Following on from the last blog entry in this series, here is another photo from my seventh birthday, and this is the photo that provides the evidence that it really was a birthday party. Do take time to appreciate the cheeky- grin-towards-camera, from my friend Tony. You might be wondering whether such a photogenic young boy would grow up to become a male model? The answer is no.

Notice that there is acake with seven candles, which cleverly has been made to resemble a clock face with the hour hand so cunningly pointing to the number 7. I wonder if I was old enough then to be able to tell the time properly. I do remember that we had lessons at school with a cardboard clock face that the teacher would hold up in front of the class. She would then pick on people to guess what time the clock was showing. There was a point in my life where I could tell the time only if it was it was a multiple of 15 minutes, and so I would be in fear in case she held up a clock showing something awkward like 7:35.

What other things can we learn from the photo. The colour brown makes another appearance, but this time as part of the crockery. I’m now thinking that our whole house was a shrine to brownness. Amazingly, I can tell you that my mum still has some of those plates. They’ve managed to survive 30 years of ‘accidents’.

The other part of this picture worth mentioning is in the foreground. It is a paper napkin featuring a popular children’s character. If this party took place in 2010 then we might expect to see Harry Potter or Optimus Prime maybe. But in 1978 we had the cool-beyond-doubt portrayal of Uncle Bulgaria from the Wombles. Yep, in 1978, if you had the Wombles feature at your party (albeit in badly inked pictorial form) then you were the coolest kid on the block...at least that’s how I remember. Ah, you gottta love the Wombles. All together now, “Underground, overground. Wombling free..."