What I mean by that is simple. You usually take memories from your own experience or childhood. But there are plenty of reminiscences from the early days of my sons and these have of course become part of my own reminiscences.
So who remembers World Wrestling Federation (WWF) before it got into trouble with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) because it shared the same initials and the World Wildlife got there first. So they changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) which still exists?
I have lost count of the hours we watched this so called entertainment and all the characters involved - Rick "Nature Boy" Flair, Sergeant Slaughter, Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker and many more. To us they almost became real people rather than wrestling caricatures.
Who remembers Timmy Mallett? A boy in a man's body designed to annoy everyone over the age of 12 but much loved by anyone under the age of 12. He inflicted Wacaday on us which ran from 1985 until 1992 and introduced us to the manic Mallett. It succeeded The Wide Awake Club which was designed to wake children up whilst on summer holidays, probably when most parents would have been quite happy to let them sleep in. Mallett's idea of waking somebody up I believe was to scream very loudly. For a time Michaela Strachan co-presented the show. She's now involved in the BBC Springwatch programme.
My main memory of the show was a segment entitled Mallett's Mallett where the ridiculously dressed Timster rambled on whilst hitting people over the head with a foam mallett (hence the title).
The internet has this description of the slot: "Later on in Wacaday's run, Mallett's infamous routine of hitting people over the head with his giant foam mallet was changed slightly, particularly in the Mallett's Mallet game, where he would instead hit large buttons on a machine to keep score, as the producers feared that young viewers at home might try and copy the routine by hitting people over the head with heavy objects."
I have news for them - my boys did exactly that regularly inflicting violence on me with rolled up newspapers that did really hurt.
Timmy Mallett eventually gave up being silly although he is still rolled out on various quiz and game shows. He is now a respected artist. His paintings are very collectable and very colourful.
Whilst we are on the subject of Timmy Mallett, I must enter one of his recordings into my hall of fame of naff music I started a few days ago.
Under the name of Bombalurina he forced on us his version of "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" which somehow got to number one in the UK singles chart in August 1990.
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Mentioning colourful artwork reminded me of a very unusual cloud formation in Salthouse on Sunday evening. It followed some thunder and lightning, some bright sunshine and some heavy rain but not necessarily in that order. It all created a spooky feel that could have been straight from a moody oil painting. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me.
We ate at the Dun Cow which has a particular interest to me. Many of my DEW ancestors lived and worked in and around Salthouse. So Salthouse has a special place in my heart. I am sure many of my ancestors, most of whom worked on the land, will have supped a few pints in the Dun Cow. Every time I go to Salthouse I try to imagine how bleak it was in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. I will talk more about this in future blogs as I am currently researching the Dews of Salthouse.