The silly story from sometime in the 1970s …. the unforgettable headline ….a pair of loons …. and that lava lamp

I am in a reflective mood brought on by a conversation about the 1970s, which remains one of those unfashionable decades.

So, while the 1960s will always be the “Swinging 60s” and the 1920s “the Roaring 20s”, history and the popular press has been less kind to the decade which will always be remembered for the Three Day Week, the Milk Snatcher and Apollo 13, not to forget the Vietnam War, the Bay City Rollers and Ernie, the fastest Milkman in the West. 

I have fond memories of both the 1960s and the 70s.  

I grew up, went to school, passed my A levels, and had my heart broken a dozen times between 1966 and 69, and then came to Manchester, graduated from the College of Knowledge, started work, got married and bought a house all during the first half of the 1970s.

So with all that in mind, I come to that memorable headline from the News of World, which was required reading, if only because it offered up some bizarre stories, like this one, “Nudist welfare man's model wife fell for the Chinese hypnotist from the Coop bacon  factory”. 

It was coined by the journalist, Monty Levy who was a sub editor at the News of the World, and if you follow the link there is more about him.

Leaving me just to throw in loons, and lava lamps as well as  including the one photograph of me which has survived from the early part of that decade.

The rest as they say is for everyone to offer up their own treasured memories of that period, and for me to be reunited with Mr. Levy’s headline which I could only remember bits of.

But having posted part of it, sure enough someone came up with full wording.

And that is that, or it would have been but for my discovery of this picture where you could buy your loons, along with the sticks of incense, and all manner of vinyl.

By the time this picture of the Eighth Day was taken, I had reverted to short hair, and embarked on the wonderful world of work, picking up a mortgage and house along the way, and marking my own transition from a carefree student to grown up.

Pictures; lava lamp, 2007, Saltmiser, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States license., Andrew Simpson, 1970, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and ; On the Eighth Day, 111 Oxford Street, in April 1973, m00173, y H. Milligan, H.,  courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Tributes to former Barrow journalist with talent for headline writing, The Mail, Barrow,February 22nd, 2016,  https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/barrow/16459621.tributes-to-former-barrow-journalist-with-talent-for-headline-writing/