Friday 29 May 2020

Word Association

There are big patches of Red Campion along the road verges not far from home. They are so pretty and being taller and very pink they show up really well.


But what I don't see so often is White Campion which were so common along the road edges when I was very young. We walked half a mile to primary school every day and got to know the names of all the plants we saw along the way.
At this time there was a TV programme called "Champion, The Wonder Horse" with a very distinctive theme tune and White Campion became and was sung as  "Campion The Wonder Flower"!

And I still can't say "Campion" without starting to sing...................

"Champion the Wonder Horse! Champion the Wonder Horse!
Like a streak of lightnin' flashin' cross the sky,
Like the swiftest arrow whistlin' from a bow,
Like a mighty cannonball he seems to fly.
You'll hear about him everywhere you go.
The time'll come when everyone will know
The name of Champion the Wonder Horse!" 




I see from Wikiwotsit that it was on TV in the mid 50's but as we were walking to primary school between 1960 and 1965 it must have been repeated again and again......just like programmes now!


Garden flowers brought in for the table this week - 3 Peonies



Back Tomorrow
Sue

43 comments:

  1. My husband used to watch and listen to Champion the Wonder Horse. I remember in the early days of Ebay I found the book for him!

    Pretty flowers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't remember anything except the theme!

      Delete
  2. lol I must be ancient......I remember it from the first time round!
    Beautiful white Peonies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And today's earworm is brought to you by Sue, from her quiet life in Suffolk!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had a 78rpm record of that song and played it on my Dansette record player! How old does that make me!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We had a Dansette too - red and grey - my first record was Little White Bull by Tommy Steele

      Delete
  5. Our local woods tracks have had them. Mainly pink, some white and one was a very pale pink. Gorgeous aren’t they.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I keep looking for white ones but very rare around here

      Delete
  6. we have mainly the white campion in our hedgerows with a few pink , maybe its a soil thing?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I could sing that even now. I loved watching Champion. I had a 45 with that on one side and 'Rawhide' on the other. I think Dad got it from the back of a cereal packet - one of those special offers. Three tokens and postage, that sort of thing. I played it to death.
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. The BBC repeated CTWH throughout the 1960s - and as late as Christmas Eve 1973 it was shown on BBC1 [in between Fingerbobs and the Magic Roundabout] I thought you were also going to mention Albert Campion, the 1930s sleuth [portrayed by Peter Davidson in the early 90s] I think campion flowers are so pretty. Following Joys Comment, I shall be singing Champion AND Rawhide to myself all day now. Rollin, rolli, rollin....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've never really got into the Campion books although have a couple on the shelf so I ought to try again

      Delete
  9. Your post reminded me of another song from years ago, it was the theme music from a tv show called white horses. I found it on you tube and i'm sure to be singing it all day
    Hazel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The music for White Horses made the charts I think.

      Delete
  10. I loved Champion the Wonder Horse.
    I suppose as children are always growing up it didn't matter that it was repeated over and over because a new lot were always coming along.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't remember anything about it now - walking to primary school seems a long time ago

      Delete
    2. Champion would always appear for the rescue just when he was needed and we would all live happily ever after sort of thing is what I remember. And I was probably watching in the late 1950s.

      Delete
  11. I remember Champion the Wonder Horse and I wasn’t born till 1965. That’s now an ear worm for the day. Heather

    ReplyDelete
  12. We watched Champion the Wonder Horse as well in the 70's. Loved it. Lassie was another favourite and obviously Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

    You mentioning white campion is like the story about white eggs in the media. Apparently they're making a comeback because of LD. They usually sell them to catering companies but they've not needed them so they're making their way onto supermarket shelves. Not that I've had any, but I found it interesting that certain colour eggs are for certain markets. Right, that's my ramble of the day lol. Have a good one. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The white/brown egg thing is strange - all the same inside!

      Delete
  13. Now that has made me feel old....really old! x

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh I remember Champion the Wonder Horse (and words and music!) and Ricky and Rebel . . .That's taken me back.

    I have spotted two small lots (a couple of plants in each) of White Campion locally this spring. First we've seen since living in Wales, so that's saying something, and along lanes we regularly walk too but I guess perhaps we sometimes walk those routes at the wrong time - in summer rather than late spring.

    Where I grew up in Hampshire, it was the White Campion which prevailed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't remember seeing the red campion years ago - it's odd how it's changed

      Delete
  15. One of my grandmothers introduced me to roadside weeds - she knew all their names and loved to point them out to me. I learned a lot from her :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. An elderly neighbour was very good at wild flowers and trees, Mum was a townie so I don't think I learned them from her

      Delete
  16. I don't remember ever watching Champion the Wonder Horse although I have heard of it. I'm another who used to watch White Horses, which is a REAL earworm:

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+white+horses+theme+tune&docid=608006947538207983&mid=D1F313DAA90D25EB9F94D1F313DAA90D25EB9F94&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

    I also love Skippy and Daktari, we did have a lot of animal based children's programmes back in the 60s didn't we.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember White Horses but don't think I watched it much

      Delete
  17. I'd forgotten about CTWH (we didn't have a television so I only saw these 1950s programmes at friends' houses). Now, how many other theme tunes from those days can you still remember and sing. I can do Long John Silver (with the poem at the beginning in the accent) and The Buccaneers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Never heard of Buccaneers - I shall look it up.

      Delete
  18. I remember watching Champion the Wonder Horse in the mid sixties. It was on every morning in the school holidays.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm surprised at how many people remember it

      Delete
  19. Stunning peony roses - what variety are they?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No idea, they were here when we moved in, they come back each year despite my neglect!

      Delete
  20. I used to love a champion the Wonder Horse! I remember watching it on my school holidays, along with Belle and Sebastian, which if I remember rightly was dubbed in English.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Strange you mentioned White Campion, Sue. Went for a walk in the very small town of Ampthill today and visited 'Houghton House' - believed to be the origin of 'House Beautiful'in Pilgrims Progress. Along the footpath to the house was a wild white flower which I looked up by taking a photo of it and using an app called 'Plant Snap' on my phone; and guess what - it was White Campion!

    ReplyDelete
  22. A few blooms can be so uplifting, can't they. And what would we do without "Wikiwotsit"? We should all be so very knowledgeable.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete