[Please note that I will not be blogging A to Z on Saturdays but will
continue with G on Sunday. Look forward to seeing you then.]
F Smell:
Flowery birthday cards - I loved getting flowery birthday cards when I was young. The card was impregnated with a perfume and I used to sniff it to pieces.
F Memories:
Food - Food in the 50s was plain and
predictable. It was only a few years after the end of the 2nd World War and meat and cheese were still rationed until 1954.
By the
60s our tastes were becoming more adventurous. I can still remember the excitement when Mum made our first Vesta meal. This involved small cubes of reconstituted meat that were left to sit in boiling water and then topped off
with noodles which Mum had dunked into the chip pan to make them crispy. It sounds
mundane now but in those days it was as exotic as cheese and
tinned pineapple on cocktail sticks.
Fogs and smogs - Every house had a fire. Factory chimneys spewed out smoke day and night. Is it any wonder that we had fogs and smogs? You often literally couldn't see a hand in front of your face. The most exciting part of a fog was knowing that we'd be sent home early from school. The buses would stop running as soon as a fog descended and the schools had to close so we could get home safely. Excellent!
F Programmes:
Food - Food in the 50s was plain and
predictable. It was only a few years after the end of the 2nd World War and meat and cheese were still rationed until 1954.By the
60s our tastes were becoming more adventurous. I can still remember the excitement when Mum made our first Vesta meal. This involved small cubes of reconstituted meat that were left to sit in boiling water and then topped off
with noodles which Mum had dunked into the chip pan to make them crispy. It sounds
mundane now but in those days it was as exotic as cheese and
tinned pineapple on cocktail sticks.Fogs and smogs - Every house had a fire. Factory chimneys spewed out smoke day and night. Is it any wonder that we had fogs and smogs? You often literally couldn't see a hand in front of your face. The most exciting part of a fog was knowing that we'd be sent home early from school. The buses would stop running as soon as a fog descended and the schools had to close so we could get home safely. Excellent!
| Fireball XL5 |
F Programmes:
On TV:
Dr Finlay's Casebook
The Fugitive
Fireball XL5
On Radio:
Forces Favourites, later called Family Favourites, they played musical requests for the armed forces in Germany.
F Names:
F Music:
Georgie Fame singing The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde
Dr Finlay's Casebook
The Fugitive
Fireball XL5
On Radio:
Forces Favourites, later called Family Favourites, they played musical requests for the armed forces in Germany.
| Adam Faith |
Michael Foot MP
General Franco, Spain
Albert Finney
George Formby
Connie Francis
Billy Fury
Adam Faith
Marianne Faithful
Fleetwood Mac
Freddie and the Dreamers
Georgie Fame who provides the...F Music:
Georgie Fame singing The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde
Which Fs did you remember?
Another fabulous blast from the past! Now I'm trying to remember if they played that song in the Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway movie.
ReplyDeleteJulie
Oh my goodness your flowery birthday cards brought a sudden and very strong memory and now I have tears! I can remember buying a blue flowery card the flowers were in 3D when you opened it and I can still smell the perfume. You have one of the V' s I was doing lol ! Vesta foreign foods!
ReplyDeleteVesta curries! How impossibly exotic they seemd. We had an Indian lodger in the 60s and my Mum, with every good intention, served these. Who knows what the poor lodger thought she was eating, but it was meant to make her feel at home so I hope she appreciated that.
ReplyDeleteGreat posts - just caught up with A-F in one go. I date from 1957 so remember most of it. My sister was visiting recently and we went through a lot of old photos from our childhoods to see what could be thrown away (very little!) so I already have an enhanced sense of nostalgia at the moment.
I remember all the Fs.
ReplyDeleteI remember the farthing, too, and when bread cost 7¾ pence, Mum let me keep the farthing change. When I had four farthings, I'd buy four Fruit Salad chews.
No flowery cards, but yes to all the rest. Unfortunately I went to school by train so the fog had no effect. Fabulous post.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post Rosalind. I'm getting a real sense of the sixties and loving it.
ReplyDeleteReally enjying these nostaligia posts Ros!
ReplyDeleteFireball xl5....yes and vesta curries! I was such a fussy eater as a child....must have driven my mum mad...and I remember the day she came home with a vesta curry! Beef curry and she always added chopped banana on the side and sprinked dessicated coconut over the curry.Those were sophisticated days....
PS I really must check the spellign before I press the send button....
ReplyDeletepps..Pat - fruit salad chews...I loved those ...and blackjacks...
I love the idea of smelly cards!
ReplyDeleteI love flowery looking birthday cards. When I was young, I collected scratch and sniff stickers. Loved those!
ReplyDeleteHi Rosalind, first time visitor and great to meet you! I remember F-Troop. Sometime during the episode it seemed the watch tower (manned by a nearly blind guy) would fall over.
ReplyDeleteForgot to say,I know a lovely children's poem from when I was about five about smoke making shapes as it climbs from chimneys.
ReplyDeleteThese all sound so interesting! I'd love a card that smells flowery. :)
ReplyDeleteFleetwood Mac is the only one on the list I'm really familiar with - but I loved their sound! My current TV favourite F is Fringe :)
ReplyDeleteI don't remember many of these; born in 1954.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever got a flowery birthday card. But I do remember London fog, The Fugitive, some of the names you listed, but who was Adam Faith. Thanks for your comment yesterday. I think there's religion and then there are all the customs and traditions that get picked up from here and there. People read the Old Testament back then and must have been appalled by the killing of the babies. The idea to put a cross on your home for protection, may well have come from there.
ReplyDeleteI love this one. I learnt to cook *exotic* food as a teenager from vesta packets.. I remember reading the ingredients, getting them and working out how to cook them..
ReplyDeleteLove the song. See you sunday!
I'm not a brit but I remember Dr. Finlay's Casebook (and Janet!). My mum did cook fairly exotic fare for the time - chili con carne, sweet and sour meatballs and the like! Thanks for the memories...
ReplyDeleteIt's great to know what was happening when my mother was born. I'll have to brag about it later. Lol
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvelous post! Love all those F's.
ReplyDeleteThose F's are from my mother's time, but I just love anything nostalgic! Cheers!
Texas Playwright Chick
Oh, just remembered a song from 1958 when I was 13 and in love with the boy who lived next door: "Forget Me Not" by the Kalin (or Kalen)Twins.
ReplyDeleteLOL not thought of that song or the boy who lived next door for yonks.
Interesting about Fogs and Smogs - I never knew that. I do remember the flowery birthday cards :)
ReplyDeleteAnother fascinating, informative post! I'm loving these!
ReplyDeleteI loved the glittered flower cards my mom would give me, I don't remember if they had a scent.
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1970 so these posts are a bit before my time, but I'm absolutely loving them. Thank you Rosalind.
ReplyDeleteGreat take on A to Z! I am too young to remember, but would have seen some reruns and like to read to learn the little thinngs about time periods, like cubed meat and rations til 54!
ReplyDeleteI will be sharing this with my dad because I know he'll really enjoy your flashbacks posts to his Baby Boomer childhood!
Alana @ writercize.blogspot.com
Blogging A through Z!
Which did I remember - ALL OF THEM!
ReplyDeleteShowing my age!
Recalling the theme music to Dr Finlay's Casebook reminds me of wet Sunday nights sitting round the telly as the death-throes of the weekend ebbed away announcing the forthcoming doom of Monday morning and another week of school! (and I can still hear 'Janet' answering the phone: "..Aye, Arden Hoose") And the spiteful, gossiping 'Mistress Niven' - ah, nostalgia!
Thank you for this stroll down memory lane, via the blog-hop! :-)
SueH I refuse to go quietly!
Hi Ros .. Bonnie and Clyde - great song and film ... I just remember rationing - though not sure I ever saw a ration book .. we made most of our food at home .. and had a big garden - we were lucky .. just glad I didn't have to do the work - looking back on it!! ... Fried noodles - that's a new one .. but cheese and pineapple is still a good standby ..
ReplyDeleteSmogs - yes I had a bad experience in Oxford at school when we returning to our house for prep and the night ... not funny!
Cheers - great series .. have a happy Easter weekend .. Hilary
I remember Fleetwood Mac and the Frames! Fun post!
ReplyDeleteEat Live Move: Intuitive Eating from A to Z
Ohhhhh! Thank you for including Fireball XL5! And a picture!
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1956, but in Canada, so some of my memories are different.
I'm so glad I clicked on your blog tonight! I'm reading my way through all of these delightful posts, and will follow from now on.
My favorite Georgie Fame hit was "Yeah, Yeah"-- a great jazzy tune that really knocked me over when I first heard it. A few years back I located a more recent Fame CD that had an update version of that song and a duet of "Moon Dance" with Van Morrison. It's a great CD. Fame was such an under appreciated artist--in the U.S. at least.
ReplyDeleteLee
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