Friday 13 February 2015

In the deserts of Sudan and the gardens of Japan...

I'm not quite sure how it started, but from the age of about nine or ten I had this real 'thing' about people from other countries. I was fascinated – obsessed, even. I loved the way everyone could look so different, with their unusual sounding names and exotic clothes and customs. On my bedroom wall, amid the cut-out sellotaped pictures of kittens and seahorses, was a huge world map I'd been given as a present. I wanted to visit all those faraway lands, see feather head-dresses and funny shaped buildings, and meet people with names like Olayemi and Natsuki.

This advert from 1971 may have had something to do with it.


Originally recorded by the Hillside Singers for the 'Buy The World A Coke' campaign, the New Seekers took their adaptation of it to No 1 in the UK charts later that year...

I had a bit of a crush on Marty Kristian, of course.

...not to be confused with this:

The verse was originally so similar that it led to Oasis being
successfully sued by the New Seekers, reportedly for $500,000

I found national costumes especially interesting and had a favourite book which I loved to look through


and which frequently inspired ideas and drawings of my own


When my Dad came back from European work trips he sometimes gave my sister and me a traditional doll from his travels like this one (although more often than not we just got bars of fancily-wrapped foreign chocolate. I'm not complaining).


I kept them - the dolls, that is, not bars of chocolate - lined up on my window-sill where the bright colours of their dresses quickly faded in the sunlight.

And in true geek style, my interest in the wider world outside my window also extended to stamp-collecting.  Most of the stamps I enthusiastically saved and stuck down on those pages came from the 1970s. Some of these British ones might be familiar, if you remember that far back.



 I rather like these stark looking German ones with their stern Health & Safety warnings.


You may have read elsewhere on this blog that the first album I ever bought was the Clash... but actually, now I come to think of it, it was this one:



21 comments:

  1. Mine was Stanley Gibbon's Stamps of the World!

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    1. Ah, Stanley Gibbons & his Rockin' Stamps - a great album!

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  2. I loved looking at stamp art, C - they're so colourful and magical! This post triggered a few memories long-buried in the back of my mind. Not only did I collect stamps of the world, but I also collected large Canadian pennies (I think I had you outgeeked, haha!) Unfortunately, my mother gave my collection away when I left home. When I was in the hospital having my appendix out, they didn't bring me toys, but stamps from Monaco. They were beautiful and seemed HUGE to me at the time. Perhaps that impression has been exaggerated by the years, but they were certainly larger than the standard-sized postage stamp.

    I remember hearing "I'd like to buy the world a coke!," but I'm not sure if it was sung by the same group over here.

    (P.S. Your invite will be in your in-box tomorrow.)

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    1. Haha, I know what you mean about BIG stamps. I was similarly excited by triangular ones from Hungary.. After that statement I think we both qualify as being pretty geeky :-)

      Many thanks for the invite - duly accepted!

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  3. What a fabulous collection you've gifted us a look at here, C. You really were quite a geek! All the best people are. Do kids still collect stamps? I had a go for a while but my brother was more into it than me. Ah, the things we did before technology and all that crap. As for 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' - that ad is embedded in my memory forever. Embarrassing confession - I was already a New Seekers fan before they went massive with this one. I had a crush on Lyn Paul and had bought there take of Delaney and Bonnie's 'Never Ending Song Of Love'. Of course, I didn't know it was originally by Delaney and Bonnie. I kept with The New Seekers until the Eurovision hit, 'Beg, Steal or Borrow', which couldn't have ben very long after but time passed slowly then. How bloody uncool! Great cover on that stamp album and probably just as good as 'The Clash'.

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    1. Thanks SB - I don't know if kids still collect them. I imagine a few still do and I hope so in a way and that it's not just the territory now for dealers trying to make money.
      I can understand your crush on Lyn Paul - I liked her too in that girly way - really, what with her and Marty Kristian it's no wonder we had time for them, cool or not...
      Time did indeed pass extremely slowly then. I'm frequently astounded by the number of different things I've been into when I consider their time-frames, how did we fit it all in?!

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  4. I just googled Trans World to find out more about stamp collecting...some things can't be unseen C.

    :0

    I love the old stamps and the German one's are not surprisingly really well designed but...WTF?

    The sketch is lovely.

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    1. Ooh, what did you see there?! I didn't dare google it...

      Re. the German designs - I know. Scary stuff. I particularly like the ladder and legs, though.

      Glad you like the sketch. She is a native of a fictional land where it would seem they have a bit of a thing for chains.

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  5. I also collected stamps from all over the world. They seemed so easy to come by back then. Everyone sent letters and relatives working in offices or businesses were particularly useful people to tap for any old envelopes, before they hit the rubbish bins. I can't honestly remember the last time I saw a foreign stamp. I rarely even use UK stamps anymore. More often than not I weigh any post I have and print my own.
    Who didn't have a crush on Lyn Paul?

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    1. You're right, it seemed so easy. I had a lot of overseas penfriends which was a big help! I still save them now - but only to send off to the RSPB.
      You weigh any post you have and print your own - what's that??? I'm curious!

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    2. Via the Royal Mail website. We've been doing it for a few years now. The main post office in town is appalling (don't get me started!) and printing our own postage saves an awful lot of pain!

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  6. National Costumes Of The World? Hey I had that book too when I was a little boy! You've jogged my memory. Who would have thought such a book would be so seminal, formative and influential?
    And: I've never mentioned this before in adult life but when I was a little boy I collected stamps too. Blimey, this is like an AA meeting. Rather than raising our hands and admitting we're alcoholics, we're admitting to be ex-stamp collectors.

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    1. Well, that's really something - of all the books to have had, National Costumes Of The World isn't one I'd have imagined on that many children's shelves! It was brilliant to read that you had it too. Maybe, like me, you spent hours poring over its illustrations.
      I suspect that stamp-collecting was a lot more prevalent than one might assume too. Please feel free to admit to any other geeky hobbies and interests here, you're not alone!

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    2. Ha ha. Brilliant! Free counselling at Sun Dried Sparrows. You've just gained a client. Or should that be patient?

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    3. :-) I shall have to provide a couch...

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  7. Nice post C. My first contact to the world outside Germany was collecting stamps in my very younger days. I ask myself where this collection has gone. Maybe lost by moving from one place to another all over the years. And I remember those German stamps well (and the doll with the native dress from the Blackwood Forrest as well).

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    1. Hi Walter and many thanks for dropping by and commenting.
      Ah, another child stamp-collector, there seem to be quite a few of us, although many collections like yours have been lost over the years. It's great that you remember those German stamps - my family had a number of connections to Germany and as a result I think there are probably almost as many German stamps in that collection as British ones. Lovely that you recognise the doll too - she was one of my favourites.

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  8. @ John Serpico:

    I like the photos that you've posted under your Google + profile.

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    1. I don't know if you've looked at it too but John has a great blog, The Art Of Exmouth (see list on right for link!)

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  9. I travelled a lot in one of my Jobs and also benefited from cheap traval. My mum always collected dolls from countries and i always made it my mission to add to her collection....when in Columbia I was trying to fid a doll of a drug Barron...but without sucess

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    1. I don't think I'd want to carry that 'doll' through Customs, either...

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