Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

[Ermintruder]

On another entirely-different strand of strangeness (minor): recently I bought a new watch.

It was a cheap & cheerless one, from (deep gasps) TK Maxx (perhaps I was carrying-out retail research). Analogue dial with hands, very plain, quartz.

Anyway: I am 90% certain that when I bought it, the hours & minutes hands were not luminous. Even a bit. During a couple of weeks of wear, day and (well..) night.

And now the hands are luminous. Impossible. But they are.

I am gripped by the hands of strange times....

 

[Mythopoeika]

On another entirely-different strand of strangeness (minor): recently I bought a new watch.

It was a cheap & cheerless one, from (deep gasps) TK Maxx (perhaps I was carrying-out retail research). Analogue dial with hands, very plain, quartz.

Anyway: I am 90% certain that when I bought it, the hours & minutes hands were not luminous. Even a bit. During a couple of weeks of wear, day and (well..) night.

And now the hands are luminous. Impossible. But they are.

I am gripped by the hands of strange times....

They might be painted with luminous paint that picks up its luminosity from exposure to light. When you bought it, it had probably just been unpackaged after storage away from light.
I remember having a bottle of paint like that in my childhood.

 

[Ermintruder]

No, I totally know how to expect luminous watches/paint to respond. This new watch had days and days of exposure to light, and an equal number of nights during which it could have glowed.

My precise point is that it did NOT do so, at all, then apparently suddenly started glowing at night, say just short of two weeks after buying from new.

 

[escargot]

They might be painted with luminous paint that picks up its luminosity from exposure to light. When you bought it, it had probably just been unpackaged after storage away from light.
I remember having a bottle of paint like that in my childhood.

Yup, that'll be it. The paint needs exposure to light to become luminous.

When I had a bottle of the stuff as a kid, my mother once picked it up off a windowsill thinking it was hand cream. She rubbed a bit into her hands as she walked into a bedroom that was kept blacked-out for a night worker to sleep in.

She eventually thought, this cream's not sinking in very well... and noticed that her hands were glowing.

 

[Cochise]

The old green looking luminous paint that used to be common and always glowed in the dark is no longer used. The stuff we get now, at least on cheap watches, only glows for a relatively short while in the dark and it has to be exposed to bright light previously to glow at all.

On the other hand some watches have a soft glow from electronics and that can be turned on and off. Indiglow, I think the technology is called.

Neither account for this behaviour if you were watching it. (see what I did there )

 

[henry]

i believe radioactive, or irradiated material was used on watches until fairly recently ?

 

[Monstrosa]

The Radium Dial Painters Is the tragic tale of those poor girls.

 

[Iris]

A few years ago I mislaid a copy of the King James Bible which was usually in the same shelf of the bookcase. It had an old $2 note in it that my granddaughter wanted.
I searched through all the shelves to no avail so thought maybe it was one I had given to my friend for her sister as I had a more modern version.
Anyway today I was straightening up things on my dressing table and there it was sitting there.
I can't understand how I wouldn't have seen it before or why I would have taken it to the bedroom, so it's back out in it's space on the bookshelf. It was actually in better condition than I remembered but minus the $2.

 

[Mythopoeika]

When I was a kid, I had a watch, an alarm clock and a compass that all had radium paint.
My Dad came in one day and confiscated all items because he was concerned about radiation.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

My Dad came in one day and confiscated all items because he was concerned about radiation.

He may have just seen a documentary about the dial-painters.

I remember that my favourite breakfast-cereal give-aways in the sixties were the "Luminous Spooks." I can recall a lady with her head tucked underneath her arm and another spook shaped like a bat.*

I can also remember chewing them - which was unlikely to be the fate of a watch-dial!

*edit: Wow! The Magic of the Internet brings them all back!

The lady seems to have her head on her neck, though. :glee:

You can turn them on and off on this cool page!

Is it just me or does it look as if the skull has had a slightly-obscene replacement bone?



Some fascinating stuff about the question of the spooks' origin.



The search is on for the related tv advertisement.

 

[heisenbear]

While we're on the glow-in-the-dark theme, I had the Domino Rally Ghost Ride.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Hell! That one would give you an epic dose of whatever it was we were all drinking in then!

 

[David Plankton]

Talking of give-aways, does anyone else recall collecting these from Tudor Crisps? It was late 70's early 80's and they didn't actually come in the crisp packet, you had to collect so many empties and send them off.
I had them all but they are long gone now I'm afraid.

We had (clockwise from top left) - Medusa, Aztec Mask, Shrunken Head, Sphinx, ???, Werewolf and ???

I remember that the crouched silver figure was something that used to live on rooftops. I have no idea what bottom left is supposed to be.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

It occurs to me that the Luminous Spooks came at the same time as the Addams Family and Munsters were hitting UK television.

No wonder I grew up weird: it started at breakfast-time!

 

[Ulalume]

Talking of give-aways, does anyone else recall collecting these from Tudor Crisps?

Those are marvelous trinkets, it would have been great to find those in a cereal box. But...Tudor Crisps? Really? Was there actually a cereal by that name or are you just playing a joke on gullible yanks? Cos I'm imagining marshmallows in the shape of Henry VIII's wives and such.

 

[GNC]

Those are marvelous trinkets, it would have been great to find those in a cereal box. But...Tudor Crisps? Really? Was there actually a cereal by that name or are you just playing a joke on gullible yanks? Cos I'm imagining marshmallows in the shape of Henry VIII's wives and such.

Everyone in Newcastle would climb a mountain for Tudor. They were a brand of potato crisps, or chips if you're American. Although the name sounds regal, I think it was a company set up by a Mr Tudor.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I think it was a company set up by a Mr Tudor

You see, a boy can still make something of himself! No King but he's a King of the King Edwards. A Doctor, tomorrow maybe!

 

[David Plankton]

Those are marvelous trinkets, it would have been great to find those in a cereal box. But...Tudor Crisps? Really? Was there actually a cereal by that name or are you just playing a joke on gullible yanks? Cos I'm imagining marshmallows in the shape of Henry VIII's wives and such.

Really. On this page is a list of flavours most of which I was familiar with but Chocolate and Kipper are new to me. Crisps/chips like GNC says.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_Crisps

When I read your post the first thing I thought of was the advert for Rex Beans in Ken Russell's Tommy. This is the advert for Tudor crisps and I remember posting it on the Old TV Ads thread. Maybe they missed a trick not playing on the 'royal' aspect.

 

[Swifty]

Those are marvelous trinkets, it would have been great to find those in a cereal box. But...Tudor Crisps? Really? Was there actually a cereal by that name or are you just playing a joke on gullible yanks? Cos I'm imagining marshmallows in the shape of Henry VIII's wives and such.

I was born in the midlands in England in the early 70's and I can't remember Tudor Crisps .. so I'm doubly weirded out Ulalume, surely I must have seen them at some point? .. it's not like my parents steered us away from junk food back then ..

 

[mikfez]

I used to collect these -

 

[Cochise]

I was born in the midlands in England in the early 70's and I can't remember Tudor Crisps .. so I'm doubly weirded out Ulalume, surely I must have seen them at some point? .. it's not like my parents steered us away from junk food back then ..

Crisps used to be fairly regional in their distribution. In the south-east we had Chipmunk Crisps. Their Oxo flavour is still unsurpassed. But haven't seen them since about 1975

 

[Spudrick68]

Tudor crisps I remember and Canadian Ham Seabrook crisps - why Canadian though? Oh and salt and shake.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

Ooh Seabrooks! Takes me back to when I was a kid in the 60s and my dad moonlighted at weekends, playing round the Northern clubs in our area. They always had Seabrooks. I lived away from Yorkshire for 20 years and never saw them once in the Midlands. Came back and they're still here!

 

[Ulalume]

Everyone in Newcastle would climb a mountain for Tudor. They were a brand of potato crisps, or chips if you're American. Although the name sounds regal, I think it was a company set up by a Mr Tudor.

Really. On this page is a list of flavours most of which I was familiar with but Chocolate and Kipper are new to me. Crisps/chips like GNC says.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_Crisps

When I read your post the first thing I thought of was the advert for Rex Beans in Ken Russell's Tommy. This is the advert for Tudor crisps and I remember posting it on the Old TV Ads thread. Maybe they missed a trick not playing on the 'royal' aspect.

Thanks for the info, guys. When I read Tudor Crisp, my mind automatically jumped to Super Sugar Crisp, and then to some version of Lucky Charms with marshmallows shaped like poor Anne Boleyn's head! This was so alarming that I totally forgot about the crisps/chips thing. Sorry about that!

 

[Mythopoeika]

Seabrooks are still going and I'm sure I've seen them on sale in the supermarkets round here (Bedfordshire).
Tudor crisps I only ever encountered once, as far as I can recall - probably on a journey 'up North'.

 

[GNC]

We used to be able to buy Tudor Crisps from a big box, replenished weekly, at primary school, for eating at the break. Tomato flavour was my favourite.

 

[Ermintruder]

I used to collect these -

Me too. I used to love making these...

I also used to like the Aurora prehistoric scenes kits, and the large Caveman models.

With things such as Nazi Kettenkrads and Schwimmwagens for light relief....

 

[chicorea]

Me too. I used to love making these...

I also used to like the Aurora prehistoric scenes kits, and the large Caveman models.

With things such as Nazi Kettenkrads and Schwimmwagens for light relief....

Me and my father built the Phantom of the Opera and one version of Frankenstein monster. I was fascinated by a Guillotine kit, an Aurora too, but my father didn't endorsed the idea (I remember being 7 or 8 years old). Some minutes ago I was browsing eBay, looking for an Adamski UFO kit, inspired by the FT sleeve this month.

 

[Ermintruder]

I also loved my Funfdecker Fokker...

Why did the 1960s relaunched Red Baron (by Monogram and others, including the Guardsmen song) always associate Snoopy with the Red Baron?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoopy_vs._the_Red_Baron_(song)
Was it just Schultz's cartoon references? What prompted what??

 

[chicorea]

I also loved my Funfdecker Fokker...

Why did the 1960s relaunched Red Baron (by Monogram and others, including the Guardsmen song) always associate Snoopy with the Red Baron?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoopy_vs._the_Red_Baron_(song)
Was it just Schultz's cartoon references? What prompted what??

I bet Snoopy presented and/or revamped the whole Red Baron character to an entire generation. I can say it was my case.

(a Funfdecker?! This must have been fantastic! I never went much further than Rat Fink or an Aurora BatPlane...)