Pictured here is a human head louse. Ugly little bugger ain’t he. But how did we combat such an ugly foe? This is a job for Nitty Nora – The Bug Explorer!
I am of course referring to the lady in the white lab coat who came every so often to your school to check the hair of every kid looking for head lice, or nits as they are more popularly known. Her name probably wasn’t Nora, but her appearance struck dread into every kids heart. Every school class took it in turns to line up before Nora, who would then examine your hair by pulling it about checking for both nits and, more importantly, their eggs. This wasn’t usually too bad for boys, but for girls with long hair it was much more of a chore, as they normally had to have any plaits etc. taken out first, which meant that the younger girls were then wandering about for the rest of the day with a tangled mess of hair.
The worst thing was she wouldn’t tell you that you had nits (if indeed you had). No, that was revealed at the end of the day when an envelope was given to each child with nits to take home to their Mum. This was probably more embarassing since every kid in the class saw you collect your envelope. It didn’t matter how much you protested that nits only lived in people with clean hair (I’ve never worked out if that’s true), you were then called a fleabag for the next week or so, and no other kids wanted to play with you because their parents had told them to keep their distance, just in case.
If you did end up with one of the letters that made you a social outcast, then it was time for a trip to the chemist to buy a bottle of that foul smelling shampoo. It really had a terrible smell and it was made worse by the fact that it had to applied and then left for ten minutes before it could be washed out. After that, your Mum would go through your hair with an incredibly fine toothed comb to get out all the dead nits and most importantly the eggs. “Break their legs so they can’t lay eggs“, she used to say, which always made me feel a bit sorry for the poor little things. Any that she found would be picked out and squashed with the tip of a finger nail, which made a surprisingly large cracking sound for something so small.
Sadly, Nitty Nora has hung up in lab coat and no longer keeps the nations children head lice free. Apparently she was abolished because her job was deemed to be an invasion of privacy and possibly even assault! If this is the case, then it is surely yet another sign of the world going mad. So what if a few kids had their hair pulled a little! At least they wouldn’t cause an outbreak of nits throughout the entire school. There are also reports that nits are becoming resistant to the various lotions and potions concocted to kill them, so there’s even more reason to get rid of them as soon as possible.
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Hello,
Nitty Nora is well and truly alive in the memories of so many and even though they are not usually positive memories, we now call for a return of the infamous ‘nitty nora’. But bring her back in what form?. If a chemical company has anything to do with it, she will be brought back as a bottle of medicated shampoo and I, for one, kind of object strongly to this! I have started a campaign to stop just that. Please post up my view where they will be seen and publish my letter (BELOW) that I am sending out to get support for an objection to the Trademarking of ‘Nitty Nora’ by a chemical company for a medicated shampoo. Please support my campaign to KEEP NITTY NORA FREE.
HANDS OFF OUR NITTY NORA!
Dear Reader,
I am writing to make your readers aware of a threat to our great British heritage if an application to register “Nitty Nora†as a trademark is not stopped!!
Trademarking a word or phrase gives exclusive rights to the applicant, to that word or phrase, thereby taking it out of public use forever. This is exactly what a chemical firm is attempting to do by registering “Nitty Nora†as a trademark for a medicated shampoo
What next? “The Lollipop Ladyâ€, “Ferry Across The Merseyâ€, “Humpty Dumptyâ€? – where does it all end and what else is being quietly trademarked just because we aren’t aware of it?.
“Nitty Nora†is out there, she exists as a phenomena, for so long now that most people have heard of her. The ‘Head Lice World’ is the only place she exists and she should be free to dip in and out of the organisations, services and business that reside there. I have written a poem about her in support of ‘wet combing’ as an effective method of lice eradication and it would mean I ‘d loose my leading lady – and for me, no one else will do.
I am opposing the application, at my own expense, but I need to provide evidence that the phrase is commonly used in the trade. Please help me by sending me any references to Nitty Nora in literature, on the web, in advertising campaigns and/or any memories, in fact anything about her so I can compile a case with the best possible chance of succeeding. If like me your readers wish to object to these plans please show your support for my campaign by visiting the web site http://www.nitworks.co.uk or email me at lucy@nitworks.co.uk or send to Hands off Nitty Nora, PO Box 166, Colwyn Bay, LL29 0BZ. I have until 6th April 2008 to gather the body of evidence required.
Help me stop big business claiming exclusive rights to what belongs to all of us. Thankyou in advance, LUCY WEIS.
END
Well, you have our support in this matter Lucy. I hope you succeed in keeping the name safe, and perhaps you might even be able to persuade the powers that be to bring Nitty Nora back to the nations schools.
Best of luck in your crusade, and if this web post is of any use to you at all then feel free to reference it.
Come on everyone, mail Lucy and post a comment here too to show your support!
[…] over a month ago I wrote about Nitty Nora The Bug Explorer, more properly known as the nit nurse. Today a comment was added to this article by Lucy Weis […]