The evolving TSB Tumblr

While I'm a bit busy dealing with my stereo system latest addition, this week's topic is a place I spend a bit of time on.

On the re-established TSB we are going through some changes that will see it change by the years end and it begins with changing the URL to move away from some of the more negative sides of being a blog about being forever a schoolboy.

There's no nice way to put it but on Tumblr there appears to be a sizeable amount of gay men who see pictures of actual children even in the most youngest and most innocent play as sexual adding very racy, sexualizing commentary for their own enjoyment.

My issue isn't just that it's wrong and in many instances illegal, it is that they see my blog as in someway connected to them and regardless of form it's never been about that being more about being still that boy, always sfw and non kink/ non sexual so moving from one that  references schoolboy pasts is less likely to attract attention.

That attention itself causes issues even if you never initiated their interaction because understandably some of the communities I have more in common with also don't want those interactions either so apart from having a DNI (Do NOT interact) from the very first version I ever had, that has been spelt out on the description in brief form too from now on.

The other is I had been dropping off since last December vintage images of  just schoolboys, for two reasons, one is there's a finite amount of them that seem to go around in circles which I've seen before and secondly it seems to attract the people whose Interaction I don't want and need.

More to the point IF I need to post any in context such as talking about my own era of first childhood or similar, then I can do that better on my external blogs that I have more control over.

It's not worth the aggravation when it works against blogging and reblogging from groups I have more in common with whose content and support in the challenges of my life are altogether more important and of benefit.

There are places to talk with ASB's around bit of that and the broader overarching theme of Age Dysphoria as it applies to my life is something I can talk about on the external blogs and how that all ties in.

In the TSB 2 I had before May's events we had moved over more to a past lives and natural history theme and the restructured TSB is following that way not at least for now formally a Age Regression community blog in the way That Smol Boy (aka foreverinthepast10) is even though I'm age dysphoric following their rules but a lot closer to that.

What was possible in the past, not least pre December 2018 and how that moved me on was lost last year with much of that being preserved on the my middles life external blog as a record of that time.

Moving on being the eternal boy me and what he needs is really what the focus of the TSB tumblr will be about.

Basil Brush and being the same boy

Much has happened since I started this blog, first started a tumblr, joined asb and gone through a number of remakes of the tumblr apart from deletions of which the most recent was in May for reasons I feel no need to go through publicly on here.

One thing I am no longer prepared to deny is I am a ten year old boy in an adult biologically aged body, that's to say I don't regress so much as I remain the boy I was very in the mindset and headspace of one which is at least a part of the reason I need in real life supervision and why even in my teenage years I was protected from other teens when it came to more 'grown up stuff '.

That was one reason why only one blog got remade for ten year old me and on terms appropriate to a boy and NOT a grown up when it comes to interactions.

I haven't been well this week which is something I've lived very much with  missing chunks of high school education to it so I've been in the sick bed thinking back to the things I loved back then of which one as the Cultural Icon of Boys of my era which is Basil Brush.

Few people appreciate Basil was actually designed by Peter Fermin, the man behind Small Films who gave us Pogles Wood, the Clangers, Bagpuss and whole Trumpton trilogy for an ITV series in 1963 before getting his very own show on BBC Tv in 1968.

That's a picture of him with the late Derek Fowlds which how I first encountered him in Junior School.

This is the tape version of the LP I had as a young boy of his first album of skits and monologues.

Tape was great medium for children being less fiddly to put on and play compared to records apart from lending itself to portable 'shoe box' tape players which we had so we could take it with us or ask a grown up to play on a in car tape player when we were travelling.

That was why EMI Records had a children's tape series of stories and songs we'd love at pocket money prices. 

Because this is Great Britain, anything big and especially for boys and girls had a yearly annual issued in time for Christmas and this applied to Basil with stories, pictures and things from the years tv show.

That was his that was in many boys Christmas stockings in 1973 ready for the new year

That is one of two of my remaining Basil Brush pin on badges, the bigger on from the 1970's with just a hint of metal staining on the rear.

This one is from around the same era but smaller that was pinned onto many a woolly sweater or coat at the time.

Many of us boys loved Basil for his wit, his cheeky interrupting ways getting away with things that often we didn't as much as we shared these impulses the MC of a entertainments show with singers and performers just for children although the grown ups liked watching it with us.

The years may of advanced but nothing has changed in my world that included him.

The Bash Street Kids today!

It's been a hot sunny week so while I'm on the white choco Magnum's we return as things are on the change  at The Beano.

The Bash Street Kids goes back a long time being originally drawn by Leo Baxendale as “When the Bell Rings”, first appearing in The Beano in No. 604, cover dated 13th February 1954, and retitled in 1956 when Great Britain was in certain respects a very different country.

It was just six years after the S.S. Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks with the very first wave of Caribbean immigrants which was followed as many from there and the Indian Subcontinent were invited by government to fill posts not least in the NHS.

It isn't surprising then the world Leo Baxendale  drew for Class 2B was all white as except a few inner city areas that was how it was and I must admit when I went to my Infant and Junior schools as the sixties turned into the seventies it was like that too only encountering non white children at high school.

Last week we touched on the Fatty/Freddy issue and this comes in with issue 4088 on street sale June 2nd which I do have mixed feelings over.

What that banner at the top of the comic is referring to is made quite clear  when you bear in mind the last full time character that was added was Cuthbert Cringworthy in 1972 outside of the accident prone Wayne who was introduced and soon left.

Reading a comic strip like The Bash Street Kids is being in suspended animation for everyone from the Head Teacher, teacher, deputy, the cat caretaker have not changed in just about sixty-seven years nor have nearly all the class!

To be recognizable as 'a class' to children who are what this is aimed for as it was us back then what happens around the story premise needs to change with care so today you would expect computers, smart phones and the like to be around.

What they have decided to do is add two new pupils to the class Mandira Sharma who has the "Mandi and her Mobile" cartoon strip within it and Harsha Chandra who stars as the kid prankster from the joke shop who was a recent addition to the comics line up of strips.

Mandi came in upon the comics eightieth birthday and any class would have more females than just one while as a character Harsha divides me as while I agree the comic ought to reflect the modern world and even here we have now some non white pupils at our school, the asian shopkeeper is seen as something of a stereotype.

Where I think it fails is the back story, the School Board telling the school the classes need to be the same size as the others being the catalyst for the new names.

No child of eight through twelve would be thinking about School Boards, class sizes and Numbers On Roll for why things in school are different. An older child may query things with teachers and parents perhaps being more curious.

A better story would have their parents move into Bash Street, the children playing with the others and the parents applying to send the children there which more what as children we saw rather than adult school viability politics.

This said while it may not please those who want to keep it in what was even then becoming out of date it is a welcome change even if as I say the back story isn't one that kids really relate to.

Fatty is no more

Today's entry doesn't exactly follow last weeks although it is pretty much related to it and the subject broke when it was published.

This character from the Beano is called Fatty which is his nickname and a good number of his mates in the Bash Street Kids cartoon strip set in school are also known by them such as Spotty and Plug.

We all knew a child who ate lots of crisps, cake and 'tuck' who was to be polite, well built with a big tummy. Some of us just about remember Billy Bunter!

This is a frame from the past where the children attempt to put on a Circus.

As you can see for yourself, Fatty is not called that in an insulting or offensive way.

Late Friday it was announced that following letters from children asking why Fatty is called that it was said he would no longer be know as Fatty but Freddy or Frederick if in trouble as they felt it would help avoid children calling fat boys Fatty.

It was also said he'd be drawn slimmer.

Thing is the entire Bash Street Kids strip is all based on stereotypes such as Plug who has facial disfigurements that mean he looks 'ugly' , Spotty has spots and we all know kids with spots do get call names such as Zit Face, Toot's is a tomboy and so on.

Everybody has a thing that marks them out in a group but they see past it even if they use nicknames in an affectionate way based around that between them working together to defeat the Teachers and teachers pet Cuthbert Cringworthy.

Every child has a value and is valued in the strip even Cuthbert, the posh swot.

Like it or not from time immemorial boys and girls have called each other names, not that it's right and no doubt still will even if the terms change. 

Calling Fatty, Freddie won't change it, people will be called a Freddy instead rather like other words were used to replace "spastic" as a insult for some of us back in the day.

While it's right for teachers, parents and others to call out name calling, you have to learn to be resilient to that that because at some point a person will call you names because you need to stand up for yourself as much as those that do need a strong talking to.

Drawing him slimmer doesn't do anything to address the fact that big even clinically obese boys and girls do exist and probably will be called names or not invited to things such as parties and sleep overs.

It's just pretending big children do not exist in your class and that can lead to these things and why shouldn't they be shown in  cartoon?

To me this is just unnecessary meddling in the actual premise of the cartoon strip which was positive about difference without any in your face agendas just to please people into remaking the world to fit their ideals rather than kids just having fun reading cartoons that relate to world as it is, warts and all.

The Dandy and Beano Summer Specials 2021

This week is an important week in that it is the one which D C Thomson publish what was the one of the highlights of the year for many of us.

As regulars know we no longer have the Dandy as a regular 52 week comic since the end of the print run in 2012 and the demise of the digital edition in 2013 so we have an annual in time for Christmas and interestingly enough, a Summer Special.

That means unlike it's stablemate, the Beano it inhabits the same world we remember, more or less as any comic does with those characters we grew up with and a few newer ones added for newcomers and to a larger extent, it keeps the same feel and theme.

Like last years edition this carefully treads a path of reprints from summer specials of the past and new carefully drawn and conceived new stories featuring our favourites, that gives an idea of how a regular dandy might of been drawn by the top comic artists of our time.

They were the things we looked forward to reading across our summer hols, from cover to cover which helped keep us entertained during what seems like a long time playing with our mates.

For the age dysphoric ten your old me this is just great because it's not some much a step back in time as stepping in your time with the new stories being a little more in tune with today but still the same world which the Beano Summer Special this year isn't because it's very of today's world for children who've only know that world.

This is this years Beano Summer Special looking very much like a regular edition but themed as a " Summer Activity Special" so it will have quizzes, find the missing words and things to colour alongside the totally themed storyline that features all the current inhabitants of Beanotown in one great summer adventure that runs seamlessly rather than separate comic strips per page.

It will have the ever popular stickers and jokes too which usually have me in stitches whenever I read them as a regular reader of the normal weekly edition.

If you can't find both in the shops which it should be from May 19th, you can order online via D C Thomson's shop 

Sons and Mothers

 

This week in the United States and several other countries the weekend saw Mothers Day marked whereas over here we mix that in to Mothering Sunday which is part of the Anglican calendar and mark it in March.

This said that poem did seem to me to summarize rather well how many of us as boys reflect upon our mothers time with us and what it means. 

This delightful family picture of John Lennon from the deluxe 2 lp edition of his Plastic Ono Band  album to me is also apt as he famously lost his mother at an early age and was brought up by his Aunt Mimi.

While he's clearly enjoying playing with his dog, looking at his face one can almost sense of loss and how that shaped him.

To read some of his lyrics is to gain not just a sense of his loss, something that sadly a fair few boys and girls go through but standing back to reflect on what it is you yourself gained because that relationship is a extremely important one.

That's why it's important to mark the contribution of Mothers.

Back in time to Boys Comics

 

It's been a strange week when I went to vote yesterday looking every inch the eternal boy I am while reading comics and annuals as for most of the week it hasn't been good to be out with gale force winds as if we were back in the era I could of any of these boys having fun, getting to grips with the Kodak Disc System camera, taking a memory.

I've sometimes posted around them on here but comics were massive then, front and centre with many of us when it came to indoor things to do apart from watching children's tv and playing a record or tape so there lots of attempts to grab a bit of that big market.

This was a 'also run' comic in the promotional ad from February 7th 1976 where rather than scrolling your smartphone for something to do you'd of picked up a comic and this one was really aimed at older boys who wanted something a bit more cooler, sophisticated with a bit more edge but still just for children.

This was very much for my age range 10-14  with sports stories mixed in with adventure, crime and some free gifts, hardly the sort of thing Walter and the softies would of bought (tossing in comic reference).

Hookjaw was something you could get your teeth into, but tie-in's showed with the link to Magnum P.I. and soccer cards to collect cos we did that which showed the way towards the modern trend of bundling things just as other kinds of cards such as Top Trumps were coming out that we played in the dorm and on school hols.

This isn't a comic but was pretty big too a #1 single in Feb 1976 by the Scottish band Slik that featured a teen Midge Ure who adopted a more preppy sports baseball jacket look.

The trouble was Action couldn't battle it out with the big names in comics targeted more towards us like Valliant, Warlord which I read religiously devouring wars stories and facts back then, Tiger and Roy of the Rovers.

By 19 November 1977 it was 'folded' to use the expression the comic publishers use into Battle which was their answer to Warlord which ought to ticked most bases being right up the alley of more "Boys will be boys" sorts like I was then other than we were committed to the likes of Warlord which from 1974 had grabbed us tying in with our war based play, interest in aircraft, tanks, ships and weapons and  and love of Action Man .

Given we often had at least two offerings, The Beano that was shared with my younger brother, The Dandy Nan bought for me every week and Roy of the Rovers I bought with my allowance that provided different focuses (not for nothing did the storylines in Roy of the Rovers get much support going on to be loved in the game too) we were not likely to switch to it in an instant.

Getting in early and hooking the readers was the way to build up a committed readership and Battle-Action was too late even if had it of come out in 74/75 many of us would of taken to it.

This wasn't the only should of been a winner that missed it'd target though.

It's the early 1980's, things are a bit more sophisticated with animated action cartoons on tv, more electronic games, videos to watch and buy your very own were now a thing and someone decided we needed a new comic.

The focus of this comic was school and yes any of us around in that era know the fun we had in school, the brushes with authority we had and the extent to which we shared jokes and stories about just what happened that afternoon.

It did run long enough to garner a few Summer Specials as comics remained in basic newsprint unlike magazines such as Look-In which used glossy paper the specials being the delux edition to get us through the summer hols also had full colour glossy treatment.

One idea they had was to ask well know people we followed to write about their school days so Keith Chegwin was romantically linked to Tomorrow's World presenter Maggie Philbin otherwise known as "Cheggers" as we all called him who presented many shows on the BBC wrote one such piece what wasn't far removed what many experiences were like.

One feature it had was you could actually nominate people in it for a whacking which would then be illustrated in single comic frame which is fair reflection of the world we lived in then when we'd feel a  sense of  Schadenfreude when another got their comeuppance and needless to say others felt that of ourselves too as we had to wait to be punished in those pre 1987 days at school.

It was a different time with different expectations and norms back them

Around the seventies and eighties, I did by from jumble sales older books aimed at boys which in its own way is something you wouldn't get today either as people see them as collectables with BIG prices but we paid often less than a pound for then as they were seen as old and outmoded for children of the era rather than grown up collectables.

It was around the point I was going through my first and very strong experiences of Age Dysphoria, the sense of still being an younger age than your birth date and the tension between how you felt and how people saw and treated you.

Looking back on it, I was looking for the type stories and adventures I loved as that young boy finding nothing much in young adult fiction and teen life that really connected with me.