Whatca Watchin' on TV, Dad?

Who else but my little daughter would provoke me to do this? A few afternoons ago, while she was watching Hi5, she piped up, "What did you watch on TV when you were a boy, Daddy?" I had to confess that I did not watch a lot of TV, as it was fairly new and we did not have the money to buy one in my parents' early days in England. But told her that when we got a TV there were lots of programs on with puppets. She giggled, thinking perhaps that back in the day the kids did not have much. But I went on to use the teaching moment, and say that the programmes for kids used to be ones that encouraged children to think about magical things and fun, and that the way that the characters spoke was never rude or disrespectful. This goes to a cartoon series she had been watching on Nickelodeon, in which the word "Stupid" came up so many times in five minutes that I told her that I was changing the channel. "But it's just acting." she pleaded. My ears were deaf to that, and I replied "Acting or not, those are rude words and I don't think you should be encouraged to use them."

This morning, during my breakfast in St. George, I got talking about growing up in London, and reminiscing about a few things, not TV programs, but food, places I went, and things I did.

So, during this hot, May afternoon, the two notions came together and I did a little search on YouTube. What I found and include below show something about TV life in the 1960s in England and life before Nintendo, Wii (Fit or not), Pokemon etc. If you have the time to watch all at once, go for it. If you get the chance to watch with a child under 10 years old, I'd love to know their reactions. Have fun.


Sara and Hoppity (Twiddley Dee, Twiddley Dum)



Torchy the Battery Boy



Supercar (I love Mitch the monkey)



Then there was Fireball XL5