Crackerjack

Can you say Crackerjack without saying Crack-er-Jack?

"It's Friday, it's five to five... it's Crackerjack"
"CRACKERJACK!"


As the time and place suggested, it was going to be 45 minutes of games, comedy and music. Whether Jack Douglas, Ronnie Corbet, Don Maclean, Peter Glaze and The Krankies or Leslie Crowther, Michael Aspel, Ed Stewart or that weird Stu Francis, you knew that you would have a barrel of fun.

Back in 1955 Crackerjack was originally presented by This Is Your Life's Eamonn Andrews. The last presenter gave it the kiss of death with, Stu 'Ooh, I could crush a grape' Francis.

We probably all remember Double or Drop, where children were picked from the audience to answer questions, winning prizes for a right answer and cabbages for a wrong answer. All had to be held for the duration of the game. No wonder kids hate cabbages these days.

There were no losers, however, with everyone going home with the much-coveted Crackerjack pencil. How much did that cost the BBC budget, even a pen would of been better!

Do you have any memories of Crackerjack?

Towering Inferno

In the Seventies, every director had to make a disaster movie, With Airplanes, Ships and Earthquakes on cities a Towering Inferno was yet another way to stick hundreds of big names into a movie and guarantee a blockbuster movie.In 1974 Irwin Allen featured an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman the big names at the time.


With 138 stories, the skyscraper is the tallest building in the world. The movie is set at the dedication party. Being a new building there are still areas of concern. The power surge also sparks a fire in a storage room on the 81st floor, which because of problems with the building's security system, goes undetected for many hours.


Of course the last thing anyone would want is an issue on such an important night so its a while before anyone takes it seriously. As the department struggles to fight the spreading fire from inside, the 300 party guests in the 135th floor Promenade Room are trapped. The remainder of the film follows the rescuing of the guests, and depicts many escape attempts and deaths. Rooftop escape by helicopter is abandoned when winds cause the first attempt to crash into the roof and explodes. The tower has only two stairwells. One is filled with smoke and the other is rendered impassable by subsequent explosions and collapses.

A few hundred die in the end and a moral to the story is left behind, in the same way the Titanic and words unsinkable link.

The reason this stood out for me was just seeing so many great actors in the movie. Towering inferno is very Corny, but great for a Saturday afternoon in.

Meccano

Meccano had the tag line - "your hobby is for a lifetime" and for many it was. It was always rewarding, but a lot more work than Lego - Today we take a nostalgic look at Meccano. For over 100 years it's been around pleasing sons and fathers alike. But how did it all start. Initially "Mechanics Made Easy" was a model construction kit consisting of perforated metal strips, metal plates and girders, shaft collars and axles for mechanisms and motion, and nuts and bolts to connect the pieces in 1901 by Frank Hornby. By 1908 Frank Hornby registered the Meccano trade mark, and formed Meccano Ltd.


Every school boy is familiar with the Meccano sets and how they were numbered. Initial sets were numbered 1 to 6. Meccano Set 7 was released a few years later. Of course Meccano was often the boys alternative to Lego. more pricey but certainly more manly.

Frank Hornby is still associated with Meccano all these years later and enthusiasts worldwide have formed many clubs and websites. Newsagents still have magazines on shelf's such as Constructor Quarterly, The International Meccanoman and the ModelPlans series of instructions. Most fathers normally will find at least one occasion to buy and build a Meccano set with their sons.

Kojak Detective Game

Kojak board game by arrow games ltd - This has to be the worst bored - sorry i mean "board" game ever. the game play was minimal. In fact as with most board games that are churned out a factory with a popular TV show attached to it, it is no more than the same game repackaged and popularised for the fleeting moment. Who loves you baby? You may ask!


The game was for 8 years and up. It was based on the streets of Manhattan, New York. 4 detectives competing to make the most arrests in the Manhattan South precinct as they try to solve 4 crimes. A crude roll & move game has cars moving round the track, collecting Contact Cards, Trap Cards, Warrant Cards by making exact rolls onto certain squares. Kojak board game by arrow games ltd was no more than a case of getting your assignment with a Contact Card, move a car into the right car park for surveillance, move the criminal into the red space using Trap Cards and book 'em Stavros. For 1975 this game was pretty poor.

Kojak was a very popular cop detective show in the seventies. Most will remember Telly Savalas who played Kojak due to his incredibly bald head. Any kid at school who stuck a half football on there head was Kojak as was any guy loosing his hair. Kojak also had the problem of smoking in early episodes, which wasn't great for kids as they also needed something to stick in there mouths. The answer was a lollipop. I think we had one called a traffic light lollipop, as it started off red and then went to amber and finally green. Now our lungs were safe and our teeth could rot!

So what else sis the Kojak game have about it. It was so forgettable that if anyone else has any memories, then let us know by posting a comment below.

Brick Cell Phones

The Cellular system was the main technology that started the mobile phone revolution. The phones are affectionately called bricks due to there huge weight and size. You really did need a belt and braces when putting this in your pocket. Few individuals could afford radio phones in their cars in the 70s and in the early years of the 80s. The main reason for this technology was to make best use of the limited number of channels available.


As with most things eighties, there is a recent revival for a brick phone. you can buy them and they actually work on the current networks. I cant help but think the novelty will soon where off though.

It's hard to imagine how limited a resource the radio channels were, the Cellnet system operated jointly by BT and Securicor, initially had 300 voice channels to cover the entire network. The cellular system divided the area covered by the mobile network into cells. Each cell was adjacent to six other cells. You can think of cells as a patchwork made from hexagons.

During the process of the call, a receiver or transmitter for that cell was used. The call was then routed via other cells or the land line network to its eventual destination. The phone needed two channels, or radio frequencies, to communicate on to send and receive voice. To avoid clashes adjacent cells could not use the same frequencies. So based on the hexagon layout, one cell could use one seventh of the available frequencies. Depending on the size of the cells, a small number of frequencies could be made to go a long way. There was an invisible handover procedure as a phone moved from one cell to another, for example a car phone in a moving vehicle.

if you do want a great phone - do visit our sister site
Mobile Cell Phones Comparison Site

Jimmy Saville Cloth badges

Jimmy Saville Cloth badges
I guess most of you won't remember today's item of nostalgia. I have to admit i cant track down anything on it, so I'll write what i can remember and rely on any input from you and your memories.

There were around six colourful cloth badges that could be collected if you sent several empty crisp packets to a provided address. At a guess it must of been around 1975. I think it was a Golden Wonder crisps promotion, but i cant be sure.

At the time Jimmy Saville was a top celebrity with his popular Jim 'll Fix It show. The show was all about kids with dreams and Jim fixing their dream into a reality. Went down a treat in the seventies.

So back to the badges. They were cartoon version of Jim doing various things
The only one i remember is Jim on a horse with the word "Jim-Khana" above in place of the word "gymkhana"

Also "Jim-Nasium" instead of gymnasium and so on.

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

The theme tune to Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em is quite unique and individual. It was written by Ronnie Hazlehurst who also was involved in the production of Only Fools and Horses. It features a piccolo spelling out the title "
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em" in Morse code, excluding the apostrophes.



Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was a BBC situation comedy, written by Raymond Allen and starring Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice. It was first screened in 1973 and ran for 5 years.

The effeminate Frank Spencer and his tolerant wife Betty went through various trials and tribulations. The "Mmmmm Betty" catchphrase is still known and used to this day by many impersonating him.

Frank Spencer was played by Michael Crawford. He was a well meaning and yet naive chap who ended up causing so many disasters that the professionals around him would often have a nervous breakdown. Remarkably he did all his own stunt work. Including falling through roofs, running from explosions and roller skating down roads through shop fronts.

The Phantom of the Opera was a complete change of character for Michael Crawford and chosen no doubt to show he had other abilities than to just be a clumsy idiot. Clearly he is incredibly talented.

Thunderbirds

"Supermarionation" was a made up word by Gerry Anderson. In effect it was puppets like no other. Thunderbirds is still popular almost 50 years on.

1965 Thunderbirds was first shown under AP Films. This was later changed to Century 21 Productions.



Thunderbirds were amongst his most popular creation with adventures of International Rescue, an organisation created to help those in grave danger using technically advanced equipment and machinery.

The story line was based on a family with a father called Jeff Tracy, and his five sons. The father was an ex astronaut and thus had the knowledge and skill set to train his sons in the ability to rescue those in need.
His sons were Scott Tracy , pilot of reconnisence rocket Thunderbird 1. Virgil Tracy, pilot of vehicle transporter Thunderbird 2. Alan Tracy, astronaut of space rocket Thunderbird 3. Gordon Tracy, aquanaut of submarine Thunderbird 4. John Tracy, operator of space station Thunderbird 5. Also Brains was a scientist and later in the Thunderbirds movie a pilot of tiger moth bi-plane Thunderbird 6. Lady Penelope was occasionally in the adventure, she was a London agent. Also Parker, whom was an ex criminal and Lady Penelope's chauffeur.

Lets not forget the famous Blue Peter Tracy Island too. Remember how a few egg boxes and toilet rolls became the Tracy island?

After all these years Thunderbirds is still a great little series to watch, though slightly dated.Special effects a little corny - a real give away are the close ups where puppets are replaced with human hands on detailed shots.

Fashion: Permed hair for men

Fashion took a dramatic change for women in the seventies and men in the eighties. In the 1970s, acid perms were invented. These use glycerol monothioglycolate instead and contain no ammonia. They are sometimes called buffered waves. This perm is slower but gentler to the hair. Heat is usually added by placing the client under a dryer, after covering the wrapped head with a plastic cap.



Suddenly everyone who had straight hair wanted curly hair and every curly haired person wanted straighteners. This was all very well for females.

It all changed again when Football icon Kevin Keegan had a perm almost Afro in nature. Suddenly every football player needed a perm thinking it may effect there ability on the pitch.

The fashion soon died and fell out of fashion as quick as the perm itself fell out.

Sand castles

Back to your childhood and the day the family took you to the beach. Sand castles, buckets and spades and a packet of 5 or 6 flags

All you needed were two basic building ingredients, sand and water. Of course on a beach these are available in abundance.



It's true to say that sand castles are typically made by children, simply for the fun of it, but there are also sand sculpture contests for adults that involve large, complex constructions. A trip to Weymouth or Bournemouth will prove the point.

Traditional flags for sand castles sold at most beach shops. Colourful, but talk about encouraging nationalism for your kids.