World of Chig   

30.3.06
40 in 37 days: 1969

Chig’s 3rd birthday: Tuesday 6th May 1969
UK’s number one single: Get Back – The Beatles with Billy Preston.
The penultimate Beatles number one was halfway through its six week run at the top. It was still number one on the day that my sister was born, on Thursday 22nd May 1969. That day is my earliest memory. I can still recall being on the landing, being kept out of the bedroom, where my Mum was giving birth, as my Gran kept popping by, going to the bathroom for towels and water. I caught occasional glimpses inside the bedroom, but don’t remember anything specific. I remember being a bit scared by the whole thing though. The result of all that fuss is in my hands in the first photo below.

1969’s Eurovision winner: a four way tie between;
Boom Bang-A-Bang – Lulu (UK)
De Troubadour – Lenny Kuhr (Netherlands)
Un Jour, Un Enfant – Frida Boccara (France)
Vivo Cantando – Salomé (Spain)

UK’s Eurovision entry: Boom Bang-A-Bang – Lulu (Joint winner)
The other three winning songs already had 18 points each with just the Finnish jury left to allocate their ten points. Astonishingly, they gave one point to the UK, and shared the other nine points between four other countries, but didn’t touch the three in the lead. Et voila! A four way tie.



My Mum and I were laughing only recently about how hideous that carpet was. This was the lounge of the house where I spent the first ten years of my life. The carpet is almost captured in all its glory, even in black and white, because it was black and white, and grey, in swirls. It had little specks of red and orange, I seem to recall. It was like the vomit of a heavy smoker. As a toddler, I swear it used to make me feel dizzy, it was so revolting and swirly. I asked my Mum last month why my parents had ever bought it, and she just said it was the fashion at the time to have dark, patterned carpets so they wouldn't show the dirt. No, it just looked like the dirt had been spread all over the lounge already! That chair was hard, rough and knobbly too. Thank goodness fashions change.



In our back garden. We made very good use of that paddling pool over the years, and it was very popular with the neighbouring children too.



Some pictures really do speak a thousand words, don't they? If they'd known then what they know now...

This was taken at Caswell Bay (it says on the back), which must be this Caswell Bay, on the Gower Peninsula, near Swansea. It actually has a connection to the history of photography. If you look at the 360 degree panoramic shot here, I think you can see the cave behind me on the far side of the beach, underneath the trees. I think. (You can zoom in by using the slider, but it gets a bit too pixellated to be sure.)


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