Saturday, 31st January, 2009

This week I received a letter from a friend by dear old snail mail - nice to read something other than an email for a change. Not that I have anything against technology and I wouldn't be without it for a minute, internet addict that I am, but the nostalgia for what used to be does linger and make itself felt now and then. I watch the teenagers with their little bits of plastic that store thousands of tunes instantly available and then flash back to myself as a child carefully opening that pretty little tin and taking out a new needle to insert into the arm of the old gramaphone. Almost reverently I place it on the outer edge of the spinning record and am filled with wonder that Peter Dawson's voice singing "The Floral Dance" can emanate from a disc of black Bakelite.

Recently I discovered a website full of 1950s radio nostalgia and I listen to snippets when everyone is in bed. The radio offered such a sense of permanency in my life: the same programmes continued for years and there was comfort in being able to rely on The Billy Cotton Band Show always being there at Sunday lunch times, in knowing that The Navy Lark would follow soon after and that whenever The Goons came on, Bluebottle would always say "He's fallen in the water!"

If it is true that children need stability in their lives, maybe I gained mine from the unchanging nature of 1950s BBC programming and in particular from The Shipping Forecast and the glorious hypnotic effect of our much-loved mantra, repeated four times daily, a prayer for our fishermen, uttered in the language we all knew so well: "Fastnet, Dogger Bank, German Bight, Heligoland, Cromarty, Finisterre" ... was any Latin Mass ever so evocative? As the words were intoned I could see the waves lashing over the decks, the oilskins and sou'westers glistening wet, our brave fishermen pulling in their nets, the tiny boats rocking back and forth and the seagulls screaming above them. Please, keep them safe, God.

Oh, how much drama was involved for my Friday night cod and chips!