The Batmobile

 

Batman originates all the way back to 1939 where he was first introduced in Detective Comics. Since then he has grown to become one of the most famous, if not the most famous, superheroes of all time. Batman made it from the comic book pages onto the TV screen in the 1960s when the Batman TV series first aired starring Adam West as Batman/Bruce Wayne.

Both Batman and his companion Robin were two crime fighters there to defend Gotham City, their mode of transport was the Batmobile. 

The Co-operative Dividend Book & Stamps

 

The Co-operative Society revolutionised food retailing with the dividend, often known as 'divi', and the 'divi number', it became a part of British life.

The dividend was a financial reward to customer based on each customer's level of trade with the Co-operative. The distribution of profits on the basis of turnover rather than capital invested is a fundamental difference between a Co-operative and most private sector enterprises.

Customer sales would be recorded in ledgers in the society's stores, at the end of the collection period a proportional payment would be made to the customer.

As the societies grew, the number of customer increased and the method of using ledgers became cumbersome. As a solution the Co-operative issued stamps to customer for qualifying transactions. Customers collected the stamps on a savings card, when the card was complete the customer would use it as payment for goods or deposit into their share account.

The dividend stamps were introduced nationally 1969.

The School Desk

The School Desk where every child spent many.many hours. They were usually covered in graffiti, doddles, love messages, gossip, and the bottom was encrusted with chewing gum. They were commonly made out of hard maple and were very durable.

 

Bono and Sixties Influences

U2’s Bono recalls his early childhood influences in conversation with Michka Assayas. 

                                                           

Do you remember the first time you heard music that really hit you hard?

Oh yeah, I can remember that. Those memories are very clear to me. I mean, very much .now that you mention it. I’m probably getting lots of these things back now, because I remember very clearly hearing the Beatles “I want to hold your hand” on the radio. That would have been probably ’63, would it? At three or four years old.

Are there any images that come to mind?

I was in the back garden. There were trees at the back, at that time, but they were cutting them down. I used to love hiding in the trees, I climbed up to the top of them and enjoyed hearing my mother shout my name when she was looking for me. I just remember the transistor radio was on, and everybody was talking about this group – they were such a phenomenon.  I loved the Beatles. I only realised recently, like last month, that “Beatles” was a bad pun, as in “beat”. I remember Christmas, getting up with my brother, watching them on Stephen’s Day, the day after Christmas. On the morning. A Hard Day’ Night was being put on, and then Help! And then Yellow Submarine. So their music made a real impact. And later, as I got a bit older, Elvis.

Buffalo Springfield and Sixties TV

Buffalo Springfield was formed after a chance meeting on Sunset Boulevard in 1966.  Neil Young in the book “Shakey” recalls their bid for stardom and the subsequent fall out as they were pushed into the world of sixties commercial TV.

“It was all over when Buffalo Springfield wanted to do the Johnny Carson show. What were we doin’ the Johnny Carson show for? That was just another of Stephen Stills things, and he was right – if the Springfield was gonna make it, people had to see them – but I didn’t wanna be seen doin’ that. I didn’t wanna do it that way.

Once the Buffalo Springfield were doin’ this light-hearted afternoon TV show –hosted by Woody Woodbury. We were trying to get exposure, the managers wanted us to do it. So we’re doin’ this stupid show, and we played a song, and we were gonna be back later to play another song. We were sittin’ in the back – all the other guests are in the front, and we were supposed to sit in the row behind em’ because they didn’t really want to talk to us other than say “hello” and “who are ya,” that sorta thing.

So Rona Barrett comes out, she’s on the panel there and they’re talkin’ back and forth. She’s talkin’ about this person and that person and their private lives – and I said “Now wait a minute. Just a minute here. Is it true that what you do – what you do – is expose other people’s private lives.? And try to unearth their own personal secrets  and try to share them with everybody else – that’s how you make a living, right?”

That was a dark moment for TV. We weren’t invited back.”

Alan Williams arrives in Parliament

Alan Williams was elected as a Member of Parliament with the victorious Labour Party in 1964 for Swansea West.

He recalls his first days as a newly elected member.

“I came in, put my coat in the cloakroom and went to look for my hanger. The fact that i was a marginal member was bitterly rubbed in for me when i found my hanger with 'Williams' on it had one set of initials crossed out and my initials written in......in pencil. They weren't going to waste a good label.

I went to the chamber for the swearing in. You can imagine it. I was thirty-four; there was Harold Wilson and all the cabinet sitting just two rows below me, and there opposite, looking very dejected, all the outgoing famous Tory faces. Tudor Watkins, the Breconshire member, was sitting next to me - he would be in his mid-sixties at that time - and i turned to him and said, "Tudor, it must be marvelous to be on this side of the house after thirteen years over there?"

"Yes, my boy," he said. "The sun gets in your eyes on the other side of the House."

The Small 1964 Labour Majority

The 1964 General Election saw a victory for Harold Wilson’s Labour party who secured an overall majority in the House of Commons by 4 seats.

Tony Benn in his book ‘Last Time’ by authors Austin Mitchell and David Wienir, reflects on those early days and the precarious position the majority party had with such a small margin.

“There is an MP for Hartlepool, Ted Leadbetter. He was elected in 1964 and we'd been in power about a week when he wrote to me. He said, "I'm writing to complain about a telegraph pole that is outside the house of a constituent. I've decided to withdraw support from the government until the telegraph pole is removed."

We had a majority of four. I wrote to him asking him to come and have a talk about it. He said, "I'm not coming to see you until the telegraph pole is removed."

So i told the Chief Whip. Ted Leadbetter is a lovely guy, former headmaster, and i said to him, "If the government fell after we'd been out of office for thirteen years, and people asked why it fell, it wouldn't go down too well that it was because Mr. Benn wouldn't remove a telegraph pole from outside a house of a constituent." That's the sort of pressure there was.”

Embroidered kneelers at Earnley Parish Church

This little article made me laugh, it's from a Guide to the parish church of EARNLEY. I visited the church in West Sussex last summer.

“The embroidered kneelers were designed and made by a small group of parishioners over the 1960s. Only one kneeler has ever been stolen. Aptly it was embroidered, “He fell among thieves”!

Earnley Parish Church, West Sussex.

Captain William Barnsley Allen VC is buried in Earnley Churchyard, his story is on my other blog: Out of Battle.

For more info: Earnley Parish Church at Looking at Sussex Churches