Getting in touch with our '90s.

This week Caroline and I are gearing up for a '90s flashback. With tickets to see Juliana Hatfield and Evan Dando, my memories of gigs-gone-by and in-store appearances are flooding back. They were two of my favourite acts in my defining years. Not the only defining acts but my Juliana cassettes were on very high rotation in my Walkman in my final years of high school.

Here are a couple of shots of Evan Dando taken by my friends and I at an 'in-store' (from 1992 or 1993 maybe?) alongside a Juliana Hatfield magazine clipping in my old clippings folder. I have  a vague memory that she wrote about this photo in her book When I Grow up: A Memoir. And I have a vague memory that Evan was a bit 'floaty' at the autograph table.

I know I saw The Lemonheads play at least once in my youth. There was definitely one gig at Sydney Uni with Tumbleweed as support. We spotted a very young Ben Lee wandering around... and when I say 'very young' he was only a few years younger than me but I was pretty young.

Here is an old Lemonheads favourite of mine, 'Rockin' Stroll'. I believe the clip was filmed along Glebe Point Road and that the child in the pram belongs to one of the girls from The Hummingbirds (another of my favourite bands from the time).

I have only seen Juliana play once so far but my memory of that gig is a bit clearer. I think it was 1996 and it was at the Wollongong Uni Bar. It may have been the student end-of-year party. I went along with my brother that time and it was a great show for sure. This time I will be seeing her with my sister... so of course, here is her song 'My Sister'.

I found my bicentennial medal... and a box full of letters.

Firstly, I must apologise if this blog entry seems a bit scattered or doesn't make sense. I've been sick for a few days and our little one has croup so my head isn't particularly clear. I've been so slack on the blog-front lately though I thought I should post something. Also I typed half of this using the blogger app on my phone for the first time which might add to the post's wonkiness. Oh well. Let's pretend any content is good content... just for now?

You might remember that a few weeks ago I was pondering the question 'Where are all the School Students' Australian Bicentennial medals?' Well, I did actually find my medal  a few days ago. It was where I suspected it might be, in a box full of letters I've saved from my teen years. After I dusted off the medal and noted the autographs collected inside its cardboard cover - my own(!?!) and one other school chum's - I obviously made a big effort there - I chuckled at myself and started reading a few of the letters.

I had just turned 14 when our family moved half way across the country and the letters were mainly from school friends. It was supposed to be a permanent move but for many reasons we ended up back in Sydney six months later. As I'm sure you know there was no email or texting and no 'online' social networking for that instant and anywhere contact. At least not for anyone I knew. It was all snail-mail and an occasional phone call and so my friends and I undertook a furious letter-writing campaign trying to keep in touch. The first few letters I read from this box had some typically funny and slightly embarrassing teen stuff in them but I found that what struck me the most was they were rather sad too. I was surprised. Although after our family's move I found myself in a new place trying to figure out where I would belong, some of the friends I'd left behind were struggling to find where they fitted amongst the others at my old school now that our little group had shrunk so small. My departure had left a bit of a hole. And this still surprises me because even at this age self-confidence and I are usually almost strangers. I often assume that I am rather un-memorable (I know that isn't exactly a real word but 'forgettable' isn't quite the word I'm looking for) and I can still be surprised when someone says 'yeah, I remember you'. I mean, I remember them but for them to remember me is always a surprise. Why? I don't know. And if they remember me but I don't remember them I am even more surprised. I knew I missed my friends when I was 14 but for them to miss me too... I am still surprised to read that. Reading through all those letters again will take some time and I'm not sure whether they are something worth keeping for my children or possible grandchildren.  I guess their purpose right now is to remind me that I have always been important to someone, somewhere. Everyone is important to someone, somewhere. Don't forget it. (Especially if it is a little boy with croup.) To the friends who wrote the letters to me, thank you always! xx

Where are they now? - Bicentennial medals.

Hey Aussie kids! Where's your Bicentennial Medal?

Image from Museum Victoria website... until I can find my own medal.

Seems they are worth a lot now! With only 3.2 million struck and distributed to all Australian school children to celebrate the bicentenary it makes them quite rare. ;)
Recently on ebay they have sold for $0.99 and even as much as $2.25!

P.S. - Can you tell I've fallen behind with my blog entries? Sorry sis!

A Bookmark a Day - Memory Lane

If you are nostalgic for your childhood toys and Christmases passed then you can take a long trip down memory lane browsing old American toy and gift catalogues  on 'Wishbook's' Flickr photostream. I've bookmarked too many pages that all spark fun memories so it is time to sort and file them. Here are just a few of my favourites. (All are linked from Wishbook's Flickr photostream. Click on the pages to see them larger at the Flickr website.)

Great skates!

I found a red Smurf tote bag like the one above in an op-shop a few years ago.

The Sears mail order catalogue is something of an American institution. At least that's how I understand it from down here in Australia. I'm not sure we had anything quite like it here. The thick toy catalogues from Toy World or Uncle Pete's were great at sale time but I don't think they compared to these. 

The Little Professor calculator! I still have mine somewhere.

Our brother definitely had a parking garage very similar to this one.

I spotted a mini record player on this page, just like the one my aunt and uncle had when I was a kid.

One Christmas I received the Tippee Toes doll seen on this page. (Unusually, I don't have it anymore.)

On this page I spotted the Cinderella book with record that I had as a kid. Sing with me, Caroline - 'Work, work, work... I try not to complain... washing, mending, stretching, bending, every day's the same...'

Wishbooks' photostream  contains catalogues dating from the 1940s up to about 1996 so there is something for almost everyone to reminisce about. Thanks go to the person who scanned all these pages in for everyone to see. I'm not sure who they are but I enjoyed the memories.

Bookmarks culled and filed.

A Bookmark a Day

Casio Hippo Mouth Game!
Bookmarked for sentimental reasons.
I have one of my own. The game plot - a little mouse jumps in and out of the hippo's mouth to brush its teeth while trying not to get munched and avoiding rocks/coconuts being chucked by monkeys.

My brother had one called Canoe Slalom (I think) and Caroline's was a circus themed game. Were they as good as a Game & Watch? They might not have had the street cred but they certainly kept us amused on long car trips.

Bookmark of the day 2 - ABC fillers

 If you are around about my age and grew up watching the ABC in Australia then you probably remember this Mike Oldfield video (or maybe it was still film back then?) for 'Portsmouth' featuring some Morris dancing. My memory tells me that it was a 'filler' between TV shows in the early '80s. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) I bookmarked this one for obvious sentimental reasons. I could have just added it to my Youtube favourites but I've never been one to do things the easy way.






There are a few other filler films that I can't find unfortunately. The gnome lady would be a good one.  Another that I remember featured two children playing on a hill with some wooden(?) kings, queens, knights etc. It's a vague memory though. In the end they run off home and leave the toys on the hill. Does anyone else remember that one? Have I got it right?

Of course I can find the classic - 'Love is All - Butterfly Ball'! I know it is a big favourite of a friend of ours too. I think she told me she had a Butterfly Ball t-shirt. Very nice!







I will always love these little guys who appear towards the end.

A bit more searching on Youtube brought up another Mike Oldfield one that I vaguely remember. Can you think of any others?






Bookmark 2 filed under 'Youtube'.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall but how do we know he was an egg?

Humpty Dumpty cake, 1985, by our mum. Photo probably by our dad. Birthday, Caroline's.

Did you ever really think very long about nursery rhymes? I don't think I ever did until I became a parent. Well maybe I did but now that I am a mum I find myself looking at some of the rhymes and riddles from a slightly different angle compared to when I was a child.

In the late '70s and early '80s our dad would set up a cassette recorder to tape us reading, singing or talking, often with the intention of mailing the tape to interstate grandparents. He did own a Super 8 camera but that didn't have sound recording capabilites and it limited any recording to a couple of minutes only. A cassette recorder could give us a healthy 30 or 45 minutes recording time... and then you could turn the tape over and get that amount again! These recordings are still around and I can be heard with my siblings cracking ourselves up singing our own versions of 'Old King Cole', 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' and more. 'Old King Cole was a merry old soul and a merry old soul was he. He called for his... (wait for it) ... plate! ... (I know, hilarious right!?)... and he called for his... cup! ... (comedy gold!)... and he... ' you get the idea. Once we got a little bit older, the good ol' toilet talk would have taken over I'm certain. Fart jokes never fail to amuse my siblings and me... well, at least me... and frustrate my father to no end. I don't have evidence that we altered any nursery rhymes with farts but there are plenty of fart noises randomly made on at least one of these tapes. Hilarious. You had to be there?

So anyway, now I am supposedly a grown-up I rack my brain trying to remember the nursery rhymes for my son and as I recite them to him I wonder things. I wonder what I am teaching him with these rhymes. What did I learn from these riddles when I was a kid? What is a 'cock horse'?

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes.

I was a bit hesitant to do an internet search for 'cock horse', worried about what I might find but of course wikipedia provides some sort of answer. I should have known... at least part of it. Wikipedia suggests that ' "cock horse" can mean a high-spirited horse, and the additional horse to assist pulling a cart or carriage up a hill. From the mid-sixteenth century it also meant a pretend hobby horse or an adult's knee.'  But you all knew that already didn't you?

Now that the 'cock horse' mystery was solved, at least to my satisfaction, I wondered, how do we know Humpty Dumpty was an egg?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Again, wikipedia suggests some answers. Basically, it seems that we can't be sure he was an egg but, amongst other theories, it is thought that rather than just being a nursery rhyme, the rhyme was more of a riddle with the answer being, as we all now assume,  'Humpty Dumpty was an egg'. Other thoughts are more military in flavour with the idea of Humpty Dumpty being a tank or cannon sitting on a wall protecting a castle. I think I'll stick with the egg theory myself.

Whether or not everyone agrees that wikipedia is a completely valid source for answers and information, I now feel less puzzled about these extremely pressing issues (ha!). Without the internet and wikipedia, how am I going to be able to answer all the questions my offspring will throw at me out of left field?

Bring Back My Bonnie to Me.

Please bring back Allen's Steamroller Mints.

Allen's Steam Rollers.

The Nestlé website says they have been discontinued and that I should try XXX Mints instead. No comparison! Please bring back my Steamrollers.

(Actually, I wrote to Nestlé and they said they were sorry but they had no plans to bring them back. :p)

And also my favourite shoes, MAG Mega Moks, with zips. I've worn out two pairs of these shoes. I should have bought more. It was nine or ten years ago but I would love to find another pair.