'Ello, Everybody!

Here's me starring on a lit-up Esso Blue sign. It has a bulb in it. You could pop it in your shop window, plug it in, and hey presto - all the people passing on dark nights knew you sold Esso Blue. You 'ad to be careful not to trip over the extension lead though.

I've thought for some time I'd like to try this blogging lark. But I'm not that good with computer-type gadgetry, so Andy, my nephew, is giving me an 'and. He's writin' down what I say as I say it.

Even droppin' me g's and aitches when I drop them.

Good lad.

I came to a bit of fame many years ago, back in the late 1950s to be exact, when I starred in a series of telly adverts for Esso Blue.

Esso Blue!

The name still gives me a tingle!

'Boom boom boom boom - Esso Blue!' - that's how the advert jingle went.

And the ads were popular and they went on and on and on.

And on.

Right into the '70s.

I suppose I was a celebrity, although I was never mobbed like Cliff Richard and The Shadows.

That was a relief because people can tread on your feet when they're mobbing you, and I have a tendency towards corns.

Esso Blue was a wonderful product. All right, it did make your windows stream with condensation, like when you're boiling up the sprouts and spuds on a Sunday, but it was the finest paraffin you could buy.

Better than that pink muck anyway.

I sold it at the corner shop I ran in Balaclava Street (it's a Costa Coffee now) and I delivered too.

The telly adverts helped trade at the shop, because a lot of my neighbours thought I could get 'em on telly.

Especially Mrs Clough, out of Pork Street. She used to get herself up like Margaret Rutherford before comin' in for 'er fire lighters. She thought she looked like that woman out of Gone With The Wind, but it were Margaret Rutherford who always sprang to mind.

 That woman out of Gone With The Wind.

Margaret Rutherford

For 'olidays, I often to used to visit my brother Stan. He ran a shop in Ramsgate and I used to give 'im an 'and with the Esso Blue deliveries there. It made a nice change.

Anyway, on this blog I'll be sharing my thoughts on those days and these days and the days in between.

I'll say 'toodle pip" for now because the missus wants to go to Boots. We're nearly out of Radox. They still do the original powder there. There's nothing like it - lovely and squidgy between your toes in a bowl of warm water.

Them self checkouts are a marvel, aren't they?

'Unexpected item in the bagging area' is a national catchphrase - you can get it on t-shirts and the like.

But it's not nearly as good as 'boom boom boom - Esso Blue!'

Well, I don't think so anyway.

We'll have another natter soon.

JOE x