Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Guest Blogger: Brit Boy! - The Word on the Street

When Americano Girl first mooted the idea of me being a guest blogger on her site I thought that I might talk about my thoughts on her homeland, based on my trips over there, to give a flip view to that of her opinions and experiences of life here in England. Well, I may do that in the future - if I ever get invited back! (smile)

But another subject came to me yesterday. Americano Girl (AG) mentioned that she had been watching “Return to Witch Mountain” that morning, and we agreed that those series of films were very much of the 70s. We often talk about our experiences of being kids in the 70s, and remark about how similar our childhoods were, even though they were lived out on two different continents. AG always used to be Jamie Sommers when she played, whereas I was always Steve Austin - both running in slow motion somewhere, or making that ih-ih-ih-ih-ih-ih sound as we lifted an imaginary rock to throw at an equally imaginary enemy. Bionics were definitely a big thing in the 70s - less so now if you have seen the recent (pale imitation) Bionic Woman remake!

So, what other things were symbolic of the 70s? Well, still in TV land, I remember that the words “One banana, two banana, three banana, four” were the prelude to the best half hour of the week - or of the day if you were lucky enough to be a Brit Boy on his summer holidays. And you have to be a child of the 70s if you think that HR Pufnstuff made any sense at all! And no Saturday night would have been complete without learning what was the latest “word on the street” from Huggy Bear as he helped Starsky & Hutch to put away yet another “mean cat”.

You were a kid in the 70s (or I guess before then too) if you can remember being off sick from school and not hearing or seeing a single vehicle drive down your street. Wasn’t the world quieter then, or am I just getting old? You go out in the middle of the day during the week now and it is just like a Saturday afternoon.

If you were around in the 70s then you will remember the day that Elvis died. Our parents always talked about remembering where they were when they heard that JFK had been shot, and the modern day equivalent would be Princess Diana. But in the 70s, the big shock news was that Elvis had died. I was on holiday in the south west of England, and can still vividly remember turning on the TV when we got back from our day on the beach, to see pictures of the thousands of people outside of Graceland.

And the 70s was the era of Space exploration. Yes, the first moon landing was in 1969, but the 70s was crammed full of Apollo missions and for a youngster growing up in that era it was the most amazingly exciting thing that you could imagine. I was fortunate enough to get to go to the Kennedy Space Center a few years back, and it brought back all that excitement and wonderment of being a boy in the 70s marvelling at the exploits of these superheroes called astronauts. Americano Girl and I hope to go back to Cape Canaveral someday soon, but she may have to hide my credit card for the day - either that or keep me out of the shops there. Like a kid in a candy store (smile)

Being a kid in the 70s meant loud clothes, Star Wars, space dust, chopper bicycles, strange haircuts and a million other wonderful memories. It is just one thing that binds me and Americano Girl so closely. I always knew that Steve and Jamie would get married in the end! (smile)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Brit Boy,

That was a very entertaining article. I am a bit older than you and your AG but apart from the (Brittish 70's things you mentioned) I can recall all that too.

By the way, I am a virtual friend of your AG. I think AG MUST (LOL) invite back to write once in a while.

I enjoyed yur writing.
Warm Regards for AG and all the best for you Brit Boy.

Deana Wilmink-Martina
(The Netherlands)

Anonymous said...

Thank you Deana for your kind comments. I enjoyed guest blogging on Americano Girl's site, and I will have to talk kindly to her to let me have another go sometime soon (smile).

Thanks again
Brit Boy