Back then ... Monday October 16th, 1972

A Rainy Cardiff

Today was a lousy day raining off and on here in Cardiff and with nearly 200 channels I could not find something to watch so I spent the afternoon listening to Alexa pumping out some cool tunes? When I am bored, I tend to turn to my blog, and today was no difference has sitting here, wondering what a 12 year old would be doing today back then.

Looking out of the window there is something about weather like today that just makes you want to hunker down at home, staying in the warmth. Doing bugger all, which is pretty much, what I did. Missing a coal fire, central heating is not the same ever if it was turned on which it is not - too early for me but the wife would disagree.

Having a black and white television and no remote control (how did we cope) with only three channels now seems like deprivation on a par with having an outside toilet, which we did! And a tin bath in front of the fire again we did.

First, I would have been in school but I did like a half-day or two. I could have thrown a sickie and got myself a day off. Using the Radio Times and TV Times archives I took a peep back in time to see what was about entertainment wise in the afternoon on the radio was Pete Murray. A Monday afternoon on the BBC was pretty dire and looking what was on offer from 1pm, “Pebble Mill at One” an entertainment show from the studios in Birmingham for some chat and music. It was followed by “Watch with Mother” and as for the rest was rubbish … Remember “For Schools Colleges” if I wanted to learn I would have gone to school learning German or listening to someone sprout on about rainfall was not for me.

As for BBC 2, it was an afternoon of the Test Card.

It as to be said the offering on HTV (Wales and West) was a lot better. They put up a new line up with “Mr and Mrs” which add been shown on a few regions but went nationwide on this day. Also launch this afternoon was the first episode of “Emmerdale Farm” with the Sugden family centre of the show. The opening episode involved the funeral of the head of the family, Jacob Sugden and his decision to leave the family farm to eldest son, Jack. “Good Afternoon” was a chat show with woman in mind.

After that opening hour, it was “All Our Yesterdays” a show kind of what I am doing today but looking back at events in the same week 25 years earlier. On this day on HTV the afternoon was round off with a Movie Matinee, Cash on Demand starring Peter Cushing, as a bank manager whose family are held hostage by a charming but ruthless criminal as part of a cold-blooded plan to steal £97,000?.

Having nothing to do has gone the way of the dinosaur now and there is stimulation at-hand anytime. When my kids say they’re bored I try to convince them that it’s good for the soul because it forces you to look inside yourself for inspiration and entertainment. But they just look at me as if I’m crazy.

Being a Cardiff City fan I am the check the result for the weekend and we played Middlesbrough at home and we won 2-0 I can't remember if I was at the game or not.