Monday 26 June 2017

Magic Lanterns.

I have just watched 'Flog It' on BB2 over my tea.   One of the items which was sold was an old Magic Lantern - I think it fetched over £200.   But it certainly brought back such memories for me - I really think that maybe today's children do miss out on somethings because when I was a child in our village in Lincolnshire Saturday night was often Magic Lantern Night.

All of us kids gathered together in the Methodist Chapel Sunday Schoool Room and somebody put on a show for us.

First of all there would be 'stills' of places like India or Africa or perhaps the mountains of somewhere like Switzerland.   These places were so remote and so foreign to us all that they seemed like another planet.

Then there would be 'real' films and the magic of a Pop-eye and Olive Oil film or a Mickey Mouse Film and we would be glued to the screen enjoying every single minute of it.

Now of course kids are glued to computer screens or to their own televisions and what they are missing is the interaction with others of their own age.   And somehow it isn't the same.
 

24 comments:

Derek Faulkner said...

The kids miss an awful lot more than that Pat, being out in the countryside and interacting with Mother Nature for one.
The hawkweed that you mentioned on my blog today, do you know it's first name.

Claudia said...

Certainly kids miss quite a lot these days. I remember how enchanted we were by fireflies. Nature is a gift to the soul.

angryparsnip said...

I think children of today miss out on so much. The magic of exploring, even your own yard, watching the birds, playing games with friends. We use to look for rocks, watch the stars come out and try to name them.
Today computer games are just by yourself and used as a babysitter. Kind of sad.

cheers, parsnip and thehamish

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

I don't really like to watch Flog It: every time I seem to see something selling for a huge sum, many of them being things that my brother and I took to pieces to "see how they worked".

Midmarsh John said...

That reminded me. When I was about 5 I would be taken to a church hall once a week where we children were shown films. Before we could see the interesting stuff, to us, we had to watch a film with the words of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful. This we had to sing and we couldn't watch anything else until we had sung it properly and with gusto.

Chris said...

I loved a Magic Lantern show too, my chapel had them and it was usually a missionary from Africa. It was the highlight of the year when I was little. Today children's spend too much time alone on ipads and although they gain vast knowledge which is good but do they have as much fun?

Tom Stephenson said...

You having said that Weave, I really did not enjoy the interaction to be had at the Saturday Morning Pictures.

justjill said...

It depends on the parents. My kids had an upbringing which involved discovering in all areas. Despite the grand kids having access to modern technology they are all involved in discovering in all areas too. Most of the kids we despair of stem from parents who were sat in front of the tv in their formative years.

Living Alone in Your 60's said...

We have days were no technology is permitted. And while we are busy kayaking, or crabbing or riding bikes they live it.

Rachel Phillips said...

I don't know anything about magic lanterns. I used to collect information by writing to companies like Cadburys and collect Typhoo tea cards and read very old copies of National Geographic that my father had at boarding school in the 1920s. I would read them over and over again.

Mac n' Janet said...

I agree, they have lost their sense of wonder and imagination.

Heather said...

How I agree with you and your followers' comments.

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

It is a different world just even in the past 17 years. I am sure, though, that when the younger generation gets older they will remember their good old days when they were children and think how simpler things used to be. We all look back in time with rose-colored glasses.

Thickethouse.wordpress said...

I certainly spent most of my free time outside with my friends, but my grandchildren, even though they do have "screen time" also are outside quite a lot. They explore nature, hike, bike, go fishing, play frisbee, and soccer and baseball and take their little dog Pepper for walks. But we live in a semi-rural area.

Cro Magnon said...

TV's or Computers in Children's room are fine; it's what they watch on them that's not.

jinxxxygirl said...

My daughter didn't have electronices growing up... she just missed that age... She is 30 today.. I do believe that maybe it was available especially once she reached her teenage years but we didn't have the money for it...

I remember alot more outdoor play when i was little ... Getting together with friends and family... Freeze tag as the sun set... catching lightning bugs..

We need a global put your electronics away day... just one day... to take a step back... some will hate it , some will rediscover their 'free time'... Hugs! deb

Librarian said...

Some parents, like Thickethouse's daughters and sons-in-law, still give their kids an upbringing that involves spending a lot of time outdoors and with other children. But in many families today, sadly it seems the small and big screens have replaced nearly all other activities.

Gwil W said...

We'd meet on Saturday morning outside the Empire. A couple of us would pay to get in. The rest would wait by the fire escape door to be sneaked in by those who were inside legitimately. We'd chew toffee that was really bad for our teeth and watch the Lone Ranger arrive to the stirring music of the William Tell Overture on his wonderful horse Silver and at his side would be his ever faithful companion Tonto on Scout. We'd cheer them on! They always defeated the outlaws. Justice was always done. Then they'd ride off into the sunset. And we'd walk around the streets discussing what it all meant. Or run about imagining we were on horseback. And constantly laughing and saying how terrific it all was. One or two of us cut our thumbs with someone's penknife and became blood brothers.

Derek Faulkner said...

Gwil W made me chuckle, we used to do exactly the same as kids for Saturday Matinee. The fire escape doors were in the gents toilets and so one of us would pay to go in and then visit the toilets and let the rest in free of charge. One boy went in the toilets and six would come out!

Sue said...

I used to go to the local cinema, or the 'flea pit' as we called it, most Saturday mornings. Clutching my bag of penny mix sweets we would pay our sixpence and sit in awe of cartoons on the big screen, there were no Saturday morning programmes for children in the sixties like there are today. The presentation always finished with that weeks instalment of Batman and Robin and we would run out of the cinema shouting Wham!! Bosh!! Thunk!! etc etc ... good memories :-)

Elizabeth said...

Yes, there were such childhood joys - at the local ‘flea pit’ etc.
However, as I watch my grandchildren grow up with such joy - theirs and mine! -I think that the emotions they have and pleasure in things isn’t so much dependent on the things themselves but on the child’s reaction!
The human heart does not alter much.
Yes, there is far too much technology altogether - but I think the little ones’ joy in life remains the same - and there is hope.
Mine love making stick houses in the garden and ‘spaceships’ out of cardboard boxes.

As I have so often (boringly!) said, you should make a little book of your vanished childhood.
You write so well.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

My brothers and I roamed freely around our East Yorkshire village but we always made it home for tea. Our parents, like other country parents, didn't worry about our safety very much and only made us stay indoors if we had been naughty or a violent thunderstorm was imminent.

Anonymous said...

We didn't live near any entertainment so had to make our own - it was a treat to go to the cinema.

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