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Little Context of Social Change by Fred Garnett 
Chapter One1963-1 Hey Paula
Sunny, windy, blustery, shiny. The sea sparkles behind the chalets, the whitehorses winking repeatedly. Life is out there, on the seas, the endlessly repeateddynamic refreshing of the landscape of our lives.Can I ride on the scooter, Can I get a picture of me riding the scooter? I wantto look like I am riding the scooter, on my own, no I dont want to do it with David,David always gets to do things two years and five months before I do! Why?Because he does them at the same time as me; thats why he does things twoyears and five months before me. It isn't fair!Welcomingly blustery and cheerfully blue; not fair weather for hats and caps butour well cropped hair waved playfully above our heads mixing it with the weather.We were oblivious to the breezes, invigorated by the ozone, the underlyingwarmth of the day and the sheer brilliance of being at Butlins where every steptook you into an exciting new future.Can we get a coffee Mum, they have a coffee bar! A proper coffee bar withproper frothy coffee, can we Mum? They might have a juke box Mum we mighthear Cliff Richard, or the Shadows, can we Mum?What do you think Ron?Not keen on a coffee bar Ann...But the boys only drink coffee Ron and it would get us out of this wind andwe can plan the rest of the day there; and you can get your paper. That sounds reasonable, but not too long mind! Young boys should be leftplaying outside as much as possible.Alright Ron, we'll send them off on the rides later. The coffee bar was stunning, an image of the future into which we were plunged just by crossing the threshold; it was shiny, shiny, shiny. Shiny outside, shinyinside and shiny in our minds. The brand new formica was an iridiscent pastelbeamed in direct from our unknown California future.
“Hey, hey Paula, I'm gonna marry you” 
  The spooky cheesy organ beamed down its blessing beatifically upon us. Thestrained, hopeful yearning of the song matched our nascent subliminal desires forsomething better.Wow Mum they've got a juke box; what is this song?Something American by the sound of it John.Is it in the charts?I think it is a new entry love, what would you like?Oh thank you! A new entry, it's an important record then, could be great!Frothy Coffee, please Mum.
Little Contexts of Social Change; Chapters 1-5 – August 28th 2009 – fred.garnett@gmail.com
 
Little Context of Social Change by Fred Garnett 
Four of them love?No, two frothy coffees and two teas please. The cafe was fabulously pastel bright and shiny. I felt like I was back in Doncasterat the frothy coffee shop where I first saw a poster for Cliff Richard and realisedthat famous people would visit from time to time if we were in a big town likeDoncaster. We knew Doncaster was a big town because Lonnie Donegan had beento the Gaumont and recorded My Old Man's a Dustman there. We knew it wasDoncaster because we could hear my Auntie Martha laughing just before one of the punchlines in this novelty song; “hop up on the cart”. Doncaster was a bigtown where things happened. Things like Cliff Richard playing at the Gaumont.Amazing! But the question for me now was whether Filey was big enough for aCliff.Mum, do you think Cliff Richard will come to Filey?He might do, why?Well he came to Doncaster didnt he? Because Doncaster is importantenough for him to go and play. Will we see him in Filey?I don’t think so John, Butlins have their own entertainment.Redcoats John, Redcoats, specially trained entertainers, trained in music halland how to deal with the people who come to Butlins. Your Mother and I enjoy theRedcoats shows in the evening.But will Cliff Richard come to Butlins?No John, that is a very different kind of show.I bet he'd go to Skegness, I knew we should have gone to Skegness.Skegness is too far to go to by car.But we went there last time; how can it be too far? Skegness is the bestholiday we ever had!We went by train last time. This time your father drive us here in the car...“What!?”
“No one else could ever do,I've waited so long for school to be through” 
Well that was true enough. I knew what that felt like. I'd been in primary school foryears. We were not going to see Cliff and no one else would ever do; well Hankand the Shads would do, actually Hank and the Shads would be great.Mum do you think the Shadows would ever play Filey?How's your frothy coffee John?I paid attention to the steaming coffee; everything was in place. Glass cup andsaucer, with two rings, froth, colour brown, liquid that scalded the tongue if youdrank it straight away.Perfect, real frothy coffee and a real Juke Box playing chart new entries.
“Hey Paul I've been waiting for you” “I want to marry you too” 
Little Contexts of Social Change; Chapters 1-5 – August 28th 2009 – fred.garnett@gmail.com
 
Little Context of Social Change by Fred Garnett 
 The record was amazing, so clear to listen to and every word was understandable,was it the jukebox? Must be the jukebox, nothing sounded this good at home.Where did the song come from? How come I hadn't heard it before? This boy Paulwas singing with a girl, a girl named Paula, who answered him back with the samekind of yearning that he had. This was a boy and a girl making a record together;they must know each other then. They would have to be in the studio together tomake that song. The world was constantly surprising. A boy and a girl in a studiotogether.
“If you love me trueIf you love me still
Formica, Froth and Flirting; in public, together at the same time. I should payattention to a song like this if I was going to learn about the world. I loved being atButlins, something new was always happening at Butlins.
Our love will at last be real,my love, my love...” 
Blimey! She was calling HIM My love. So maybe boys and girls did get together. Sowhy did they split class in school so that the girls sat by the windows and the boyssat by the corridor? Probably because we got into more trouble than the girls.Short cut to the Headmaster.
“True Love means planning a life for two,Being together the whole day through,
Well that's a meaningless chorus, whats wrong with them? How can you sing
together 
about being
together 
in the future; maybe? They are together in theiryearning for the future. They've got that to share. I bet they weren't even in thestudio together after all; but how would that work?Filey was bright and windy. The frothy coffee was wonderful and brown, but everso slightly tasteless, after the essential frothy coffee experience wore off; time todo something.Dave what about going on the Octopus?I want to go on the Train.Ok. If I go on the Train with you will you go on the Octopus with me.No.Ok, if I go on the Train with you what will you go with me on? The Cars.Ok, If I go on the Train with you will you go on the Cars with me?Alright then.Right then, I'll sort it out it with Mum after this record.
True Love means waiting and hoping that soonWishes we've made will come true
Little Contexts of Social Change; Chapters 1-5 – August 28th 2009 – fred.garnett@gmail.com
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