Friday 5 June 2020

Transported


In the process of decorating the kitchen I took down a panel on the wall which had been there since the mid 1960s. It had a label from a local company which no longer exists and a 4 digit telephone number with no area code. In one corner of the panel, the sign for 15 shillings was written in pencil.

As I stared at the newly uncovered patch of blue-green, it struck me how typically 1960s the colour was. Everyone's flat or bedsit had similar intense but mucky colours on their walls. Houses were much darker in those days.

All at once I was vividly transported back 50 years to the time of dark-haired girls and long-haired boys, sitting on old furniture or old carpets, drinking tea and talking politics, listening to The Doors and passing round joints, complaining about washing-up or lack of toilet paper, answering the door to unexpected visitors, throwing the I Ching and burning incense, planning a trip to Morocco in an old van - all the things which are now only dimly remembered in black and white.


28 comments:

  1. You have suggested things about my son's student days that I never dreamt of. I shall not mention them to him!

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    1. That's not the half of it Weave.

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  2. Bedsits... Woodchip wallpaper...Artex... yeeugh!!
    Colours do convey an age, you are right...even further back in time too

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    1. I went into the Biba shop in 1968 and looked at their paint range. I saw an exotic looking tin with the Biba label peeling off, so peeled it off even further to reveal a label saying 'DULUX'. It was a big hype.

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  3. Ah such heady days. Hitch-hiking around the south of England for weeks on end, when people still stopped for you, the regular casual sex with girls that you'd only just met and who were now on a thing called The Pill, the happy baccy and the Purple Hearts, the levis and desert boots uniforms, Bob Dylan, Donovan, the Stones. Happy days from my youth in the 60's.

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  4. It was quite the time to be young and I do remember most of it fondly. Thanks for reminding me!

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    1. Us baby-boomers had it all, and took it all as well.

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  5. Goodness. It sounds like some of the hallucogenic fumes were trapped behind that panel.

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  6. That blue (baby blue), then a very soft vanilla yellow, and a mild and unobtrusive rose colour - those colours awake memories in me, so are miniskirts and white high boots and the haircut by Courege, dancing the Sirtaki in France, Nights in White satin, of course The Stones, and other very happy memories - carefree, free, and very happy.

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  7. Certain colors do seem to belong to a certain era. Many an American kitchen was painted in the 1950s in a very pale and soft green. This color always reminds me of the ice cream that I ate in my childhood in the 70s - soft ice with the flavor of sweet woodruff (had to google the translation for 'Waldmeister').

    As the design trend is currently all about mid-century modern, the dark walls are coming back. Deep petrol and aubergine are now considered jewel tones and very much the 'in' thing.

    What kind of snazzy thing are you planning to do in the kitchen?

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    1. 'Skimming Stone' by Farrow and Ball. Not on trend? I have virtually no say in the choice of colour. She is a painter...

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    2. I just looked up the colour - good choice! You just have to love the names that they come up with for paint. I'm sure you have heard them before: Down Pipe, Elephants Breath and, my new favorite, Mouses Back!

      I just bought myself a new nail polish yesterday with the name 'After School Boy Blazer'!! Who comes up with this?!

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    3. How about 'Elephant's Fart' or 'Mole's Breath'?

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    4. Sadly, those might not be a best seller.

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  8. When I lived in Cwmcarn my house was built about 1860 and I found some of the original, beautiful colours...I left some squares to show and used the same colours when I renovated. It felt so right, but I doubt if the present owner has kept them so

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    1. Dig down and you'll find them. Domestic archeology.

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  9. When I gutted my bathroom during a remodeling project this past year, behind the shower wall inserts were pale mint green wall tiles and wallpaper depicting iconic Parisian scenes. House was built in late 1950s. Interesting.

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    1. Oh yes. Parisian themes were the descendants of Chinoiserie. Did you know my hair is shoulder-length and I have big lace cuffs on my shirts?

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    2. ... and my flat has a moat...

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  10. The square of old carpet that was surrounded by. Frame of Lino

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