Smoking

In October my brother, CJ, and I went to the 1950s Museum in Denbigh, North Wales. It is a fascinating place and, for those of a certain age, it evokes many memories and, for those who are younger, it doubtless causes differing degrees of disbelief. I hope to write a few posts on the museum but this one is specifically on smoking and the, now, unbelievably different attitude to smoking's acceptability in every aspect of life. Who, for example, could ever believe that this advert might actually produce positive results:

I'm sure some of these pictures will bring back memories for some of my older UK readers:

Capstan Full Strength, Senior Service and Players were preferred by men and were rarely (if ever) sullied by a filter tip (I'm pretty confident in saying).

Balkan Sobranie were favoured by people who wished to make a statement (I'm not quite sure which statement) and people who just loved the 'different' taste. My Grandmother smoked Woodbine from pre-teen years (illicitly) until she died at the age of 93. My special treat for her on occasion was to bring in a box of Sobranie.

I had completely forgotten about Park Drive but that was the cigarette that my mother smoked until she gave up - possibly in her 40s. However until she died (again at the age of 93 like her Mother) she always craved a cigarette after dinner.

Pipe tobacco. My Dad smoked Condor (or occasionally St Bruno) all his life (he died at 94). My Uncle smoked the pipe tobacco Cut Golden Bar or Gold Block until he gave up some time before he died (as his Mother and Sister had done at 93).

I gave up cigarettes in May 1967 just having bought a box of 50 Piccadilly Tipped and smoked 3 of them. I threw them across the office declaring I would never smoke another cigarette as long as I lived. The office junior scrabbled round picking them all up and made off with them after asking if he could have them before I changed my mind. I have never smoked a cigarette since.

RIP Dad

Morris Thompson Edwards

The Master Barber's Shop

In October I visited Southport - a seaside town north of Liverpool. It is a town which I knew well as a young man. Like so many places the main shopping street is a shadow of its former glorious self. However there is still one splendid emporium: a 'proper' barbers. For those of us in the Apostrophe Club it should be noted that the shop is called The Master Barber's Shop.

Seven Dwarfs - Revised

In response to the fact that so many of you spotted the duplication of one of the dwarfs, Adrian has 'found' the seventh dwarf whom he managed to 'lose' and here are the seven dwarfs resurrected. 

Seven Dwarfs

I expect that almost all my readers will know that the Seven Dwarfs in the Disney version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were named Happy, Doc, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey. 

However in 1916, Snow White was produced for the first time in film by Paramount Pictures, adapted from the 1912 Broadway version. This was during the silent film era and at this time the  Seven Dwarfs were named for the first time Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick, Whick and Quee.

Tolkein also was very keen on dwarfs and it was he who coined the plural of dwarf as Dwarves.  We know the names of the lines of Dwarves of the 7 founded, these are: Longbeards, Broadbeams, Firebeards, Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks and Stonefoots. However we only know the name of the father of the first line (Longbeards) which was Durin. 

All that was simply to introduce you to a composite of seven of the pictures I took of Joshua. Adrian, that wizard of photo manipulation, produced the following: