Child Of The 1980's

I recently rediscovered the World of Strange Powers series on TV channel The Paranormal Channel (one of the darker undiscovered corners of the Sky lineup I guess). At heart I’m a bit of a Fox Mulder, I want to believe, so to speak. I can’t say I definitely believe that aliens, ghosts and bigfoot exist, but I like to think that there’s a possibility they just might, and would love to see some evidence that proves they do. I think, for better or worse, it must have been this show that first sparked my interest in all things weird and spooky!

Anyway, on seeing the show on my TV planner I just had to watch it again, and it’s just as I remembered it. The spooky theme music and the image of the crystal skull in the middle of an eye used to chill me as a child, whilst curled up on the sofa watching intently, and it still sends a tingle down the spine even now. The weird distorted picture of Mr. Clarke sat on some rocks at the end of the titles also unnerved me as a child.

Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World first aired in 1980 on ITV, and was narrated by TV newsreader Anna Ford. The show consisted of Arthur, usually filmed walking along beaches in Sri Lanka, putting forward the idea that some weird or freaky thing could potentially exist. This series dealt with legendary creatures such as Bigfoot or giant squids, and with eye witness and expert accounts painted a picture of some of the strange animals that just might exist on this planet of ours. At the end Mr. Clarke would appear again to sum things up. I always got the impression that, just like I did, Arthur secretly hoped that these oddities could actually exist, even though there was no strong evidence to suggest they did.

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I remember my cousin getting a scalextric set for Christmas one year and we (my cousin, myself, and our respective Dad’s) spent most of Boxing Day when we went to visit playing with it. My cousin is a good ten years or more older than me, so this would have been some time during the 1970′s. I remember wanting one for myself so much, but I really wasn’t old enough to have one.

Scalextric wasn’t new then of course, as it first came out in 1957, so the concept is now over 50 years old. Initially the cars were made out of tin but in the 1960′s plastic started to be used. Whilst Scalextric as a brand has been owned by various companies over the years it has mostly been released under the auspices of Hornby, who are best known for their range of model train sets.

The average Scalextric set consisted of a couple of model cars and a selection of track pieces with the familiar double metallic lines running parallel to a groove in the plastic. Curved and straight sections could be clicked together to form a number of different track layouts, and extra cars and track pieces could be bought separately, including bridges, crossroads, lap counters and even track side scenery such as grandstands. A couple of triggered controllers were connected to a special part of the track, which altered the voltage that was running down the metal rails, thus allowing the cars to travel as slow or as fast as the player desired – just make sure you slowed down at tight corners otherwise your car would go flying off the track.

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There was a time somewhere around the early 1980′s when the technology that was used for making ice creams and ice lollies must have suddenly seen an improvement, as the market started to see a number of new styles of frozen sweets appear. Prior to this most ice lollies were just frozen juice on a stick, with a roughly rectangular shape. Of course there were exceptions, such as Rocket Lollies or Strawberry Mivvis, but that was about it.

One of the first of the new breed of ice creams to appear was Walls Funny Feet. This was a lump of pink coloured, strawberry flavoured ice cream on a stick, moulded into the shape of a comical looking foot with a slightly oversized big toe, if I remember correctly. Over the years some changes were made to the design, including making them out of a rippled flavour of ice cream, but I don’t think they are available any more.

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