Aye, of course we had it tough

I meant to post this around Christmas but it slipped my mind only to be rediscovered after Span's comment about his first TV back in the Sixties. The BBC have been showing Top of The Pops in order from 1976, they've now reached 1977, and just before Christmas was the show from November 1976 when the name of the dance group who would replace Pans People was announced.

The name, Legs and Co., had been decided by the public but what sparked the nostalgia fest wasn't the girls themselves but the comment by Ed Stewart during the show when the competition was announced. He said, "Please phone this number and if you don't have a phone...."

"What???????????"

The collective sound of under 45's shouting at the screen, or at least those who had been made to watch a 1976 edition of Top of The Pops by their parents, "If you don't have a phone? What kind of trickery is that?" 

It's hard to believe these days with Individual ownership of multiple phones and our connectivity via Internet, e-mail, satellite phones, cordless, mobiles, blackberry, android and everything in between that just thirty five years ago one of the only three television channels in the country had to make specific allowance for its viewers who didn't have a telephone.

We didn't get our first phone until 1972 and even then it was what was called a 'party line' meaning that you shared the line, but not the number, with somebody else connected to the same telephone exchange. We were one of three on our particular 'party line' and you could actually listen to other peoples conversations if you were that way inclined. Janis's Mum didn't have a phone installed until the late 1990's and before we got married if I wanted to phone her I would have to tell her during the day what time I would be calling, or she would call me and I would ring back to save her 10p's!

Last year whilst tidying out a box at the office I found two of the old style phones, the ones with the rotary dial, and, having checked it was okay, brought one home to use as a prop in photographs. As I already owned a plastic lobster I thought I would recreate the most famous lobsterphone of them all - the photograph above is of the original by Dali.  What was interesting was that Nathalie couldn't grasp how it worked and what you were supposed to do with your finger after placing it in one of the holes.

Now all we need is a repeat of a 1980's cookery show and for Delia to say, "Now if you can't find cranberries......"

Honestly, the youth of today don't know they're born do they?