Reminiscing

Is it the fact that it was my birthday recently, or possibly because Catherine and I watched Grease that started me reminiscing? I was remembering when a new film came out at the cinema and there was one showing in an evening and one screen at the cinema, and you couldn't book tickets in advance. My friends and I queued for ages outside the cinema in Ayr to make sure we got in to see the film. Grease was one of these films! Then I realised that I have never seen Saturday Night Fever, because I was too young to see it when it came out.
Life has changed so much since I was a child (and now I sound old). When I lived in Gloucestershire my friends and I used to take a picnic in the summer holidays and cycle round the country roads for hours. Our parents didn't know where we were from dawn to dusk and didn't worry about us. I know for a fact that I was between the ages of 9 & 12 when this happened because we only lived there for 3 years. I wouldn't let my 12 year old do the same nowadays. We had to go 20 miles to get to the nearest cinema.
And the summers were longer and hotter than they are now! I know that is not generally true, but the drought of 1976 was included in those memories and where I lived we were a few days away from getting standpipes in the street when the rain finally came.
And television didn't start until 3.50pm, and there were only 3 channels! No computers, mobile phones or mp3 players. We used to record the radio onto a cassette so we could listen to our favourite songs again. My brother played Queen and Wings non stop in his bedroom. I still know all the words off by heart.
One day dad came home from work and asked if we fancied moving to Scotland. I had never been further north than Derbyshire and it really felt like a foreign country. Moving to the seaside meant that we had a lot of visitors for the next few summers!
This has been fun. Look out for episode 2 :-)