Christmas Day Edition

It's nearly another year in the history of this blog and as today is Christmas day like last year we are having synchronized entries on the blogs ready cooked like our turkey is ready for lunch with my parents and my presents are with them.

The one thing is they are all connected very much to my little side, the side that remains very much a boy and to be truthful Christmas for me is a boys affair - mine.

I'm in my V neck jersey with matching banded turn over long socks from Mr Prendergast's store white shirt, tie and grey shorts just like that boy from my past.

For all of the things that have been happening this week my focus is very much upon having christmas as that boy knowing of but not being driven by events, just playing which I saw many children doing earlier in the week.

They have been opened across the morning and I've just got around to posting a bit about them as with the present pandemic we're not expecting any visitors for drinks and snacks.

This year I had the vintage Legoland set 653 which makes an ambulance helicopter to go with new and old lego sets I've had for the last two Christmas's.

As well, I had the vintage Legoland 691 rescue helicopter kit both of which were issued in 1974 and were things I would of had then and indeed I did have lego then bought me.

These two helicopters expand the playability of my lego by adding kits that I can play with from my own era.

Back in 1974 I did have an Action Man, actually I had a handful of action men with many accessories such as uniforms, vehicles, weaponry and equipment that I loved to play with and I have talked about on the blog a few times.

They were sadly casualties of casting away to relatives children when my parents felt at fifteen I no longer wanted them which wasn't true cos I was still playing with them.

Recently a limited edition range of new "classic" Action Man figures were issued and this year for christmas I actually have a new one to treasure.

As many of you know, this boy is passionate about footie and so in something that was affected very much by Covid, I had the Match annual looking at this last year in the game in the UK across Europe and the classic football annual now published by Nationwide full of facts and figures for the current season.

Rupert the Bear is celebrating his 100th birthday this year so I had this most useful calendar

plus...

The 100th anniversary Rupert annual with classic stories from Nutwood to read across the year.

 

The Dandy is no longer published today weekly as it was when I was first young but D C Thomson do publish a Summer Special and a Annual with some newly drawn stories from the cartoon strips I loved as a boy.

This years annual which I had is shown with Desperate Dan carrying the weight of the Dandy.

Annuals were always a big thing with me and apart from the Dandy's I also had the Beano's but the modern Beano is of necessity different to suit today's children and that world so I didn't have this years but the Christmas 68 page Special edition which is enough to give me that feel of Christmas in Beanotown on top of the regular comic.

Some of the best of the past years Beano and Dandy cartoon strips is to be found in this years "Classic" Beano and The Dandy themed special compilations, this year devoted to the late Dudley D Watkins.

With the Beano, outside of the original annuals of the period I was first young, they take me back me to those days for being clearly set in the era so to read this years is to feel I was reading those comics and annuals all over again.

Scouting is covered on another blog in much more detail but this year I did have a most useful hardback book.

Let's say Scouting and all it means has been at the core of much of my life this year and it'll be of great use to me.

Finally I did a record that only recently was issued which contains many of the hits I can remember from original boyhood Christmas's including Merry Xmas Everybody, the number 1 Christmas hit of 1973

A Selection Box, not quite the classic packaging but pretty much the sort of thing I had back then.

I'll write something up after boxing day looking back over the year, what it has meant to me but until then I hope you've had a great enjoyable Christmas and wish you all a happy new year.

Pause for Christmas Edition 2020

Today we are but a week away from Christmas which we will be marking with a pause after watching yesterday's Blue Peter special edition as I gear up helping my family make Christmas what it is as much as they help make very much a boys christmas for me, free of adult stuff.

Christmas is after all very much a time for boys and girls and those of us in that kind of space rather than people who don't see that magic, who don't  love the rituals  adoring the decorations, something that really came over to me when a week ago I went into town for the first time in nearly nine months seeing them and the market store traders decked with christmas goods.

Memories of childhood christmases just overwhelmed me emotionally walking around looking at them.

Next week there will be a Christmas  Day special post on this blog a bit later on but as of today I'll be taking a break from the likes of Tumblr and ASB.

It remains to me to wish everyone and their families following this blog a Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year

The sights and sounds of Christmas

As we're all too well aware, things haven't been as you normally would of expected thanks to Covid and yet we're only two weeks away from Christmas so while I have been about I noticed a good number of decorations both indoors and out.

Here we have a penguin and a snowman out with a traditional wreath.

Traditional imitation Candy Canes were in much evidence here apart from a good deal of illuminated objectives,

Here Mr. Claus is joined by a reindeer sadly not red nosed but delightfully posed.

Trees of various sizes remain popular with people since the days of Victoria and Albert and this is a small one suited to properties with limited garden space, modestly decorated.

Christmas sure hasn't been cancelled this year!

Advent time

That's it, this week where Adventure Box Max's December edition arrived in its envelope on Monday means only one thing.

No, not gripping stories, cartoon strips and facts although they are in there but rather that as we've entered December we're on the countdown to that most marvellous time of year for boys of all ages - Crimbo! 

Well on Blue Peter last Thursday they may of made their own Advent Calendar from cardboard, used card tubes and crepe paper before adding the treats for each day but my folks bought me this ready made one to nom my way through, one day at a time!

You push open each door to reveal the wrapped chocolate.

A boyhood tradition carried out each year without fail.

On this weeks show they showed you how to make your very own Christmas Cards which was fun.

Advent and local locomotion

We are almost into December now which does remind me to say there will be a change in publishing schedule towards the end of that month due to Christmas and that there will be Christmas Day special edition.

Connected with that as crazy as this year has been the time honoured tradition on Blue Peter to mark Advent this year by making an Advent Calendar and Mwaksy launched the seasonal countdown yesterday on the show.

The above is the original Advent Crown with the late much missed John Noakes, an early classic BP make.

Getting back on track, I do like trains and here's some local train pictures.

This is 46254, the City of Stoke-on-Trent taken in the area.

Stoke-on-Trent's Victorian railway station and the area around the North Stafford Hotel are part of the Stoke conservation area.

It is two miles outside the city centre but there are buses and taxis to take you to it.

It was built for the North Staffordshire Railway company whose network went up as far a Macclesfield in East Cheshire and has trains to Derby, the West Midlands and London operating from it.

It doesn't compare well with nearby Crewe but as a major rail hub frankly nothing does but at least it's not far, two stops on the Crewe-Derby East Midlands Railway service.

North Staffordshire was for a long time a centre not only of the Ceramics industry but also coal mining which within living memory people where I live walked or cycled to the local pit to work underground.

Mines needed a means of carrying all that coal out so dotted about our City Region we have former colliery railways such as this at Apedale near Newcastle Under Lyme that have open days.

Deja Vu and reset III

Normally if I were to talk about arts and crafts makes you would be thinking about that very long running tv program Blue Peter which last week was in Friday due to playing a part in BBC Tv's Children In Need appeal.

That's the kind of thing you'd get from my bedroom HQ sat by the bed typing away into my Chromebook the perfect emulation of a schoolboy in his uniform but there are other things that cover that.

Take Adventure Box MAX part of the Box series of magazines which takes in over ten issues a year a traditional illustrated story, cartoons, things to look into and things you can make.

It's aimed more at nine to fourteen year olds that's a perfect fit in with me from an emotional and reading age point of view.

It has a main illustrated story, cartoons, items to raise your curiosity and explore topics, facts and figures and makes which in some respects makes it seem a bit old-fashioned compared with many cover mount festooned comics and magazines.

In some respects it takes me back to comics like Tiger and their associated annuals although today would not say "Boys Own" but certainly more in that direction, things that interest and inspire you while being entertaining while the stories help develop your word knowledge and comprehension

That's an example of the kind of makes it features, a new take on an old concept for today's children and those of us who in certain respects remain that way.

The only thing that it seems to be lacking is sports and cars but as one of those is taken care of by a dedicated magazine  and there are good online sources of up to date information about motor sports, this whole return to the way of life of the boy I feel will benefit me. 

Deja Vu and reset II

A lot has happened across the year as I noted on the other blog part of which has followed how much I have moved into being LB/ASB since both discovering Tumblr and ASB in both dot org and the current dot net forms.

Lockdown thanks if that indeed is the right turn of phrase has brought forward a number changes to both because of necessity of restrictions on what way may do have of being under direct authority which for me always was the case at boarding school apart from what we all had at infant and juniors plus parental rules.

That whole situation is a reversal for most which is why some struggle with it but for me a direct return to imposed rules that align strongly with being an adult child and the extent to which even adult males have stepped in as authority figures to help me conform as if I was their son.

That has positioned me in the community very much as that Boy which is both a relief for being subject to guidance, told what to do and has lead to my shorts being taken up to the same coverage I had as junior which has coincided with being taken back a very much junior role.

Yet another element of lockdown has been dealing with the impact of restrictions which have changed sometimes in just a few weeks, the continuing deluge of statistics announcements and fears.

While as you know I have been having a regular footie magazine, tending to buy anything else as and when I felt like it, this has become more difficult as stores have reduced stocks due to reduced demand and also restrictions on what they can sell which is essential.

You may find some comics and magazines at a newsagents which are allowed open, the stationery shops and comic shops have not.

Comics as I think I remarked a couple of years back have changed because everything around them and their readers have with very few of those I grew up with available.

The Beano is one that is and in this form was how I read it in the nineteen seventies and eighties every week helping to deal with the impact of adult matters on our lives such as terrorism and economic and social conflict.

Reading it and talking about what we read helped us imagine other worlds and lose ourselves to a world of fun that we needed.

I have to be honest and say I am finding lockdown hard going so it is the case that I feel I badly need the same sort of thing as I did then.

The modern comic is different, society is different, pc ideas have changed likely script endings from that of my era and their are new cartoon strips and some old ones have gone but I have decided to take out a subscription to the one comic of my childhood that's still around every week.

Back then I did have another comic that was very jam packed with action, adventure and war stories that caused a revolution in weekly British comic publishing called Warlord which was very much a boys comic.

That folded a good while back but one that has a longish history still exists and is published by D C Thomson, who publish the Beano and did publish the Dandy called Commando.

It tends to have a single long story in comic strip form in each weekly issue with stories based upon the past rather like in their shorter forms Warlord did including stories from both World Wars that were the mainstays of the war based games we played as boys back then.

This is an example of the artwork, high quality but fairly old school making it easy to follow and one the things I realized through being on Tumblr was the extent to which I just loved these boys stories not that today a mainstream publisher would call them that but in reality they are.

Old school boys war comic are so me, stuff I identify with strongly and so I also took a subscription out to Commando. This boy needs it.

As I said the comic world has changed and new comics have come out but as I may of written about here and I know I tackled it elsewhere, cover mounts today festoon comics often to the detriment of the content but a few years ago a all new subscription only comic came out.

Phoenix was its name and as the name would suggest out of ashes of older comics came new ideas with the same quality, positioned to relate better to today's children (although adults do read it too) aimed more at the Juniors and Prep School age groups so it's not childish but is for older children.

It has different stories each week that give you new things to look forward to plus some other content that helps develop reading abilities which is something I do struggle with

Modern looking and colourful it bridges the gap between traditional comics and comic books that are produced for teens and young adults.

I saw a sample online and felt It was worth getting a subscription from the same people as the footie magazine is supplied by because it would immerse me in a fantasy world free from much of the adult world especially in the news. 

In Twenty Twenty then not only does this boy go back to being a boy in short short trousers with adults guiding him, keeping me in the straight and narrow, he also while looking at news headlines only as needed, will be reading comics much more connecting with his boyishness.

This I feel can only be a good thing given the struggles I had before and especially during this current covid crisis in keeping my mental strength as good as it can, making sure I switch off from unnecessary adult stuff and better able to just do what I am told.

Deja Vu and reset

This Saturday wasn't like most others which for me usually involves things like keeping up with the footie results, possibly watching a live game if it's on BT Sports or the BBC as well as the Rugby and that but after a unauthorized disclosure of a meetings discussion our Prime Minister announced that parliament vote permitting, we were to stay at home outside of work unless it cannot be done from home or your at school, college or university and "non essential" shops and services like Barbers and Gyms were to shut. 

I avoid politics on this blog for a good reason but sufficient to say at least this time the Parks will be open which was  problem before.

As we can go out for fresh air and exercise, I've decided I'm going to be staying outside in my grey school shorts and uniform and just enjoy this as long as it runs for- probably about a month -  as time to be the boy I am and follow what the grown ups tell me  which was pretty much what happened in March and as hard as it's been, that's been better for me than attempting anything remotely adult.

You may remember from last September how I talked about the termination of Kickaround, the quality Monthly children's soccer magazine and how I had a subscription to Kick! instead.

That was up for renewal so I have decided to get Match of the Day magazine instead as it does have more content, quizzes and facts acting as a football supplement outside of the daily news on the likes of the BBC .

Originally it was a weekly but thanks to Covid it's become fortnightly which I think is a good balance between having enough material to entertain while keeping that element of something to look forward to.

It was Guy Fawkes Night yesterday although the official displays were cancelled.

This was one of themes of last nights Blue Peter where they had a bonfire upon which toasted marshmallows were made and a fireworks display.

They also talked about keeping safe not just for children and grown ups but also pets as many people were having as in this district we did our own in back gardens.

This weekend, specifically Sunday is Remembrance Sunday here in the UK where we remember the sacrifice of those who gave their life four our freedom and where many scouts and scout leaders played important roles in both World Wars both at home and in gaining our victory at great cost.

Sadly thanks to Covid today won't be the same as it normally would due to social distancing rules but many will be out their front doors marking it, as we should.

Halloween time

It's that time of the year boys, we have but a week of it but it is super fun.

It's halloween weekend and with a whole load of other unwanted stuff this year it's a good excuse as any to put on a bit of show and enjoy something that will take our minds off of things and let us relive our childhood likes.

These three will be on my door at least in part for my entertainment as much as that of the neighbourhood's boys and girls this year as well as a broom stick and candy will be left in bags for picking up while we look out and wave through the windows as they play trick and treat in costumes.

Even Snoopy gets in on the act!

Autumn delights while about

This week, it has been a bit all over the place with the weather so sometimes it's been more a case of grabbing hat and shoes when the opportunity arose to venture out  exploring or taking pictures.

This could be me, that schoolboy in his grey shorts and socks holding a few hundred or so's worth of camera gear while out taking pictures and I'll add at least on his Nikon DSLR the input wheel for setting modes and semi automatic auto exposure settings on the front in the right hand grip ala Canon style unlike my D3500 which for some reason puts it at the rear where when hand held it's obscured by your face!

When it all comes together, a great camera, brilliant lighting and autumnal colour it's just magical

A somethings extra autumn post

 I was thinking back to all those Hanna-Barbera shows many of us loved the other day and I thought I'd post these reference drawings showing each character.

Sometimes you see a trade mark illustrators style - take Fumbles for instance.

We all know a dog in a certain show like that, don't we?

That's so early 70's!

A trio of less well remembered shows

Move over Yogi, there's a different bear family in town complete with Afro.

I'm not sure I caught this show but someone must have.

I just loved all the different teams in Wacky Races didn't you?

I remember the Space Kiddettes

Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant were favourites of mine.

We're restricted here when it comes to who can personally visit following Monday's announcement so I can't see myself going anywhere to send time indoors with anyone this side of 2020.

I'm just gonna stay little boy me throughout this thing.

Talking of which it's the same as it ever was feeling very much all of ten seeing that reflection in the windows coming home in his coat shortened grey shorts and turn over socks confident in himself.

It may be 6 degrees c at the moment but I'm out there!