THE popular trio of Raleigh bikes: the Boxer, Grifter and Chopper. At least one of the Grandstand handheld electronic games. The Commodore 64 or the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. A Ford Fiesta XR2 or Ford Escort XR3i or Vauxhall Nova sports edition. A fine house in Forest Hill, SE London.
Those are some of the things I’d hoped to get, but never did. The closest I got to a Raleigh bike was a dupe Grifter with wide handlebars – I remember a guy on the street asking “what kinda bike is that?” with his face screwed up. I had a Commodore Vic 20 but never made the upgrade to the C64 or ZX Spectrum when they were still on trend (I did buy a C64 in 1989, but its glory days had gone at this time). I watched with envy as my friends burned up and down the streets in their eye-catching sporty XR2s and XR3s while I drove around in my dad’s plain and boring 1982 Ford Escort. As for the house in Forest Hill…
I was obsessed with picking up the Argos catalogue, finding the Mr Frosty page and staring at it as if performing some kind of spiritual magic to draw it out the catalogue and into my bedroom.
Even though I didn’t get any of the mentioned, I’m over the disappointment …no hard feelings, regrets, jealousy or hatred, but…
There is one thing that I haven’t mentioned that still rests heavily on my mind to this very day: Mr Frosty. I’ve lost count of how many hours I spent looking at it in the Argos catalogue. The fixation of wanting Mr Frosty began in the late 1970s and carried on to 1982 – after those years of fixation, I still didn’t get Mr Frosty! I was obsessed with picking up the Argos catalogue, finding the Mr Frosty page and staring at it as if performing some kind of spiritual magic to draw it out the catalogue and into my bedroom. Unfortunately, no magic happened; Mr Frosty stayed on his page and kept smiling.
What was it about Mr Frosty? I saw him as being different from the household boardgames we already had – Monopoly, Scrabble, Operation, Game of Life. If I did get Mr Frosty then he’d be a fresh and different addition to the collection, because, with Mr Frosty, I’d be able to make delicious icy flavoured drinks. How cool would that have been, making icy drinks in the bedroom in between playing games on my Vic 20. I could even have charged guests for making them an icy drink, 25p would have been reasonable. Also, drinks made by my Mr Frosty would be classed as homemade, something that Slush Puppies from the corner shop couldn’t boast about.
Even after all these years, I’m tempted to buy Mr Frosty. I do a once-in-a-while search on Argos online to see if he’s still available… he is! But there’s something holding me back from putting it into my shopping basket and clicking ApplePay: that something is fear of disappointment leading to spoiling my childhood opinion that Mr Frosty was absolutely brilliant. I fear that after I’ve bought it and used it, I may not be impressed with the result – the drinks may not be to my liking and the whole shebang of making them may not be worth the effort. On the other hand, there is a chance that I’ll absolutely love it and Mr Frosty becomes a fixture in the kitchen whilst keeping my childhood opinion in tack, but I’m still not going take the risk and click ApplePay. The best time for me having Mr Frosty was between 1979 and 1982.
Mr Frosty has done well on the wanted but never got list – he’s beaten giants such as the Raleigh Chopper, the ZX Spectrum and the XR3i. He almost tops the list, but that house in Forest Hill has pipped him at the post. Even though he’s been pipped at the post, he’s still smiling, keeping cool and no doubt churning out lots of icy drinks in homes across the country – unfortunately, those icy drinks are not being churned out in my home… or maybe it’s fortunate that they aren’t…