A trip down memory lane

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

That is a good subject tex. I too used to enjoy the local carnival/fun fairs as a kid. My cousins and brother and I would often go together and thrill to the varied rides and exhibitions. I could never take to the Big Dipper. How about you? I still cant ride on them and we have some pretty spectaular ones on our Gold Coast. In fact Sydney boasted the worlds largest wooden rollercoaster at one stage when we had Wonderworld. I digress. Yes at these fairs there were the shooting games, win a prize if you could land a hoop around an object, throwing games where you could dunk a clown and win a prize. Also the win a prize by placing a ball down the throat of a rotating clown. Some even had the Hall of Mirrors. You would take your girl to them and kiss her in front of all the various mirrors. Gotta say my all time fave was the Dodgem Cars. Sydney is lucky to still have our own permanent fun fair.. the world famous harborside Luna Park.. (see below) based I believe on America's Coney Island.

[tex]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Travelling funfairs.......
With the plethora of theme parks we seem to have these days i was wondering if they were responsible for the decline in travelling funfairs that used to be so common up until about the 1980s. I used to love the atmosphere of these fairs, Silcocks was the most prevalent but there were many others that would travel from town to town,they would pitch on pieces of wasteland and usually were around for about a week or so. Hotdogs/candy floss and toffee apples filled the air and all you could hear was the girls screaming over a soundtrack of Buddy holly and Bill haley. Theme parks dont create the same atmosphere,are usually at least thirty miles away and are very expensive .
The film That'll be the day which starred David essex and Ringo was great in spite of the bad acting...catch it if you can!

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Waiting on someone else to pick a new subject. We have plenty of years to cover.

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Spin the bottle was a little later for me. 4pairs of socks etc..? My first dog was an Aussie kelpie called Tammy. Whenever the Debbie Reynolds hit song Tammy was played on the radio my Tammy would howl. She contacted ring worm and died if I recall as there was no combative drug in those days.

[tex]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Who ever played doctors and nurses? A wonderfully innocent introduction to the opposite sex.

Your first dog.

Your first kiss.

A few subjects we can ponder here fellars.

Still play it, but a more popular game as a kid was spin the bottle, 4 pairs of socks, 3 pullovers,3 vests.
My first and only dog was a mongrel which was the family pet when i was about 12-13 years old, his name was Mickey and he would come home most days soaking wet after swimming in the docks at the end of our street, he died of heart failure probably due to all the oil and diesel he consumed.
my first kiss was with my cousin at the tender age of about 7-8 year old, i thought we would marry but she shunned me like i was nothing

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

My first kiss was when I was 8. Her name was Rosalie from memory and she was also 8 and lived down my street. I think I fell in love that day. Not really she moved away the following year. Wonder what became of her? Would be interesting to be able to somehow conjure up people from your past to relive those times.

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane


Who ever played doctors and nurses? A wonderfully innocent introduction to the opposite sex.

Your first dog.

Your first kiss.

A few subjects we can ponder here fellars.

[zabadak]

Re: A trip down memory lane

I have my dad's (lack of) hair... <--- self-portrait

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

This trip down memory lane got a little depressing, change of subject...WHO'S TURNING INTO THERE PARENTS?
I think as kids most of us probably saw our parents as old people with old attitudes and principals, we probably thought "i hope i never get like that" but ofcourse as you get older and more mature you start to appreciate the wisdom imparted by your elders and in particular your parents.
So who finds themselves saying something and then immediately thinking jeez i'm turning into my dad, are you a "modern parent" who is down with the kids or have you become the stick in the mud that you used to despise? i guess just by being on this forum we are displaying the kind of victorian attitudes we may of percieved our parents to have.
I guess its human nature to hanker after the good ole days but were they really better times or just different times, my dad died 20 years ago and he was really old fashioned, i often wonder what he would make of the world today just twenty years later with the advent of the internet, mobile phones etc which seem to have replaced genuine interaction.
I listen to myself sometimes and the influence my dad had on me is clear but less so with my mam

That is a hard question for me. I lost my dad before I was 7 so I can not say he influenced me in anything thruout my life. My mother was a conservative stick in the mud woman.. again I was not influenced by her. There are sereral sayings tho that stick in my mind from my mum.. like "go and suck the mop" that is when she wanted me out of her sight. Others were "think I'll go and eat worms" that is something she said when she did not think we loved her. When I asked her where something was that she did not know. she would reply "up in Annies room". No idea who Annie was. If I was pestering her about dinner. "pigs bum and cabbage" was her reply. I find myself uttering these sayings to my family now.

[darren]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Its health and safety gone ott compared to when we grew up.

Falling and grazing your knees and elbows on the hard stony ground was part of growing up.

Going the metal slides and if it was a hot day the slide would be roasting hot.

When you fell off and hurt yourself no one thought of suing this person or that person

something that neatly illustrates the difference between previous generations and today is play equipment in parks. It used to be that it was just constructed on bare concrete, now it is constructed on that soft, slightly springy material, just in case one of the children fall over. Also, at our local park, the play equipment is now fenced off and you have to go through a gate to access it to keep dogs away.

[tex]

Re: A trip down memory lane

This trip down memory lane got a little depressing, change of subject...WHO'S TURNING INTO THERE PARENTS?
I think as kids most of us probably saw our parents as old people with old attitudes and principals, we probably thought "i hope i never get like that" but ofcourse as you get older and more mature you start to appreciate the wisdom imparted by your elders and in particular your parents.
So who finds themselves saying something and then immediately thinking jeez i'm turning into my dad, are you a "modern parent" who is down with the kids or have you become the stick in the mud that you used to despise? i guess just by being on this forum we are displaying the kind of victorian attitudes we may of percieved our parents to have.
I guess its human nature to hanker after the good ole days but were they really better times or just different times, my dad died 20 years ago and he was really old fashioned, i often wonder what he would make of the world today just twenty years later with the advent of the internet, mobile phones etc which seem to have replaced genuine interaction.
I listen to myself sometimes and the influence my dad had on me is clear but less so with my mam

[tex]

Re: A trip down memory lane

The only decent meal we had a year was roast turkey at Easter. So strict were they that they had you polishing floors constanly for any petty misdemeanor. There were occasions when you missed seeing family if the job was not done to their satisfaction. Smoking or any other serious crime was dealt with by six cuts on the bare bum. Also bullying was frowned upon..the bully copping four cuts. I can tell you first hand that those welts hurt for at least two weeks

Sounds dreadful, if we were caught wrong doing we would get the cane across the fingers, usually "three of the best". Teacher would aim for the tips where it hurt the most,

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

The only decent meal we had a year was roast turkey at Easter. So strict were they that they had you polishing floors constanly for any petty misdemeanor. There were occasions when you missed seeing family if the job was not done to their satisfaction. Smoking or any other serious crime was dealt with by six cuts on the bare bum. Also bullying was frowned upon..the bully copping four cuts. I can tell you first hand that those welts hurt for at least two weeks

[Donald the Great]

Re: A trip down memory lane

Sounds almost Dickensian.

Yes it does..except it existed in the 20th Century.

[victorbrunswick]

Re: A trip down memory lane

\
Dont let appearances deceive tex. This too was a hell hole.. albeit an oppulent one. The word draconian was invented in establishments such as these. You saw the sports day in the clip.. that my friend was the only organised sporting event run by the school. The rest we had to improvise as there were no actual sporting grounds. We made our own.. If we wanted to play rugger or cricket we had to remove the cow c*** first. We were not allowed to buy any lollies or other goodies. If you sneaked out to the shops you were put on heavy detention.. a second time and you were expelled. Instant expulsion if you were more than a day awol. We were allowed a whole hour of weeknite television and two hrs on weekends. The food we were made to stomach was neither tasty nor nutritional. eg. the soup.. we called 'dishwater" actually had weavils floating in it. We had an egg a week and toast only twice a week. We were marched 5 klm to church every Sunday regardless of weather. Mate I could write a book on that place.

Sounds almost Dickensian.