Tuesday 9th

Went to the swimming pool/gym/club this morning.    The tiled floor surrounding the pool here gets very wet and slippery, and with my terror of having a fall and breaking something, I should have thought of that;  but it was different in Shawnee and I am trying to remember why I never felt there that I might slip walking round.    Perhaps it was the sort of raised thing all the way round  which stopped the water splashing over the edge of the pool.   As our government is so keen on Health and Safety here perhaps a few experts should visit some American pools.

I tried to swim a length and couldn't do more than a few strokes at a time.   So my aim and ambition, is to swim a length without stopping.

Back home I am reading a very good book "Pie N Mash and Prefabs" about the author's 1950s childhood in Hackney, in the East End of London.    It is certainly taking me back to my 1950's childhood, so for the couple of English followers my age, take a trip with me back down Memory Lane,

Remember when ITV began in 1955 and we first had adverts in our television programmes?   The first advert was for Gibbs SR toothpaste (and I remember that!).   And Murray Mints, Murray Mints, the Too Good to Hurry Mints, a very popular ad.   There were the popular quiz shows, Hughie Green's 'Double Your Money' and Michael Miles 'Take Your Pick'.    Other popular shows we watched were 'No Hiding Place' starring Raymond Francis  and 'I Love Lucy'  we loved that and now I can't imagine why,  I was still watching that, totally bemused and very occasionally in Shawnee.   And remember 'Dragnet'  - "the story you are about to see is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent".

The BBC fought back with 'Hancock's Half Hour'   'This Is Your Life, with Eamonn Andrews, and 'Highway Patrol' with Brodrick Green. 

And the first tv chef, Philip Harben.   What a long way we've come since then.

Remember all them, dear readers my age?

I also remember that in my house we always sat down to Sunday lunch and listened to the 'Billy Cotton Band Show' .    I think it was at one o'clock on Sundays and my mother was always dead on time.