place within a mixed gendered environment for discussions and bonding.
Being honest about this and by having such spaces males and females can have more co-operative relationships that recognize and respect differences.
While I haven't a problem with female followers, my tumblrs are targeted at and are for boys.
I also feel the drive to push boys toward more overly feminine ways not only fails to address the way in which for most of us we  are hard wired to be males but also leads to a load of lost boys, boys that don't seem to know what it is it they are, how we act and how to make that work for them,  leaving them out of  the male social circle that would aid them mature as adults and unable to relate as a mature male to mature females later on in life with a role and purpose in it.

Blue Peter

Sometimes this blog touches more to do with my present life and its issues while at other times it goes back into the throws of boyhood memories.

The television did play an increasing part in our childhood as much I was and remain very much a radio person and by the part of my childhood I start to have strong memories of, there was a good number of programs produced specifically for children be they cartoons, story telling on Jackanory, factual shows such as Animal Magic and Tomorrow's World, the science centred show.

The big daddy of them all as far as many of us was concerned was the long running magazine show Blue Peter that began in 1958 and is still with us regardless off changes in broadcasting and society over that period.

I began seeing the show at least as far as I have a memory of actively watching the show from 1971 and going through to around 1999 although by that point it was not as central  to my life as what I'd later describe myself as being adult but child-like as it was.

It tended to cover things of interest to us as children but as it was on the BBC driven more by the idea of cultivating interest and a sense of adventure  matched with a sense of wholesome morals to the point of having appeals for various causes you got engaged in.

There was a quite a bit of arts and crafts work featured in the program to encourage children of all ages (and I'm bound to add all abilities) to explore from drawing to making things using things like washing up bottles and the infamous sticky back plastic.

In 1992 during the run up for Christmas because of the surge in popularity of Thunderbirds lead to a severe shortage of the Tracy Island base, the show should children with some adult supervision how they could make their very own.

The show had pets on it in part because some children cannot have pets if where they live doesn't allow them and one many of us took to heart was Shep, a sheep dog that was linked to then presenter, the late John Noakes.

A large part of that came from the then programs  producer Biddy Baxter who set the tone for the 25 years she was in control from seeing to it the presenters were 'decent' with nothing in their lives that would let down a young audience.

Her successor had to act in 1998 when then presenter Richard Bacon was uncovered as a a drugs user by a national newspaper.

Another element of her personality that became a hallmark of the the show was the introduction in 1963 of the Blue Peter Badge that viewers could only gain by writing in with ideas, stories and pictures for the program and with it a card index to each child received a personal response and where the badge would be awarded to the best of them. 

This was born of her own experience of having two identical responses from the author Enid Blyton.
I feel one reason many of us including myself look back upon the show with much affection  was it offered a window on the world  with decent reliable people in who cared about us as the audience and where that interaction was governed by mutual respect.

Rather than commercially driven it, imparted actual skills and knowledge  promoting human decency, the things as children we really needed from friendly adults.

Anyone who wrote in always got a reply and that as a child with difficulties in your life is appreciated for having something beyond four walls that offered stability compared to just sending a postal order for piece of merchandise.

It is also why I have a poster of that line up of presenters from the mid 1970's now on my wall. It means so much.