50 things stashed in an old Marks and Spencer's bag dating back to when I was at primary school
1) The Green Cross Code, a six step guide ("Mothers and Fathers, it's up to you to teach your children the Green Cross Code") 2) A card showing the tune for Sing A Song Of Sixpence, colour-coded for playing on my xylophone 3) Soccer Action Replay Action Transfers (A Letraset Product) depicting Arsenal v Liverpool in the 1971 Cup Final 4) The National Westminster Bank Pocket Guide To London 1972 ("The Post Office Tower is London's highest building and has a viewing gallery: 20p, children 10p") 5) Geographers' A-Z London Guide and Map 1972 (Hampton Court Palace: Adults 20p Apr-Sep, 10p Oct-Mar, children 5p at all times) 6) A map of the new traffic arrangements in Watford on completion of Phase 3 of the Central Area Redevelopment in November 1972 ("The new Eastern Relief Road has been named Beechen Grove") 7) A cutting from the Evening Echo in 1973, in which I appear crosslegged on our sofa 8) My ticket for a recording of BBC TV Songs of Praise on Thursday 10th May 1973 9) A pack of W.H.Smith & Son 'New Trend' Writing Paper, no longer including ten sheets of notepaper and ten matching envelopes (3/6, 17½p) 10) Map of our back garden, including bus stops (dated 17.8.73) 11) 1st prize certificate for the children's class at the village Flower Group Show 1973 12) My Cub Scout Membership Card (awarded 23rd October 1973) 13) The Cub Scout Handbook 1973 (I can tie a reef knot and know its uses. I can hank a short rope) 14) A maze I drew on a sheet of orange paper entitled Journey To The Centre Of The Malteser 15) Set of magazines called Splodge, running to six editions, which I wrote but nobody else was particularly interested in reading 16) Programme for performance of Captain Pugwash at the Watford Palace Theatre, March 1974 17) Grand Prix racing game, and stylus, played using the Letteromic Movement Selector (Patent Pending) 18) Cub Scout Map Reader Badge Certificate (awarded 13th May 1974) 19) 'The Wombles' writing pad (20 sheets, three remaining) by Wiggins Teape 20) 'Wonderful Wombles' Letraset Fun Doodles set (Instant Rub Down Transfers) 21) Clem's Golden Nuggets Riddle Maker, copyright Nabisco Limited 1974 22) The Ashridge Nature Trail (National Trust, 10p) 23) A postcard I was supposed to send to my grandmother from Wales, but she died before I went 24) 'A Year's Journey' - a book to accompany the BBC Television For Schools programme of the same name (48 pages, 1974) 25) A story I wrote called 'The Prunes Revolt' 26) Sheet of hole reinforcers 27) A souvenir woven badge from The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu (16p) 28) Programme for the 25th (& Farewell) Gang Show at Watford Palace Theatre, 1975 29) My annual report from the Watford School of Music - "Excellent work and progress" (July 1975) 30) Flyer from the Alderney Pottery (open to visitors on weekday mornings) 31) Card confirming that I weighed 333 Newtons when standing in a wind tunnel in September 1975 32) The words to We Plough The Fields And Scatter (school Harvest Festival, 7th October 1975) 33) Yellow 'Scout Job Week' stickers 34) Pink blotting paper (with four large black blots) 35) Strip of ½p Green stamps, self-drawn 36) A postcard from Warsaw sent by my schoolfriend Roman ("we even saw some red squirrels") 37) Postcard of the chapel window at Hatfield House 38) Lyrics to Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, run off on the school Banda machine 39) 1976 pocket diary, including two dozen games of noughts and crosses 40) A Littlewoods pools coupon for 6th March 1976 ("Do Three 8 from 10's") 41) A 24-piece birthday jigsaw from Michael B, depicting a gorilla 42) A summer 1976 British Airways Shuttle timetable (London - Glasgow/Edinburgh). Check-in at least 10 minutes before departure. "You can get your ticket at your Travel Agent, British Airways office or on board the plane." 43) 'Know Your Motorways' - a fold-out map with driving advice by the RAC (1976, 15p) 44) My 4th year school spellings book (A = actor, almost, acrid, accompany, angel, almost, admitting) 45) My Tuesday afternoon 'Français' folder - mostly labelled drawings, politely ticked 46) Autograph book used on last day at primary school, including signatures of Headmaster, class teacher and five friends who went on to another school so I never saw them again 47) TV Guide 17-23 July 1976 (includes complete guide to Olympics coverage, 30¢) 48) 'Keep Ontario beautiful' in-car litter bag 49) My Junior Jet Club Membership Kit, including badge, log book and enrolment card (opened with flight aboard G-BDPV on 6th August 1976) 50) A card slipped into this pile of memorabilia on 20th February 1978, on which I wrote "Write date here every time read". The eighth, ninth and tenth dates are 15.4.83, 20.8.91 and 20.2.20
