PORTALS To The PAST...

On the wall of my downstairs hallway are two framed photographs, one on either side of the front door.  The one above is the view (or part of it) from my parents' front bedroom window in our previous house, while the one below is a section of the view from what was my (and my brother's) back bedroom.  Thing is, they weren't taken when we actually lived in the house, but 16 years after we'd flitted from it.  What's more, 11 years after flitting, we flitted again - then, four years later, returned to the house we'd flitted to the first time.  (I really hope that makes some kind of sense to everyone.  If it helps, there are three houses involved in the above account.)

A year and a day after returning to the second house, I returned (by arrangement) to the first to take some photographs, both inside and out, because the view from my old bedroom (which I'd shared with my brother) was due to change forever.  Y'see, amenity houses for the elderly were about to be built on part of the playing field on the other side of the street, and I felt a strange compulsion to capture things as they were before it was too late.  Over the intervening years since, other alterations have occurred, so that the views from either window are today no longer exactly the same as what once met my gaze whenever I looked out of them.

(A little aside here: I find it interesting to consider that when I look at these two pictures, I'm looking at scenes that now no longer exist, and that the present tenants/owners of my former house don't see [and have never known] whenever they look out of either window.  Would they care?  I doubt it, but I believe I lived there when the neighbourhood was at its finest, and those who stay there now, without ever realising it, have to settle for second-best.) 

Anyway, it's comforting to me that the views familiar to me as a kid are preserved in their former glory, and that I can revisit them as they were (more or less) whenever I want to.  Sometimes I'll stop in the hall before going upstairs and just look at the photos, and I'm returned in memory to the house, and reminded of many of the things I once owned when I lived there.  Comics like WHAM!, SMASH!, POW!, FANTASTIC, TERRIFIC, WHIZZER & CHIPS, THUNDER, JET, SUPER DC - and many, many more.  Toys, such as ACTION MAN, TOMMY GUNN, CAPTAIN SCARLET, AURORA and AIRFIX plastic model kits, DINKY, CORGI and MATCHBOX diecast vehicles, and all sorts of other goodies.

I could extend the above list of things (including records, TV shows, etc.,) I associate with that particular house, but I'll spare you the details lest this post becomes even more tediously self-indulgent.  Suffice to say that there's a plethora of memories which arise to the surface whenever I look at these two photographs, and I'm really glad that I made a point of returning to the house to take them.  In my mind, the past is always with me, but sometimes the images appear indistinct, as though viewed through the bottom of a milk bottle.  Thank goodness for cameras, which can preserve our past in crystal clarity and ensure that we'll never forget it on our journey through the present and into the future.

Do you have any specific photos that you cherish, whether of people or places, which return you to an earlier time and that you'd never part with?  What's their significance, and have you taken any steps to ensure their safety and survival so that they at least last for the remaining duration of your lifespan?  Feel free to share in our comments section.  

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... MY MEMORY OF JAMES BOLAM?

I recently watched the first two episodes of the second series of BUDGIE, starring ADAM FAITH, and was surprised to see actor JAMES BOLAM from The LIKELY LADS in both of them.  I last saw these Budgie episodes around 1985 when they were first, last, and (as far as I know) only repeated after their initial broadcast in 1972, and I remembered them reasonably well.

Before I proceed, let me state that I'd been a huge fan of WHATEVER HAPPENED To The LIKELY LADS since the colour series was first shown in 1973, and James Bolam had also starred in WHEN The BOAT COMES IN, and ONLY WHEN I LAUGH, so the actor was no stranger to me.  Also, WHTTLL was repeated around the mid-'80s, so it was unlikely that I'd have forgotten his face.

I was therefore quite surprised by my surprise at his turn in Budgie (as a character called WHOSSNAME), because surely I would've recognised him instantly?  Yet, try as I might, I just can't resurrect any memory of seeing him in Budgie at the time of its repeat around '85.  I wouldn't have known who Bolam was when Budgie was first aired in the early '70s, but by the time the repeats rolled around, I was a big fan of his portrayal of TERRY COLLIER, and had been for years.

The only other possibility is that I did recognise him in Budgie in '85, but then forgot seeing him in it over the intervening years, hence my surprise at his presence in my recent viewing.  How-ever, it's kind of annoying not to know which of the two options it actually is.  Anything like this ever happen to you?

MORE OF STAN LEE'S LITERARY LAPSES...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

And now it's time for what you've all been waiting for (I like to tell myself) - yet another in the long line of MARVEL boo-boos which, for the sake of a (mainly) alliterative title, I call STAN LEE'S LITERARY LAPSES.  (Well, that, plus the fact that he wrote 'em!)

In The AVENGERS #6, there's quite a few to choose from.  First is on page 7, where IRON MAN is interrupted while trying to free CAPTAIN AMERICA's knee from BARON ZEMO's Adhesive X, meaning that he should still have one patella stuck to the ground.  (Especially as he said he can't move.)  Yet a few panels later on page 8, his knee is free, though both feet are stuck fast to a section of cutaway concrete.  (And the space between Cap and GIANT-MAN and their position in relation to each other also changes.) 

Then on page 9, Iron Man warns THOR that the BLACK KNIGHT's lance is a "dangerous weapon" that can "fire all sorts of missiles".  However, on page 15, during a subsequent encounter, the Black Knight says to Thor "You didn't suspect my innocent-looking lance is in reality a most deadly arsenal of weapons!"  He didn't have to suspect - Iron Man had already told him several pages back.

On page 5, RICK JONES is named correctly, but on pages 13 and 19 (no need to show the relevant pics - I'm sure you'll take my word for it), he's renamed as Rick BROWN.  (Maybe his mother had remarried in the interim?  Nah, can't be that - he's an orphan, isn't he?)  We'll ignore Baron Zemo being renamed Dr. Zemo on page 19, as it's entirely possible to be a baron and a doctor at the same time.

Anyway, that's quite a number of boo-boos for one issue, but we'll forgive ol' Stanley because we love 'im.  Besides, considering that he was scripting everything in sight at the time, it's a miracle there weren't more given his workload!