Total Pageviews

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Pamela, Pamela, Remember the Days? Of Shiny Red Valentines and Minds in a Haze


Pamela, Pamela remember the days?
Of inkwells and apples and books and school plays,
where little Brer Rabbit kissed Pooh in the wood
and Fluff was the cat that sat on the rug.

Oh, Pamela I remember so well
when Laurel and Hardy were shown at the flicks.
With sticky red lollies on splintery sticks,
pigtails and ribbons and crushes on Miss.
Secret discussions about a first kiss.

But you were young and everything was new,
impatient to do things you couldn't do.
Oh, Pamela, Pamela you started to grow.
Answers to questions you wanted to know.
When the rest of your childhood forgets as a dream,
and the harshness of life dims those peaches and cream.

-Written by Graham Gouldman (who I once intereviewed)
-Recorded by Wayne Fontana from the Mindbenders, 1965
(four years before the Olivetti Valentine was launched
in Barcelona (St Valentine's Day 1969)

 *Adwoa's charming Retro Tech Geneva blog post is here.
Adwoa Bagalina Collection

This Valentine, given to me by Frank O'Shea, now of Melbourne, typed the typescripts for two maths text books.
*I'm sure Typospherians will join me in extending best wishes to Pamela as she faces another critical week-long round of chemotherapy on Friday, ending, as she so poignantly says, on Black Friday, December 13.

7 comments:

TonysVision said...

That's a great Valentine ad, I've not seen it before. But I'll have to wait to play the tune - my wife next to me is about to nod off. Please extend my sympathy and best wishes to Pamela. Chemo ain't no fun. But I have a cousin who just had an operation to deal with bowel cancer, and she seems to be doing very well.

Miguel Chávez said...

Please extend my best wishes to Pamela, too, from the other side of the world! That's a great looking machine indeed!

Ted said...

Good wishes to your benefactor, may she come through her ordeal with health and humor. (:

Aaand, you still have the luck if people are handing you Valentines! :D

shordzi said...

I did send you some good vibes, mind it.

Rob Bowker said...

You are a lucky so and so to a) have such highly sought-after gifts and b) the ability to unfold the story like a concertina'd map. Doubtless my lesser reputation precedes me, but my 'donations' amount to Imperial 66, Royal KHM, Bijou/Erika folding and an unwieldy Olivetti Linea 88 - for which I'm truly grateful. Amen.

Richard P said...

That is a fantastic gift.

Pamela, here's to you, and good luck!!

Jasper Lindell said...

My thoughts are with Pamela, and I hope she comes through alright afterwards.

They might type pathetically, but I still can't go past a Valentine. A gift you deserved.

And shall we call a funeral for Pat's once common and regular $10 typewriter specials?