This
year is the 900th anniversary of Harold getting one in the
eye from those pesky Normans. The end of last month saw the 50th
anniversary of one of this countries better days when we put one over
‘the other Becks’ in beating Franz Beckenbauer’s German team to
win the 1966 Soccer World Cup.
By
a strange quirk of fate memories of the Battle of Hastings are most
commonly depicted in colour through the Bayeux tapestry while most of
us who were around for the world cup will probably have watched the
match on a grainy black and white television set. The colour footage
that is trotted out at every opportunity to relive our former glories
was captured on film. Colour broadcasts did not emerge in the UK
until 1967 and even then initially it was only on BBC2.
I
was 8 at the time of England’s greatest footballing success and
remember the occasion well. The family had been planning their annual
break for several months – on this occasion it was to be a
fortnight at a bungalow in Dymchurch. It was only at the last moment
that my father learned that there was no television on the site so,
having meticulously packed and secured everything in place ‘Myrtle’
the family car was unceremoniously stripped to make way for the TV
set. (more on Myrtle later). For those who never experienced the
pleasure of watching the white dot disappear from the screen when the
set was turned off I should perhaps explain that television sets in
the mid-60s were typically around the size of a modern dish washer
with a screen area the equivalent of the door on a small washing
machine. Packed full of diodes and valves the sets were both bulky
and heavy.
I
should also explain that in addition to mum, dad and yours truly the
other passengers were my 5 year old brother and 2 year old sister.
Allowing for cumbersome buggy, baby necessities, food for at least 3
days and clothes for every permutation of British Summer to describe
conditions inside my father’s trusty Wolseley 1500 saloon were
extremely cramped.
For
the first half of the 70 mile journey mum occupied the front
passenger seat together with my sister and her ‘tardis’ handbag
of baby stuff. I can’t recall exactly where we were when we were
forced to stop as my brother took the opportunity to demonstrate his
prowess with projectile vomit, pebble-dashing both inside and outside
of the rear of the car and securing him a place in the front
passenger seat for the remainder of the journey in the process.
In
hindsight you could argue that my parents’ should have anticipated
the situation since my brother did have previous form for travel
sickness. Undaunted by the delay we managed to make it to the site
shortly after lunch. Cases were quickly despatched to the bedrooms
and the next hour was spent finding a suitable position for the TV
set, which if I recall correctly was balanced between 2 chairs. There
were no extension leads in the 60s, or if there were we certainly did
not have one, which restricted our options in placement of the bulky
set. The remaining time prior to kick up was spent trying to find the
optimum positioning of the aerial. Personally I was happy with the
picture when my brother was standing on the chair by the bay window
holding the twin pronged device above his head. Unfortunately,
standing still for longer that 10 seconds has never been my brother’s
strongest suits so we were forced to accept the next best option and
dangle it from the curtain rail using a coat hanger and elastic
strapping.
Memories
of Myrtle are fairly mixed, thankfully she had red leather seats, it
sounds plush but they were not very comfortable, especially once your
brother had puked on them! I remember there being a lot of chrome on
the car and wood panelling on the dashboard; the radio was functional
but the sound quality from the solitary speaker was usually drowned
out by the noise of the engine. It seems to be a generational thing
that so many cars look alike. My knowledge of cars is not good but
there are certain shapes of cars that to the untrained eye could have
been manufactured by any one of 30 different companies. In the 50s
cars were influenced by curves while in the 70s angularity was the
vogue. In the 60s the overwhelming trend seemed to be the ‘bubble’.
The Austin A30, Rover P4, Morris Minor, Ford Popular, Humber Hawk,
Sunbeam Rapier, Hillman Minx and Wolseley 1500 all had a pronounced
‘bubble’ to their cabin – hence ‘Myrtle, the turtle’ - a
noble beast but not renowned for their speed, or elegance. (A bit
like the driver actually).
