Arto picked this Italian puffy sticker up.
The Lame Wolf.
On New Year's Day we spent a most convivial afternoon at the remote Tan Hill Inn on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, the highest pub in England.
Whilst warming up inside and with half a delicious stout, I read a few pages from my older brother's sixth horror novel, the Lime Pit.
What a pub!
Have you been somewhere remote where you've read a book?
It always amazes me how once-derided characters can make a come-back.
Here's Chucky, the homicidal doll from the notorious Child's Play movie, emblazoned on the front of a bottle of red Fanta.
Is it even appropriate? Child's Play isn't a kids film.
I wonder if the Good Guy dolls in the Chucky films were ever actually sold in toy shops at the time? There's tons now, customs and more! It might be hard to find an original.
From public pariah to fizzy pop cover, the world of marketing is indeed strange.
What do you think?
PS.
Having said all that I do think Chucky's face
is remarkably similar to Andy from the Century 21 Candy and Andy comics and books!
Christmas in the Sixties and Seventies meant drinks iny parents house. Lots of festive drinks.
As a kid I stuck to my usual beverages: Tizer, dandelion and burdock, sarsaparilla and lemonade float. Some cola too, preferably Pepsi even though Santa seemed to promote Coke.
The adults, my parents and their friends, on the other hand, imbibed in all things Yule. This was the great generation who fought World War Two. They'd lost their youth over those dark five years and needed to party.
Beer was served from small metal barrels with taps hammered in. Watneys Party Four was a favourite. Bottled beers too, with scre in tops, in wooden crates: Mackison, Pale Ale, bitter, Newcastle Brown and Guinness. I don't recall lager back then.
For the ladies was a whole bar full of bottled delights: Sandemans Sherry for the daytime tipples, Cherry B and Babycham ( in labelled glasses) for the early evening and then came the snowballs.
Snowballs were either mixed by hand using Warnings advocat and lemonade or straight from a small green bottle. I think we had labelled Snowball glasses too for the occasion. It's a festive treat I like myself nowadays.
Hard liquor like Bells Whisky, Gordons Gin and Brandy came out later. Mixers where Canada Dry and Schweppes Tonic Water in small bottles. I adored Canada Dry and grabbed a bottle off the drinks table whenever I could!
I don't recall wine being drunk at all but that maybe just my memory playing up. There must have been wine in the UK in the Sixties.
Whatever the case, for my folks, having just turned 40, Christmas 1960 onwards was a decade for making merry. Everyone had a job, the kids were OK, the big family was round and Santa's sack was bulging.
What more could you want.
Which festive drinks do you recall readers?
Another sad day for iconic brands from our childhood. Typhoo Tea are about to call in the Administrators.
I remember collecting their tea cards as a kid, along with PG Tips and Brooke Bond.
I've drunk Yorkshire Tea for years now, so I haven't helped Typhoo either.
Will you miss Typhoo Tea?
I picked this up for Moonbase Junior ages ago. Sitting down with Grandad sticking stuff in an album is what I had mind.
This particular album and card set, Creatures of Legend, were released by tea makers PG Tips, they of the chimp mascot called Kevin Tipps ( do they still exist?)
Having only a few cards currently, I've ordered a bundle offa eBay for Junior's pleasure.
Happy New Year Readers! Thanks for all your continued support! Tune in to MoonBase Central throughout 2024 if you can!
Woodsy
*
and on a complete whim I got this glass the other day for a New Year sherry. Going for a song, a rock song, I couldn't resist it's link to one of my favourite heavy bands in the 1970's, the mighty Uriah Heep.
Yes, those ever so 'eavy rockers took there name from Charles Dickens's famous scribblings no less.
It'll come in handy for my New Year tipple today!
Still in the Seventies I missed out on an old Dutch bone china tea cup , which had the word Vader printed on the side in beautiful script. No idea why I didn't swoop.
I can't find an exact picture of it but here's a similar cup with Vader on the side, along with Moeder, Dutch for Father and Mother.
Have you an interesting New Year glass, vessel, cup or favourite tipple?
This key ring I saw on Ebay is the same as the Watneys Red Barrel one I had as a kid. Like Terranova47's Red Barrel lorry, this key ring was part of my childhood and a memorable member of my huge key ring collection back in the day.
Did you have any key rings?
Being Sixty plus now I don't go for a drink as much as I did when I was young. I've never been a huge pub fan and I'm not really bothered about drinking but I do appreciate the social side of it.
I went to a bar tonight with the Missus and some mates, another couple. We are all of the same age and the drink was a pre-cinema drink. I had half an IPA, which was very nice. The Missus had lime and soda. We went to see the Miracle Club in an old fashioned cinema in Penistone celebrating 100 years of being open, a huge achievement for a small town picture house these days. Can you imagine the films that have been shown there over the last century!
En route the Missus and me noticed various pubs closed along the 30 minute journey. Shut on a Saturday night! Maybe shut permanently!
So, I wanted to ask two things. In your neck of the world are pubs closing? And do you still go out for a drink?
Still abroad I've been sampling various local brews.
One here in Deutschland is Spezi. Sold in bottles and cans, it's a mixture of cola and orange fanta.
It's quite delicious!
Have you a cola drink in your neck of the woods readers!
I was fascinated by this Fizz Nik.
At first I thought it was a space toy but no, its a straw!
You fill it with ice cream or ice, slot it in your fave pop bottle and away you go!
ha ha!
Love it!
Being a lover of 'floats' myself [I invented my own 'Disco Disaster' - the coke float] this Fizz Nik gets my vote for best straw ever made, easily the winner of Straw Wars!
But did it float your coke readers?
Did it catch on?
I'm really enjoying lime juice in my bottled lager again. Lager and Lime! Yes! Its a proper blast from the citric past, which I drank in the Seventies.
Another bottles drink I liked, in the Sixties, was Canada Dry. Now I'm confused about this. I can see it now in my mind's eye stood on my Dad's home-made bar but the taste memory I have is of Ginger Ale.
Was Canada Dry ginger ale?
Did you like it?