For those of you new to my blog
A Northern Hug
.jpg)
My good friend and web designer Mike Cowburn of the company Communisage has added Elizabeth's Attic shop link button to my blog, so now there is no excuse for not paying me a visit when in need of some inspiration or something different not found in the high street shops.
When looking through the latest addition of Vintage Explorer I came across an article 'Random Year' 1969 and I felt the excitement once again, that this year brought me. This was the year that man landed on the moon. I stayed up all night to watch this magnificent event wrapped up in a quilt sitting on the sofa with a flask by my side and my dad shouting down stairs from the warmth of his bed 'Have they landed yet'? Apollo 11 launched from the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, on July 16th and landed in the 'Sea of Tranquility' on the 20th. Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin Junior, walked on the surface the next day fulfilling President John F Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon before the Soviet Union by the end of the 1960s and it also brought with it my love of all things Science Fiction. My greatest wish is to travel into space and see for myself the wonders of the Universe - sadly I do not think this will ever happen but I can dream.
Also mentioned in this article is Concorde The live televised test flight was in France on the 2nd March 1969 and the supersonic airliner broke the sound barrier for the first time on the lst October. Concorde began service as a commercial aircraft in 1976 and continued for the next 27 years. Its retirement flight was on the 6th November 2003. I was fortunate to see this magnificent aircraft at Manchester Airport but unfortunately never managed a flight aboard.
Did you know the first quartz wristwatch was also in 1969. Seiko had been working on quartz timekeeping technologies since 1958. In December 1969 they produced the 'Astron', the wold's first quartz wristwatch. It sold for a staggering 450,000 yen which was equivalent to the cost of a small car at the time. Their accuracy and reduced cost of production has resulted in the proliferation of quartz watches since that time.
Monty Python's Flying Circus. The innovative and anarchic television comedy show that was inspired in part by the comedian Spike Milligan was first broadcast on the 5th October 1969 on BBC one. Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam Graham Chapman and the comody genious John Cleese created and starred in the show which ran for 45 episodes between 1969 and 1974.
More great events include Cinema: Kes set in Yorkshire and contemporary to the late 1960s, Kes initially suggest that even a dreprived, working class, poorly educated shool leaver with no real prospect of a fulfilling job just might find something to rescue him from a certain bleak future.
News of the World newspaper first ran hot off the press in 1969 - Tube Chair by Joe Columbo and 'Chair' by Allen Jones both contemporary furniture way before its time.
But without a doubt Easy Rider, released at the end of the decade that perhaps saw more cultural change than any other before or since. Easy Rider chronicles the hippie ideology at about the time that it began to break down. The iconic motorcycles used were stripped down (chopped), Harley Davidsons. They caused a huge resurgence of interest in visually exciting customised motorbikes wherever the film was shown.
So now! what do you remember about the 1960s were you a twinkle in your mothers eye or were you like me still in school. I left school in the summer of 1969 ready to make my mark on society but too late to be part of the swinging 60s..... As the old saying goes if you can remember the swinging 60s you were most certainly not part of it.....
I don't think there has been an era with such diverse events or am I just bias? let me know your thoughts.
I just wanted to share these with you and I now wish you a lovely Sunday and enjoy the rest of you week - I do believe the weather is on the up.... so get out and about and take a look at what is around you because one day someone will be writing an article on a 'Random Year 2012'
Take care, keep safe by happy.
Beverley xx
