TVs & Fun with Packaging

My new dining chairs came in rather large boxes - three of them.  Although my daughter grabbed two for storage, my eight year old son decided one would make a great TV.

When I told him it looked like a TV my parents used to own, he thought I was joking - he is used to our flat screen TVs.   But then I found this image from about 1960.

via

Fair to say his jaw dropped open! "Wow mum, you used to watch a TV like that?"  "Well, no, not really," I told him - "ours was in black and white".  Australia didn't have colour TV until the 1970s. "Oh Mum, poor you - and you didn't even have a computer!"

How did we ever manage? No wonder I spent my childhood drawing and colouring!

By the way, you can see my new chair fabric draped on a living room chair in the first photo - more on that soon.

Deb xx

Going Gidget Crazy

Gidget's TV series on DVD

At the school fair a few weeks ago I found a 4 DVD set of 'Gidget,' the 1960s series starring Sally Fields. I loved this series as a kid - I wanted to live near the beach and surf, and for my dad to be just like Mr Lawrence (played by Don Porter).  Now I do live near the beach, but we don't have surf, but my kids love the show.  All 32 half hour episodes.  That;s a lot of Gidget.

The Gidget movies and tv series were based on the 1957 novel by Frederick Kohner, who wrote about his daughter Kathy Kohner and her experiences in Malibu when she started surfing.  She was only 15 but hung out with surfers such as Miki Dora, Mike Doyle and Micky Munoz - who gave her the nickname “Gidget” (girl plus midget equals Gidget).

16 Year old surfer Kathy “Gidget” Kohner, Malibu, circa 1957

Now I have also tracked down the Gidget movies. Sandra Dee plays Gidget in the first movie - she is petite, but blond and definatley not Jewish, but I actually quite like her in the role.

Here's the first part of the original 'Gidget' movie.

Deb xx

PS more vintage surfing pics on tumblr