RSS
One of the nice things about having an ice lolly made by Walls or Lyons Maid, rather than a Tesco or Bejam (remember when Iceland was called Bejam? Well, it was in my home town anyway…) own brand lolly was that you got a joke on the stick after scoffing down the icy goodness. It almost made the ice cream headache (or brain freeze) you got from eating it too fast worthwhile, just so you could be first to read out the joke to your mates.
Of course, the jokes were generally not usually that funny, but that didn’t matter. In fact the ones that made you groan were often more popular than the ones that were funny, just because they were so bad. Here are some examples of the kind of joke you might get.
Q. What do astronauts have in their sandwiches?
A. Launch meat.
Q. Why did the dog cross the road?
A. Because it was stapled to the chicken.
Q. What is the difference between a duck?
A. One of it’s legs is both the same.
OK, maybe not that last one, but it was in one of the joke books that I had. To this day I still don’t understand that joke, yet still find it very amusing for some reason. But that’s just me…
Do kids ice creams still have jokes on them? I really don’t know! Perhaps I should buy one and find out, purely in the pursuit of research of course, you understand.
The rules of Battleships are simple. The game is played on two square grids, one grid to keep track of your ships and if they’ve been hit, the other for you to try and work out the positions of your opponents ships. Each player takes it in turns to call out a grid square that they are going to fire a missile at. The other player then states whether that square is a hit or a miss. Each ship is a different number of squares in length, and in order for the ship to be destroyed a hit must be made against every square it occupies. The winner is the player who destroys all their opponents ships first.
Edible jewellery, eh? What an idea. One of the more expensive (if a few pence can be called expensive) penny sweets was the Candy Watch or Candy Bracelet. It consisted of a piece of elastic with candy beads threaded on to it, which could be worn around your wrist as a piece of jewellery, but could also be nibbled on whenever you felt peckish by picking off a bead or two.
High above the streets and houses,
The Commodore Amiga was the computer of choice during the days of the 16-bit home computer. Well, I think so, anyway! Its big rival was the Atari ST, but the Amiga just had the edge when it came to graphics and sound. The Amiga appeared in it’s first incarnation in 1985, as the Amiga A1000. This version of the computer looked like a desktop PC, with a separate keyboard and base unit, upon which it’s monitor could be placed. However, most people will probably be more familiar with the version pictured, the Amiga A500.
The first Now That’s What I Call Music compilation album was released in 1983, and it’s appearance completely changed the way compilation albums were viewed. It wasn’t the first compilation album by any means. I remember my Dad having several Top of the Pops albums (I don’t think this had anything to do with the BBC TV show) which he had bought when he was growing up. However, the NOW albums, as they are generally called today, changed the way such compilations were viewed from being a selection of tunes you may have heard of to a collection of current hits that you were most likely familiar with.
Toffo are, unsurprisingly, toffees. I used to really enjoy them as a kid, and was surprised to learn that you can actually still buy them today. Can’t say I’ve seen them in any shops, but I guess since I thought they had been phased out I wasn’t looking for them so didn’t ever find them! I must seek out a packet and see if they are as good as I remember.
One of the best films to come from The Muppets creator Jim Henson, and sadly the last film he directed before he died, was the 1986 film Labyrinth. It’s a film with many big names behind it, as it was also produced by George Lucas and Monty Python Terry Jones was involved in the screenplay. It also starred David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King, the films baddie.