Rockin' Bloggin' ... and Nice Matters ...

... Since I asked for your views on the playlist I've had help from Niki's hubby on turning off the automatic start, so the list is there for those of you who would like to listen, but for those who aren't keen then you won't be disturbed.

If you do happen to listen, or wonder at my choice of music, the list is basically a journey through my life (apart from the missing chunks where I can't find a link to a particular song). I suppose the first one to mention, and get out of the way as quickly as possible, is Land of Hope and Glory sung by Dame Clara Butt. I expect most of you will have never heard of her, but I grew up knowing her name because Mum's Great Aunt Adelaide was Clara Butt's first music teacher in Bristol. She (CB) had such a range to the extent that Izzie (my best friend/the sister I didn't have, who sadly died in her 39th year) and I would mimic her singing and then collapse in fits of giggles, as you do in your pre-teens - much to Mum's chagrin. ("She has a beautiful voice, Susan, you really are naughty!")

We're obviously dressing the part to begin our rendition!!

I think we were somewhere between 15 and 17 in this next one. I'm the one in the shiny (it's blue) PVC mac with press studs down the front! Wish I still had it!

Moving swiftly on ... My Boy Lollipop by Millie is important. We would go to my grandparents/uncle's farm most Sundays and as I got older I would spend at least a week, and sometimes 2 with them during the summer holidays. I'd be up at crack of dawn with my uncle, sit and have one to his 6 cups of tea and then go out to 'help' with the milking. I always got the dairy ready for afternoon milking, but was usually too bleary eyed to fix all the pipes and tubing for the morning. I'd stand in the old cowshed (they weren't called milking parlours in the early 60s) and watch, day in day out, and he and I would sing our way through the milking. The only one I remember is My Boy Lollipop and we both knew the words. I'm sure the cows enjoyed it. After all, they listen to music these days, don't they. He taught me to milk and although I didn't attempt it very often I was very proud to be able to go back to school to say I'd learned how.

There's always one hiding behind the person in front, and yes, in this photo I'm the culprit! This was 1962/3 and as the majority of us were born in 1950 there are 4 Susans in this form photo (it was top of the list of names that year!)

Whenever I hear Big Bad John which it has to be said isn't often these days, I think of the tiniest girl at senior school who stood up on stage in front of all the parents at the annual show (can't remember what they called it) where 'talented' girls throughout the school did their thing. She stood in the middle of the vast stage and mimed to this song. It was brilliant - at least, I thought so when I was 11. A few years later I ended up on the stage myself, singing Michael Row the Boat Ashore with my friend Jenny (3rd from left, back row) who played the guitar accompaniment and Marilyn (2nd from right, back row). Loved it while I was up there but was so embarrassed afterwards and couldn't believe I'd done it. I kept my singing esconced in school or college cloakrooms after that - fabulous acoustics! Which brings me to I Only Want to be with You by Dusty Springfield. I can see Jan and me in front of the mirror with our hairbrushes now!!!!

And here we are with our hairbrushes in our bags! All dressed up in clothes we'd made especially to go to the Royal Show at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. Scary - this was the year we left college and started our secretarial careers ... at £8.00 per week.

Blue Hawaii was a film I was desperate to see in 1961. Moving up through school - House of the Rising Sun (still singing) and Here, There and Everywhere (staying with a friend in Solihull 2 weeks before GCE results playing all The Beatles LPs) - and forward again to college (secretarial and business studies) where Tamla Motown was on all the jukeboxes. Jimmy Ruffin and The Four Tops were the most played at lunchtime breaks, together with Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band. Whiter Shade of Pale and Gloria both transport me to a holiday in Spain with my French penfriend in 1967.

I think that's more than enough to be going on with. I'll do "Chapter Two" another day.

Meanwhile, Salina has nominated me for the lovely Nice Matters Award. Salina, thank you. I really do appreciate such kind thoughts. As I've already won this award and found it so very difficult to nominate others, I would like to suggest that if I regularly/randomly leave comments on your blog then you discuss or show Nice Matters to my mind, and please consider yourself nominated. To choose between you is too hard. The Nice Matters Award is yours. Do with it what you will ...

And finally, I saw this on someone's blog the other day. Sorry, I can't remember whose

What Color Green Are You?http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorgreenareyouquiz/ Here's my result!

***You Are Olive Green***
You are the most real of all the green shades. You're always true to yourself.For you, authenticity and honesty are very important... both in others and yourself.You are grounded and secure. It takes a lot to shake you.People see you as dependable, probably the most dependable person they know.

Can someone who wore blue PVC really be honest and dependable???? Hmmmm .....