Web Page No 2514

30th September 2018

1^st Picture. Mini Skirt Poster.

2nd Picture. Icon of the ‘60s the Lava Lamp

3^rd Picture. Twiggy

4^th Picture. 1960s BSA

1960s Slang

The 1960s was the era of a new language especially for the teenager

If it’s boss, hip, or happening, you’re bound to be listening to some of the utterly groovy slang words of the late 1960s that still resound with a literary impact on today’s language.

As you go through the list of 1960s slang, you might be surprised to find out how much of it has actually stuck around throughout the decades.

You might expand upon the "cool" with a word like "boss." That means something that is really, really cool.

During the 1960s  the lingo included lots of words to describe superlative experiences.

·         Something that was wonderful would be "outta sight"

·         If something like a musical group was exciting and fantastic, they would be "fab."

Having the latest and newest of anything, then as now, was of extreme importance to those who were truly hip.

·         If an event was "righteous," it was fantastic.

·         If a concert was "groovy," it was both outta sight and cool.

·         A pretty girl would be considered "choice."

·         If she refused your advances, you might be "bummed out"

Maybe the problem was with your bread. No, not whole wheat or rye we’re talking about "bread" money. A lack of bread would be enough to bum anyone out!

Since being cool was of such importance, the worst thing to happen to you (maybe aside from lacking bread) was to be labeled as uncool or "square."

Despite the casual environment of the 1960s, it really was a time of strict social rules if you didn’t want to be ostracized by your pals.

If you were scarfing or pigging, you were eating quickly and eating indiscriminately.

Many slang words in the 1960s spoke of a contempt for authority. The corporate management, politicians and those involved in the legal process were known as "The Man." Police officers were considered as the enforcement arm of "The Man" and were known as "Pigs" or a bit more politely, "The Fuzz."

Learning about slang from different eras can transport you back to a different time in your life or might introduce you to a whole new style of langauge you were not aware of.

Here's a selection of 1960s slang for you to get acquainted (or reacquainted!) with:

·         A gas - having a fun time

·         All show and no go - looks good superficially

·         Ape - crazy or mad

·         Bad -  awesome

·         Badass - trouble maker

·         Beat feet - leave quickly

·         Blast - a good time, a loud party

·         Blitzed - drunk

·         Bone yard - a place to put junk or wrecked cars

·         Boogie board - a short surfboard

·         Boss - fantastic

·         Brew - beer

·         Bug - to bother

·         Bug out - to leave

·         Bummer - a bad thing or unpleasant experience

·         Burn rubber - squeal tires and leave rubber on the road

·         Catch some rays - get out in the sun

·         Chrome Dome - bald man

·         Cool head - nice guy

·         Crash - sleep

·         Cut out - leave the area quickly

·         Decked out - dressed up

·         Dig - understand

·         Don't flip your wig - don't be upset

·         Downer - an unpleasant experience

·         Drag - someone or something that is boring

·         Fab - fabulous

·         Far out - awesome

·         Flower power - the peaceful protest movement of the 60s counterculture 

·         Freak out - get excited and lose control

·         Gimme some skin - to ask someone to slap or shake your hand in agreement

·         Groovy - outstanding or nice

·         Grungy - looking shabby or dirty

·         Hairy - difficult or out of control

·         Hang loose - take it very easy

·         Heavy - a serious or intense subject

·         Hippie/Hippy - a free sprited, unconventional person

·         Hog - to take over so that someone else cannot use

·         Hunk - good looking guy

·         In the groove - a person who is part of the in-crowd

·         Jam - play music together

·         Kicks - something done for pleasure

·         Knocked up - pregnant

·         Laid back - relaxed

·         Lay it on me - tell me

·         Mop-top - someone with a Beatle-style haircut

·         Nifty - stylish or very good

·         No sweat - No problem

·         Old Lady - girlfriend/wife, sometimes mother

·         Old Man - boyfriend/husband, sometimes father

·         Outta sight - awesome

·         Pad - where you sleep or live

·         Right on - OK, a term of agreement

·         Rip off - steal

·         Shades - sunglasses

·         Skirt - a girl

·         Solid - I understand

·         Souped up - lots of extra equipment

·         Square - someone who is not cool

·         Stoned - high on pot

·         Stuck up - conceited

·         Threads - clothes

·         Unreal - so outstanding that it was difficult to believe

·         Uptight - tense and unable to enjoy life

·         Way out - beyond explanation

·         What's your bag, man? - what are you into? what's your problem?

·         Wipe out - to fail in a big way or to fall off the surfboard

·         Zilch - zero

·         Zit - pimple

Do some of these look familiar to you, that's quite possible! Some of these expressions came back to life in later decades, and some of them really never faded from use at all.

Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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On this day 30^th September 1960 -1965

 On 30/09/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/09/1964 the number one single was I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/09/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was LPs cost 12/6d.

Web Page No 2512

23rd  September 2018

1^st Picture. Young Jimmy Clitheroe

2nd Picture. That’s my Boy with Derek Guyler

3^rd Picture. The Clitheroe Kid

4^th Picture. Jimmy with his mum, behind, and villagers from Blacko in the mid 1930s.

The Clitheroe|Kid.

Sunday afternoon, after lunch it was time for the radio comedy slot. One of these programmes was the Clitheroe Kid, but what do we know of that diminutive comedian?

James Robinson Clitheroe was born at 58, Wilkin Street, now called Highfield Road, in Clitheroe, Lancashire, on Christmas Eve, 1921.His thyroid gland was damaged during the birth and he never grew after the age of 11, remaining at just 4ft 3in.

He was brought up in Blacko near Nelson at 14, Spout Houses, a row of terrace houses below Blacko Tower, and attended the Council School up to the age of 12, when he transferred to Barrowford Board School for his final two years.

On his back street he put on ha'penny shows, including refreshments, which was lemonade powder mixed in a bucket.

He had an ambition to join the circus and began taking part in variety shows, including the Sunday school potato pie suppers and later with the Methodist Church's concert party, which toured East Lancashire.

"Skip", as he was known to his friends, was bullied at school, but his fleetness of foot meant he could run around the other boys and nip their arms and legs, hence his other nickname "The Little Nipper".

He played cricket and football and was often carried to school on the shoulders of one of his best friends, Harry Blezzard, who was twice his size, but the same age.

He took part in village concerts and won a talent competition at the Alhambra, in Nelson, with his dancing and piano accordion routine. Later he abandoned this heavy instrument and played the saxophone instead.

Unable to go into the weaving sheds like his parents, as he could not reach the looms, he got a job in a Nelson bakery for a while, but left it as he quipped, "Because I wasn't making enough dough".

He then joined an all-girl dancing troupe called the Winstanley Babes and toured with them, doing acrobatics, dancing, roller skating, and female impressions. When touring, theatrical landladies always insisted that Jimmy had to sleep downstairs on the couch.

Lily Whittaker, from Great Harwood, remembers Jimmy joining Miss Winstanley's troupe for their Isle of Man tour. If Jimmy was tired, she would give him a piggy back and, as he did not eat that much, she would finish off the meagre rations they were given to eat. She earned just five shillings a week.

He was found dead at his Blackpool home in 1973 on the day of his mother's funeral. A coronial inquest found that his death was due to an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. He was 51 – but still looked 11.

He is remembered at the Jimmy Clitheroe cafe, by the market in Clitheroe, which has many posters and photographs of him, and where countless members of the showbusiness community have popped in over the years to pay their respects.

As a celebrity, he was much in demand at public events. He opened the model village Miniland at Belle Vue in Manchester, opened local fetes, appeared at charity events, and crowned local beauty queens.

He had many business interests outside show business. He owned a racehorse, betting shops, and a hotel. The latter was managed for him initially by his boyhood friend from Blacko, Tommy Trafford, who was also in show business.

Jimmy had a reputation for being “careful” with his money - a trait he got from the hard background which he endured growing up in the Great Depression. He maintained a very private private-life, away from all his other interests, living quietly at Blackpool in a semi-detached bungalow with his mother.

 He always appeared in a schoolboy cap and blazer and almost always played a schoolboy. In Blackpool between 1944 and 1971 he set a record for the number of appearances in Summer Season shows. In the mid-1950s, Jimmy moved into radio and soon had his own series, Call Boy. But his biggest hit was The Clitheroe Kid which ran for 15 years, from 1957 to 1972, and became the BBCs longest-running situation comedy. Most episodes revolved around Jimmy’s interactions with his sister Susan, her daft boyfriend Alfie Hall, his friend Ossie and his arch-enemy, Mr. Higginbottom.

His most famous catchphrase was “Don’t some mothers ‘ave ’em”, although he was often heard to exclaim “Ooh, flippin’ ‘eck”  whenever he found himself in a scrape (ie: weekly).

In the 1960s Jimmy broke into television, starring on ITV in That’s My Boy and Just Jimmy from 1963 to 1968.. Both shows were made by ABC Television. In the 1960s he also made his best remembered film, Rocket to the Moon, which he made in 1967 with Burl Ives and Terry-Thomas.

Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this day 23^rd September 1960-1965

On 23/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/09/1961 the number one single was Reach for the Stars / Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey and the number one album was Ipswich Town. The top rated TV show was "Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £Argentinian swims English Channel both ways non-stop and 13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Take Your Pick (AR)".

On 23/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/09/1965 the number one single was Make It Easy On Yourself - Walker Brothers and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.