I think this week i am going to try and remain in a positive mood as today is the 59th Anniversary of the Monteray Pop Festival 1967..i was 11 years old and probably did not even know that the festival was playing it'self at that time....i think i was more interested in playing football in the streets as in those days cars were minimal and watching the TV programme The Monkee's....which my father actually let me watch as he was not a big fan of American TV programmes...Bat Man was banned in our home....it was a further two years before i climbed into music heavily when i was bought a tiny red Transistor by family returning from Hong Kong from serving in the Hong Kong police force.....I used to play it when i went to bed hiding it under my pillow..BBC Radio One was just taking off across the land and that was only due to the Pirate Radio Stations playing pop music from Boats in the English Channel flooding England with Pop music at the time, and in Manchester you could just about pick them up on the airwaves...The BBC did not like it nor do i think Politicans of the day....i think they thought that constant pop music would ruin us Kids....

To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth

And so the 23rd World Cup starts across the vast ocean in the America's....i think wow for all the Brit fans travelling to follow their teams, such a pocket full of dreams perhaps much needed...And did America start off the Rip-Off festival spirit....thus sadly the world has followed down the years...if they fancy a cold can of bubbles they are being charged up to £14.00 for a can of shite American/European Lager lets not mention the word beer.....
Which is why tonight i prefer to listen..to the band Traffic..singing their hit song from 1967 " Hole in my Shoe "...when English beer then was proper Beer....and mere pennies a pint for the foaming mirth.

To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth...X

In 1974...Mike Sweeny..used to banter on his morning radio show, which made one giggle and takes ones mind away from the rainy city of Manchester...In 1974 Margret Thatcher was almost unheard off, to the mass of working class or as someone i worked with at the time called us working class "The Great Unwashed " then you did not worry about opening your water, tap for water was built into your local council rates, one could afford a bar of chocolate for it was not clobbered in VAT tax, and one could turn on a light bulb and leave it on all the day and all of the night as the song goes sung by The Kinks....
The amount of increased regulations by the Govt and local councils the amount of profits by private companies,has made me think these last few days that we have very little freedom of choice left anymore...why would you build a short bycycle lane no more than 200 yards round a traffic lights across a nice green patch would not some flower beds and park benches for all rather than the few, have been a better idea and i wonder why we did not get a local vote on this idea are we living in a time of Hitlerish without being gased or wearing a star on your collar...and on Saturday D-Day 82 years ago 1944...10,330 allied troops were lost on the beaches that day am i, i wonder mad to think a waste knowing what England is today, or is it the price of a bar of chocolate i could afford in 1974 playing in my mind, or the fact in June we are having dramtic thunder storms i wonder what the weather was in 1974 and what tracks Mike sweeny was playing..must cure this grumpyness..sigh...

To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth...X

Rain has fallen today in spits and spats across this small corner of Cheshire...as i washed the dishes tonight with the help of a glass of white wine or so watching the rain fall,my I-Pod played..the song by the Flower Potmen..singing " Lets Go To San Francisco which " slipped on around the kitchen...the line " where the flowers grow so very high " floated through my mind and soul, the song brought back happy memories...of 1967 where you could ride a bus for a penny as a child and if you were a football fan of Manchester Untied you could watch them play at Old Trafford for half a crown....i remember my school pals going..alas i was more interested in the girl next door....Giggle......

To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take care So Goeth...X

The mini heat wave touching 80F...has now sunk beneath the pavement, i wonder was that because i thought will we have a Summer of 1976 once more when they almost ran out of Ice Ceam and Beer as road tarmac melted, and tranis wobbled as train tracks in England are not made to stand extreme summer heat.
So as Spring begins to sink in the gathering conker trees each year, i have this daft thought on the Summer of 76....wil once more flower over this small part of Cheshire..however sadly Peter Paul and Mary will whisper in my ear the song " Where Have All The Flowers Gone. " Though i should be grateful that the mini heat wave was over Whit Week especially Whit Friday when the brass bands march through certain towns villages in a competition for best band, and it was nice to sit in the Market Square in Hyde...and watch the bands pass me by, for some reason i always feel quite emotional over the live bands before me and i am glad that some of the younger generation have put their phones down and learnt to play trumpets etc....this year i even saw a fem marching playing the big drum in a band...i apoligise for i did giggle....
So I will still cross my fingers for a Summer of 1976...one never knows what is along the rocky road...does one...

To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth...X

I have survived six days without this here machine...i have not missed the techno in wondering if this that and the other work..i have not had to badly cross my fingers and keep away from the BBC News, so easy if i am popping into the Sports results or looking at the weather forecast...I have simply wandered around the city of Cambridge in 80F and not complained about the weather as us northern folk tend too, yes i have hid under trees on park benches watching the life pass me by in a rich variety whilst eating ice cream, not sure if too much white wine in the evenings..but hey life.
But i have missed my friends i have found amongst the world of techno. So some catching up to do...

To All Whom Passed This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth....X

Today in Wembley England was F.A. Cup final day...i tried to think the last time i watched the cup final before it simply became money and is now no longer simply the F.A. Cup but possibly named after a certain faiths flying machines....Today i sat on a bus and a small boy climbed on board with his father as i was sat on the very front seat i watched the small boy pick his ticket  and run up stairs, as his father passed i kindly asked how much his ticket..the reply was £1.00....and worth it was the reply...i recall spending under a £1.00 to watch the rock band Deep Purple in my youth and rocking to the song Smoke On The Water very much worth it..with a bus fare perhaps one Penny for small boys, for youths i cannot quite recall....
Today it has not stopped raining since lunch time, and as i watched the constant dribble my I-Pod fed me Whiskey In The Jar sung by Thin Lizzy, i had to look up the year...1972...i thought just how old am i with a childish Gosh...which means as darkness falls i need an Ice cream...to float down Whiskey in the Jar O...perhaps one of my fav's song from the 70's.

To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth..X

I have reached the hump day of the working week, and i blow a kiss that i no longer have to work even if Maggie Thatchers private utilities rob me until i can only afford a non heinz baked bean then so be it...at least on this 59th Anniversary the song San Francisco being released on this day in 1967..i can still sing today " wear some flowers in your hair "....it has been one of my dreams to visit the city and indeed wear some flowers in my hair....Strangely...i did have a chance as i crossed the big ole USA in 1991 of visiting the city..i had a choice either San Fran or L.A....and i picked L.A. for the simple reasons that i could afford the Youth Hostel in Santa Monica..and the flights were better across to Australia...such is life and as i sit here looking back, always better to giggle and have no regrets....and the only Trumps were what you found in your underpants....and i will never forget sat eating an ice cream in awe watching fab fems in bikini's  on roller skates zooming down the path along the beach was it the females or the fact that i had not seen sunshine after a long winter at home in England the reason for the awe..

To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth...X

Been a good few days since i scribbled here, possibly a few to many bus rides through the cobbled streets, i think it is the small boy still dribbling inside of me whom still wishes to sit up stairs on the back seat...peep out of the window and think on those far off school days..some teachers names never leave you especially if they threw board rubbers across the class room... as Mr Badham did trying to distract us from wanting to leave the french class and play football in the summer sunshine, for some reason i seem to think or recall that all my school boy holidays in the 60/70's during the summer were super sunny weeks that sometimes never seemed to end...my mind has had a touch of adventure i found this on the window sill at the back seat of the bus...was it a young or teenage boy with wishful thinking or perhaps it was real or would a young female not staring at her phone think on this and gasp..would we have done such in our youth..if we had marker pens instead of pencils..i do recall the days when pen and ink was banned from the class room is this why..time indeed....

To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth...X

I wonder if you sat on a public bus today through the streets of Cheshire and Lancashire and happened to pick up the free Newspaper Metro.co.uk at the front of the bus in a tiny tin box and sat and  read the front page or are you like myself simply take a quick glance at the horoscope page to see if you have any chance of winning the Euro Millions Lotto...then calmly put the newspaper in the nearest recycle bin...Today you might have read Mr Seyed Ali Mousavi from the Irans Embassy standing on the Embassy steps telling the 300,000 odd Iranian living in the UK...to go home and take part in " sacrificing life for the homeland " I also wonder if Seyed Ali Mousavi will also go home, or perhaps not and just hunt for suspenders in Hyde Park.
...I remember sat on New Years Eve...in 1999..watching the fire works across the skies until 4am of coarse with a few glasses of white wine thinking a new Century wow and gosh...sadly we seem to have been in wars ever since that night through the world  ...i think all those power riddled folk should sit on a bus..and read the Metro Horoscope page and sigh heavily for what they have done to the world...and possibly listen to a few Bob Dylan songs and Phil Ochs also..and play " I ain't marching any more. "



To All Whom Pass This Way Love And Peace Take Care So Goeth...X