h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a short contribution about the 70's.

Born in 1969 when the US flag was planted upon the moon and Concorde took to the air for the first time. My 70's primary school is gone now and has been replaced by sheltered housing for elders, in the town of Sheringham, North Norfolk. I fancied two girls at that school which I still remember to this day. Lesley Garret and Hailey Jacob, see, even the names stuck. I don't remember the early part of the 70's as well as the latter part.

Our house was a semi on the corner of George Street and the school was right next door. Making my un booked days off very difficult to live through without any feelings of guilt. You see, I could hear all my friends playing outside at playtimes etc. Paradoxically making me wish I was with them. Quite where the motivation for being absent came from is beyond me, but thats kids I guess.

The mid 70's was when I realised that riding a bicycle was not as hard as it first looked. It came quite unexpectedly, and suddenly it was harder to fall off because of the balance, which came of speed. Within two weeks or so I was annoying the owners of our local Coalite supplier really well by doing huge slides on my push bike in thier yard which was conveniently right at the bottom of our street.

Chocolate milk was available when we stayed in my home country of Denmark for the duration of 1976 to late 1977. My mother bought two pints a day. There were hardly any video games about, but there were plenty of pin ball machines which took the outgoing 6 pence piece back in the UK. Milkshakes were literally milk shaken to a froth and the music in the jukebox that I remember most was `Crazy Horses' for some reason.

The first space invaders game appeared in 1978 along with a car racing game the name of which I cannot recall but was like space invaders in that the shapes of the cars on the screen were not unlike those of the space invaders. The programmers must have laboured for months and months to get the gameplay as unreal as possible, with the cornering of the car around the track consisted of spinning the wheel as fast as possible and then catching it when the car was pointed where you wanted to go while keeping the right foot firmly planted upon the go pedal for maximum madness effect. Watching another person playing this video game was more amusing than putting your own pocket money in and looking that daft.

I once climbed up onto the roof of the local bank in Sheringham in the evening where the view was terrific from third floor over the town center clock tower. If I could live the 70's again I would probably make more effort to attract Leslie Garrett's attention as I'm still single. Of course what else but the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy came out on the TV too didn't it, but that's enough about that. The 70's to me would not have been quite so bad if they had not been so closeley followed by the eighties.

I first thought of the words `I'm new here' in 1971. By `79 I think I knew what they meant. Flares were best forgotten but I did pester my mom and dad to get me pairs that were absolutely enormous around the bottoms. Walking along on a windy anough day would have meant finding a street with grab handles all the way along it, but the size of the bell bottoms was only equalled by that of the shirt collar which had to be of the same proportions. Oh yes, and didn't someone do the `Floral Dance' ? ::::Tee hee...::::

While I waited for the eighties I might have considered that life was amazing in from the `locals and law' point of view. A tolerance back then likes of which would have Mr Straw hairs stand for election. Being seven years old and being allowed by the local constables to safely walk the streets and beaches of Sheringham as late as 10pm was testimony to the cutured and caring community that existed. That in no way goes against my parents who were the most caring and loving I could have wished for. It was simply that everyone seemed to know everyone. Here and now in Telford, Shropshire is as far from that as a Gargleblaster is from a tuft of Axminster carpet.

Thank you and see you in the eighties.