nostlagia isn't what it used to be part 1

i found the following video during one of those casual chain of links you tend to go through on youtube when you're looking for something in particular and then get carried away on a tangent - same sort of thing as going into a department store looking for a specific item and then leaving an hour later with a load of stuff you never thought you wanted

anyone of my generation whose childhood lasted throughout the seventies and into the early eighties will be very familiar with all of this stuff

some of them i miss - itv regional logos for example, which disappeared at the same time as most quality programming did on commercial television round about the mid-nineties - and although i hadn't watched top of the pops for years, i mourned its passing, as it was a popular culture icon and a symbol of continuity for generations of squared-eyed tv addicts - i also remember dabbling with 'roy of the rovers' in the late seventies when i was trying very hard to get into football, but the lure of spiderman and the fantastic four was too great

one or two things i was glad to see the back of - 'happy eater' was crap and could not compare to the little chef, which is still going strong, in spite of the bizarrely high prices they charge for all-day breakfasts and jubilee pancakes these days - driving up and down the a-roads of britain on family holidays, passing the odd happy eater sign, i always thought they resembled an advert for bulemia, as the little bald man always looked as if he was about to stick his finger down his throat: a rather apt indication of the quality of food served at happy eater restaurants, i think

i was also glad to see the demise of half pennies, as they were small and fiddly and they always ended up clanking around in my washing machine as I could never manage to get all the small change out of my pockets - half pennies would remain undetected rather like that last annoying teaspoon you always find in the sink after you've emptied the washing-up bowl

tv am's 'good morning britain' only served one useful purpose which was to give its name to a great song by aztec camera, who used it in an ironic way to comment on the fractured nature of british society in the era of the dreaded poll tax riots - tv am's programming was so twee and cosy it beggared belief

who could forget the 'man at C & A' advertsing campaign with nylon underpants and those delightful purple shirts with matching white collars - every time i see the logo i'm always reminded of one of those essex girl jokes that was doing the rounds in the late eighties - "why does an essex girl have C & A on her knickers? so she knows which way round to put them on"