Blast from the Past

Well, bugger me sideways, to coin a phrase.

We've been having a bit of work done round the house here of late (new windows and getting ready for a new kitchen), which has meant a lot of clearing out and tidying up. More of this in another post, I think, but today I have been clearing out The Study. This is the room where everything that had no other home gravitated to. It was full of - not to be too polite - shite, and I hadn't seen all of the carpet for months. Boxes of stuff, letters from the bank, unopened, unused gym equipment, children's toys, box after box of videos, computer peripherals ad nauseam and, top prize, my first Shoei helmet from 1992. And dust. Tons and tons of dust. Tonight, I am in sight of the finish, with all the carpet exposed (and vacuumed) and the last couple of boxes are out on the floor and receiving the benefits of the disinfectant of fresh air and sunlight.

A couple of years ago, I went up to the house that I used to share with my ex, as she was moving to a new house with her new partner and I was desperate to reclaim my piano. I had left it there while the girls were growing up, but now they have left home there was no way I was going to leave it to the mercies of removal men and the classified column of the local paper. As I was leaving, my ex offered me two large boxes containing maps, which she said she was going to throw away otherwise. Now I am a bit of a fan of maps, and I took them just to save them from the council tip, but I hadn't examined the contents until tonight. There will be a further post concerning this, as I am in a quandary about what to do with them. But what is exciting me at the moment is what was underneath the maps, hidden in the depths of a Safeway green box. My records. Well, not all of them, obviously, but a number of singles which I bought when I got my first record player, and which I had brought to the marital home and then forgotten in the rush to get a divorce.

Here's the playlist of my teenage years - I would guess from the age of about 12 to 15 or so. Ring any bells?

• Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour EP
• Lonnie Donegan - Times Are Getting Hard, Boys
• Beatles - Long Tall Sally EP (LTS, I Call Your Name, Slow Down, Matchbox)
• Johnny Keating - Theme From Z-Cars
• The Tornados - Locomotion With You
• Kenny Ball - March Of The Siamese Children
• Mary Hopkin - Temma Harbour
• The Shadows - Wonderful Land
• The Troggs - Love Is All Around
• Acker Bilk - A Taste Of Honey
• Davies - Solemn Melody and Handel - Largo from Xerxes ("Your Kind Of Music" series)
• Jet Harris and Tony Meehan - Scarlett O'Hara and (Doing The) Hully Gully*
• Kenny Ball - The Green Leaves Of Summer
• Ronnie Hilton - Leeds United Calypso
• The Beatles - Twist And Shout EP (T&S, A Taste Of Honey, Do You Want To Know A Secret, There's A Place)
• Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five/Blue Rondo A La Turk
• The Tornados -Telstar
• Herman's Hermits - I'm Into Something Good
• Flaming Youth - Guide Me, Orion
• Jet Harris and Tony Meehan - Applejack/The Tall Texan.

And, of course, yesterday was the day I took the old stereo system, including turntable, to the tip.

Bollocks.

* Funnily enough, I thought of this ditty only the other day and looked for it on YouTube. Yes, it's rubbish. But it's good rubbish.