Just William at Christmas

 The week has been something of a rollercoaster emotionally after a difficult month that did eventually see me complete reading a short collection of stories I had started around Christmas when I quite poorly.

Christmas is a funny time of year with expectations sky high, especially if you're a child served at times with crushed dreams and funny things just happening and in the World of Richmal Crompton's most perfect homage to ten, eleven year old boys and their lives, William brings forth much hilarious misunderstandings, idealism runs riot with the sense of belong that comes from being a part of, even the head of a Gang, The Outlaws.

This unlike some of my favourite boys stories isn't a vintage original - no first editions here I'm afraid - but a really nice 1995 bound edition with a dust jacket that pulls these Christmas stories into one enjoyable read,

The illustrations often showing the social world of the well to do world of nineteen twenties and thirties families and their less well off neighbours in their striking differences, bring the stories to life.

Re-reading these stories, laughing out loud at William's escapades really helped.

Pooh bear got that right!

Thoughts upon the death of Raymond Biggs

 

Goodness it's jam hot already so we've been on the soft drinks and ice creams trying to stay cool and as staying in the shade is a must I had been doing some reading.

A couple of days ago, it was announced that Raymond Briggs, a towering stroy writer and illustrator of the 1970's and 80's had died.

Raymond didn't, couldn't write soppy happy ending stories but more gritter ones that although he wrote for all children had a lot of Boys Own appeal such as Fungus the Bogeyman, a tale of working class bogeymen with slime appeal.

One that I feel is magical is The Snowman which was turned into a animated cartoon in 1982

James plays out in the snow, building a snowman who comes to life.

The Snowman and James become friends and James is taken on a majestic tour to see his world full of wonderment.

They return and the next day James sees the snowman has melted and so grieves for him.

It is one of the most touching animated films ever aided by a voiceless soundtrack with orchestral playing by the Sonfonia of London and the haunting song Walkin In The Air as James floats effortless with the snowman.

Writing this was quite emotional so rest in peace Raymond.

Buddy - the rained in edition

It's been another cold and as when this was typed, wet, week so playground is out and we're in the hall having our playtime.

One of the biggest names in British publishing and for a long time comic publishing was D C Thomson, anyone my generation had at least access to one if not more of theirs and maybe an IPC title.

They devoted quite a bit of time into researching the at times shifting interests of boys and girls tweaking existing comics and sometimes launching a new title to grab a slice of an emergent market.

Buddy was their attempt at going for an all boys action comic, a bit more modern for boys who liked sport, action and adventure, in other words this blogs writer which started up on February 14th 1981.

The main character was a freckled boy in sporty modern attire, no formal suits and no school uniform, just a a boy chilling out (except in 1981 we didn't use that expression).

Billy the Cat starred in it although if you are a Beano fan you might have a sense of deja vu here because Billy the Cat had starred in that comic from April 1st 1967 to September 7th 1974 with his sister Katie.

Billy (and in the Beano Katie) donned cat suits acquired cat like powers  using them to aid the police as a crimefighting boy, in some ways a like a neko-boy for fans of manga and anime.

It was a cartoon strip I loved.

Here's a front cover with the start of February 27th 1982 Billy the Cat adventure.

Sport was covered  and Tuffy, the story of the hopeless boy fighting against the odds to play soccer was a re-imagined form of Scrappy, a Boy all alone from The Wizzard with Tuffy being the boy who was homeless with just a dog for company.

There were also war and adventure series too although it borrowed sometimes literally as reprints from older Beano and Wizzard series.

Buddy run until 1983 when it was folded into The Victor.

There was something in the air and another short lived comic of the same ilk came about by combining Battle and Action which as the name would suggest stories about war, mainly WW2 based and features on equipment such as aircraft.

Boys could write in about war related things such as  grandparents adventures and win a prize

It originated as battle on March 8th 1975 and ended in January 23rd 1988

Needless to say popular boys toy manufactures used the advertising space to sell related toys although boys like me already had bought in to Action Man.

These sorts of comics were sort I loved and to which are difficult to see a replacement for todays as it tends to be graphic books that tend to tackle these themes that are often at least monthly.

Out with Kickabout and In with Kick!

It was a little late for inclusion in last Friday's blog entry and wasn't something I would of chosen to but I received an email from WSC (When Saturday Comes) who produced  Kickaround to say it was closing and that there would be no more issues.
By rights I'd of received October's which would of been issue 14 on Friday or Saturday and normally they'd of worked on for around two to three weeks.  

It launched in March of last year but took a hiatus in January  for a couple of months returning as Subscription only which meant I needed to make one with WSC as previously I'd bought from the Newsagents.

I did get my copy of Scouted, the Roy of the Rovers fictional reboot and had been enjoying reading Kickaround every month taking it away with me too because it covered not just the men's Premiership action but the other leagues such as the English Conference, Women's football and had found a way to write about the game that could hold boys attention while interesting girls who love the game too.
The bias was on the writing which was genuinely inclusive open to any reader without getting bogged down with gender politics and related activism plus it covered disability football very well which isn't something that normal is and indeed was missing from my actual childhood sadly.

They chose to keep way from cheap plastic tat freebies and those sticker albums that I recall from boyhood that in theory you were supposed to swap with mates but you ended up buying lots (and still had gaps!) but had things like charts to fill out and a world map, which was good for leaning Geography in a fun way.

This was issue 13, September's, sadly the last, looking forward to the start of season proper with young English Premiership players and the Women's Super League plus Faintly Athletic. the comic strip antics of a football team.

I'm looking at what alternatives there are as I don't wish for a full on 'adult' football magazine either by content (cuss words and the like) nor writing style as with my disabilities my reading ability is restricted although Kick!  magazine aimed at 6-12 year olds is a good substitute. 

This is more traditional boys own although it has a few girl readers and  I sampled the last copy - September's - that came out about three weeks ago from my newsagent having walked down in my grey school shorts and socks this week.
The writing isn't on a par with Kickabout which was exemplary being more like a mini essay with words that do stretch your vocabulary but is more text blocks set around images more akin to a comic strip, has a comic strip in which is  boys only and a number of free gifts that includes a football card game you can play plus a Premiership chart with push out figures you move across the week charting the various teams progress.
The fact it makes no concessions to gender equality in coverage of either the Women's Soccer League nor talks about girls playing puts it at odds with much of more PC inclusive children's media but I feel has its place.
It is a better fit for me personally and for boys who love their own space within the manosphere whereas perhaps there is a place for a magazine or section with a magazine aimed at girls that covers girls and women's soccer than the junior equivalents of celebrity obsessed 'OK Magazine' all froth and sickly sugary.  

A boyish week

As some may be aware there's an awful lot of political discourse going on at the moment and I've said about as much as I feel like saying on that on Tumblr but the practical upshot is I need to switch off from it
One thing I did decide to do during the week was to get my Lego out and play with it making things that just came into my mind rather than following an set designs.
An advantage of sorts with such an approach is I need to think as I am going along about the pieces I need from what I have what bits I have, tweaking the design as I go along which helps with my thinking skills.

On thing I made was this simple one room shed-house that took me about an hour and a quarter from start to finish that was fun to make.

I also played some Beach Boys records I had talking to a few people I know about them as their music was a part of the background I had growing up. There's a up to date list of them on here but as you all know I don't do long reviews and that.

Another thing I did was read these two compilations of classic 1950's and 60's Roy of the Rovers cartoon strips that originally were issued in the Tiger comic where our here gets to join Melchester Rovers and battles for promotion as well as clashes with egotistical playsers abound.

I came to Roy of the Rovers in the 70's but by then much of the backdrop had been established so reading this brought them to life being very much the kind of boys comic I loved even if you were wobbly footed on the pitch.

Finally I had my hair - I do have hair don'tcha know - put in a crew cut as not much had happened with stylistically for years and I felt a more traditional boys cut was something I'd feel more  comfortable in.
I feel this more is me now when I'm walking or kickin' a ball about.

532

Living with my folks tended to mean living with other peoples hobbies and interests to the point we'd be taken to see them and not least with Dad's perpetual trips to various preserved railways sometimes to the detriment what of the rest of us wanted. 

One that crosses that division between how some of that left me feeling and my own interests is to be found in the 532 "Blue Peter" steam locomotive because it was rescued with some input from the tv show which as you all know I love to bits and restored in 1970 which I just about recall that from memory was featured on the front of Blue Peter book 8.
We went during the 1970's to a railway museum that is no longer in existance at Dinting where the Cheshire towns of Stalybridge plus Hyde and High Peak area of Derbyshire meet and at the time 532 was often to be seen

It was there where I bought things like postcard books to buy and stick in postcards of various steam trains in and the odd badge such as this which surprisingly enough I still have because something in a live steam engine captured my imagination that transcended those other issues. 

I also have my original Tufty Club badge from the 1970's that was part of a campaign to imporve road safety for boys like myself.

I have been using a mouse a bit more with the Chromebook so I bought small mouse mat that does tie very much into the wolf theme running in the Chromebook cases and my pencil case

Kubo and a read

It hasn't been a week much given for being out so I read Shoot to Win in the Jamie Johnson footballing novel series during the wet spells.

One thing I do like is anime although like with music I don't blog about all the time but I recently got this on Blu Ray.

The main character in this animated story is Kubo, a boy who starts the film washed up on a shore with his mother having come to live on the edge of a village where he grows up entertaining the locals with his storytelling, music, and amazing origami skills.

Soon it isn't long before he realizes his mother can only tell him so much about his past and he in particular he'd would love to know who his father was.


When the village is attacked, it's the start of a remarkable journey that will change his life forever as he discovers his own magical powers.

This was one I just loved watching this week.

A boys Chromebook

The borrowed small machine stopped working on Saturday morning as I went to check my email account as you do which was a bit of a blow.

I found that little machine pretty handy because it's a bit like a Tablet computer such as an iPad but comes with a built in physical keyboard which makes writing on emailing, forums or blogging easier than touching a virtual one.
It also unlike any kind of Windows computer I've used took just seconds from switch on to be fully usable and it looks after its own updates with speed too.
Thus I decided to buy myself a brand new one made by Asus,the C202SA GJ0027 which features an 11.6 inch screen that I found about right for use say on a arm of chair or table comfortably and at the same time small enough to carry about which if you have fast WiFi or travel by bus or trains that have free access to it makes it easy to use.
I always detested big desktop machines for keeping you rooted to one spot and near enough everything I do is through the browser that's okay talking of which because it is a Chromebook it uses Chrome as it's browser which I really like.

All I'll need to do do is put some footie stickers on and it'll be the bestest boys toy for this one to go with this kewl case to keep it in when it's not being used.

Fiction for boys

Boys and reading do have a bad press some of which may be down to the lack of encouragement in reading for pleasure especially in an age of instant electronic gratification but part of this I feel is actually the the lack of appreciation of what is boys love to read about.
The modern age has many pluses but one negative is the tendency to write notionally gender neutral stories that read more as stories for girls with lots of details around friendships, drama and relationships which is not something that instinctively does anything for you.
You like mysteries and adventures that hold you in suspense and even when they are, the political correct requirement to make the key characters female for gender empowerment   means there's nothing you can relate to.
One author whose work I loved as a boy and still love to read is Enid Blyton and at least in her world boys are really boys who do have gumption and who doesn't feel the need to write to an agenda.
Today I'm looking at a few I think are good for boys.

While being a mixed gender series, The Six Cousins series has  quite a bit for a boy looking at the lives of six boys and girls, three of whom has lost their home in a fire and three whose lives are affected by having them stay with them.
It's less a 'kitchen sink drama' thankfully as more an adventure looking at the different characters in the area such as shady poacher, a wondering philosopher the older boy lionizes who tunes out to be a thief  and the importance of working hard.
It looks too at a topic that is relevant today, how it is some boys seem to lack that spirit, more concerned with looks within the older boy being more namby-pandy and yet the one who initially was and clearly most effected by the fire finds meaning in life on the farm letting his inner maleness out.The role of a too soft Mum in the upbringing of three of the children and her own lack of adult maturity are explored too

Although aimed more at the eight year old reader, this is the story of Donald who can't really concentrate on academic things in school as he's always dreaming about a life with animals sometimes seeing himself as a naturalist, sometimes wanting to be a vet although his school reports are a concern for his father.
When is Grandma offers to get him a puppy for his birthday his excitement is shattered as at one his parent reject it and the story is of his attempt to secure the object of his fascination -that puppy.
Reading it again, his boyish nature and the longing for a pet really connected to me.

The Boy Next Door is an unusual novel in the extensive Enid Blyton catalogue in that while it is an adventure, the focus of it is a mystery around a boy, a ten year old American boy called Kit who on the outset we are told lost his father and was moved to England for his own protection as his father had left a huge amount of money to him when he's of age and is a target for kidnapping not least by his uncle.
Kit is meant to be hidden away in property miles from anywhere, free from being overlooked where he has a housemaid and a tutor but can be seen by Betty, Lucy and Robin who live next door here he's playing Cowboys and Indians with red indian* dress up attire on.
They didn't know of a boy next door nor did their Mummy.
The book looks at how even though he's not meant to be seen by a soul, he plays with them having adventures although though he's threatened with a spanking if does, how two people suddenly arrive nearby looking for him and ultimately how he foils a kidnapping with the boys and girls help. He also is reunited with his father!
We also learn the source of where he was to be found for the two looking to kidnap him was very much closer to home.
* Intuit or "First Nation" is the preferred term today in Canada.
As unfortunately with most of Enid's works since the 1990's the editors have been changing names of characters, removing unpolitically correct references and the like so to really enjoy these you need to find copies BEFORE 1990.
Dean's editions before this point are easy to find even if they lack all the original illustrations without breaking the bank and Armada paperbacks exist too which the Cousins series in my collection are part of.

For boys of a certain age, Roy Race meant a lot, following his adventures initially in Tiger and then in his own comic every week but as part of last years rebooting (rotten pun that I'll be given lines for later) two closely related but not identical series were reestablished one being the graphic novel which is more the comic strip approach on steroids and the other being actual fiction written by Tom Palmer.
Sensibly Roy has been put in twenty-first century Britain as a sixteen year old on the cusp of adulthood, left school for college while chasing a career that started from  schoolboy soccer thus topics such as the use (and misuse) of social media, living with a family with challenges are in as the backdrop to Roy's football on and off the pitch.
There is realistic dialogue between Roy, his team and family as Melchester Rovers, his side are in a make or break promotion race that if they failure to make league one might even see the teams owner selling up which isn't as far fetched as you might think seeing that almost happened in this region with Port Vale FC only weeks ago.
So it is crunch time for all.
The series oozes with teen boy spirit and is as a close to a boys own series we have in a world where pitches, statistics and balls are at the centre of your existence as it was for boys of my generation and I'm reliably informed the present too.

Spring clothing replacements

When I last made an entry around this, it was in late June of last year not long after my arrival at ASB.org and the establishment of the That Traditional Schoolboy tumblr and we were looking more at school and more casual play clothes.
One area that not much had been done around due to the malaise and generally feeling off I was going through around the time I established that Tumblr was my sports clothing
Much of what I had was getting on in years showing wear and also it has to be said some was more unisex that I really felt comfortable with then and a long way removed from I now at
The start point for my selections were they had to be what I feel comfortable with being in accordance with what other boys of my era would of worn, clearly designed for men and boys only.

These are Adidas Mens Parma Shorts which are manufactured in CLIMALITE technology to keep the body sweat free and comfortable by allowing maximum air circulation and protecting the body against excess moisture and overheating.

According to Adidas these football shorts should improve the passing game and offer real ball control but we'll see if I can put that claim to the test!

These white ones are Umbro sport polyester jersey football shorts  and it says something about how ailing I been feeling that the last pair of Umbro footie shorts I bought was in the early 2000's from a sportswear shop here in Staffordshire in our city region centres shopping mall before footie shorts got longer.
In addition, I did pick up a more traditional bottle green polyester pair of PE shorts of the 'unbranded' variety as a 'spare pair'.

To go with them I picked up two pairs of these Samson (r) football/hockey socks which apart from being thick do help to keep my regular grey school socks clean in the event I'm moving around on grass.

When was the last time I had a 'proper' footie shirt? A long long time so I thought that could be put right with what should be in as a staple of a British boys outfit by getting this Sans Maracana 2 Short Sleeve Football T-Shirt I can wear with my new shorts and socks.

For non footballing purposes  such as general PE and running around, I bought a few plain fruit of loom t shirts in red like this one, sky blue and light pink, the latter is now more accepted than it was when I was much younger even featuring in some boys/mens football strips.

It's been a long time coming but finally having sports clothing that replicates that of my original boyhood that I'd of felt happy to have been in the company of other boys and their dads in is great thing for me.

I did get somethings that were not sports related that fit more around smart casual and schoolwear.

I had noticed my underwear was starting to bobble a bit which wasn't so surprising as it was bought around a year ago and has been through a number of wash cycles so I found these Marks and Spencers cotton briefs which are the sort of white Y fronted ones I grew up and am happy to be back in being sold as old stock with the label cut out to prevent store returns so I bought several pairs.

Something else that has been missing from my wardrobe for a long time have been polo neck T shirts so I bought two mens cotton ones in blue as the only other option was black and I don't do black tops.

Finally, I did get another pair of Grey school shorts in a sturdy fit that works right on me as believe it or not I've hardly been in longs at all this year so a good spare pair is worth having.

Kicking a ball about

This weeks entry is almost a run on of last Friday's where a few things delayed have arrived connected to soccer .

Roy of the Rovers is something as a boy I grew up with, the story of one Roy Race of Melchester Rovers who became a player manager that started out in the Tiger comic which went through a number of changes and was later spun off into a comic in its own right.

Some of the comic strips have been republished in compilations for those who had parents who removed 'old' comics back in the day but loved the stories about the game on and off the field.

Roy has been rebooted to use a modern expression for this century having before made the odd appearance in the Match of the Day BBC tie magazine of the football show and more recently in the better adult soccer magazine When Saturday Comes.

He's currently enjoying a renaissance with featured comic stories in Kickaround (see later) and also in a number of new stories.

Kick off is the first of three projected graphic novels featuring our hero being published in November of 2018 with two more in March and June respectively by Rob Williams writing and Ben Willsher illustrating that start with Melchester Rovers languishing in bottom of League Two where a sixteen year old Roy Race who has natural talent and powerful left foot dreams of playing for them.

What are the odds Roy can push his way into the Rovers first team, bringing back the glory days of the past or will the on and off pitch pressures prove too much for this young prospect?
This is where the new Saga begins and for this boy it's everything I've been looking forward to,  a real boys gripping adventure.

The last time I mentioned Kickaround would of been November 2nd where I wrote about it, the shortage of any kind of soccer/association football comic/magazine of the sort I had when I was younger such as the comic Roy of the Rovers that was spun off from Tiger that as boys we devoured

There have been a few changes because of production based issues that feed in distribution meant we missed what would of been February's edition and as well anyone who have visited their local newsagent will of observed the fierce battle for rack space with lots of new magazines  plus part works vying for the slots which is ironic in age of downloaded  media.
The publishers  have decided to minimize any issues with deadlines and to avoid battles with cheap plastic tat festooned competitors like MOTD that just have pictures and a few lines of text, to make it subscription only with copies arriving in the post to your letter box.
This also means they can put more time and effort into that content setting a clear bar between them and other football based magazines not least the shortage of anything for junior aged readers that is really suitable.
As someone whose reading age is lowish with learning disabilities, I appreciate something with plenty of text that talks about the game I can understand and helps maintain and develop my reading abilities  so I had to set a subscription up to get March 22th's new edition.
That for me should include a copy of Scouted, a footballing piece of fiction about my footballing hero Roy of the Rovers!
Subscription link: Kickaround WSC Shop

A boyish christmas

This year on That Uniformed Schoolboy the Christmas entry is a little different.
Anyone familiar with this blog and the Tumblrs The Traditional Schoolboy and The Traditional Schoolboy 2 plus Chris_Minor, will know of the sore that runs from not being given the chance to join up to scouting  not least the Cub Scouts and how I'm trying to do some positive to put some similar character building challenges into my life to provide at least a bit of what I missed.

Thus it is entirely fitting that this Christmas I should have a copy of The Sixer in a year I'd of been a Cub Scout to help inspire those changes as I align to living by the spirit of scouting with stories and accounts of cub scout life.

One problem I have is in recent years there has been a pull toward altering characters in the storytelling and way they are drawn in a good many comics and even cartoons and this comes into the Beano which is something I always loved reading to meet modern ideas on how children should be treated, how they treat others in a very political correct way to the point Dennis doesn't menace anymore, the teachers aren't the authority figures at Bash Street School, Rodger's dodges are toned down and so on.

Instead I have decided to go back to an annual I almost certainly had first time round with those main characters being the boys and girls we loved, getting into scrapes, feeling the full power of the authority figures just as we did back then.
It featured cartoon strips from Tom, Dick and Sally, Babyface Finlayson, Lord Snooty and Biffo the Bear who were dropped later on but a part of my memory of reading the comic that came flooding back
It's smaller touches like Teacher carrying a cane in the Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger drawn having a spanking and a clear threat to in Dennis the Menace from his dad that reflected the life I and countless others had in 1974 and our cartoon and comic world reflected it.
It's not that I have an issue with new series reflecting today's society whatever one may think of that but it's remaking timeless series trying to tell us Dennis got married having a son called Dennis to justify these actions at the bequest of  social activists plus had Dennis Mk2 redrawn and behaving totally differently. It's like the story title may be the same but doesn't and isn't the same story any more.
I did have the Dandy current annual though that remains truer to its original form even if sadly the weekly paper comic is long gone as that is more a continuation of the past characters like Korky the cat and Desperate Dan with just the odd update.
Going back to go forward I had something else I had but in a slightly different form from those days.

Yes a new lego set rather than the old cardboard and plastic set I originally had with big boards plus french windows and doors although you can add to it as the box is pretty generous in size
I have had the odd kit since but the thing is those themed kits only make two or three things at the most  where as the classic lego I had  as a boy enabled you to make lots of different things from only being limited by your own imagination and running out of bits.

I did get this the bigger baseboard separately which isn't as chunky as the original but will do the job which will allow bigger things to be made and you can easily get another if needed. 
Mom got me some new grey knee length socks for my shorts too which is super awesome AND I wore my uniform with a grey jumper and tie with my folks while staying with them just like that boy always did.
As  you can imagine it was a just the kind of Christmas a ten year old me would of wanted and had the second time around.