Tag Archives: Nikita Khrushchev

Looking Back to the year 1962 – Sex , Space and a Symbol

Posted on March 12, 2026 | 4 comments

I unexpectedly came across Marilyn once in Haugesund in Norway and I discovered that the reason she should surprisingly turn up here is that her father, Martin Mortenson, came from the village of Skjold, just fifteen miles away and lived in Haugesund before emigrating to America in about 1880. After abandoning his family after only six months of marriage, he was killed in a motorcycle crash without ever seeing his daughter – Norma Jean Mortenson.

Marilyn was a iconic sex symbol and this another that I came across in Tossa del Mar on the Costa Brava in Spain. Ava Gardner who had three husbands (including Frank Sinatra) and by some speculation over one thousand lovers…

And this is Catherine the Great of Russia who I came across in Saint Petersburg, another woman with a reputation…

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Posted in Age of Innocence, Arts and Crafts, Childhood, Europe, Growing up in the 1950s, History, Natural Environment, Travel

Tagged Bay of Pigs, Cuba, John F Kennedy, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Marilyn Monroe, Nikita Khrushchev, Oswald Mosley, Sex Education, Telstar

Looking Back to the Year 1962 – Cold War and Cold Winter

Posted on March 9, 2026 | 15 comments

On the 29^th to 30^th December a blizzard roared across the southwest of England and Wales, snow drifted to over six metres deep in places and this caused road blockages and cut railway lines.

The snow left villagers stranded and power and telephone lines were brought down. Stocks of food ran low and farmers couldn’t reach their livestock. As a result thousands of sheep, ponies and cattle starved to death. The continuous freezing temperatures meant that the snow cover lasted for over two months and the winter of 1962/63 was the coldest over England and Wales since 1740, colder even than 1947, with mean maximum temperatures for January and February 1963 more than 5 °c below the average.

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Posted in Age of Innocence, Childhood, Europe, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage

Tagged Bay of Pigs, Cuba, John F Kennedy, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Marilyn Monroe, Nikita Khrushchev, Oswald Mosley

Age of Innocence – 1962, Cold War and Cold Winter

Posted on April 13, 2015 | 4 comments

These days people pay good money to stay in an ice hotel in Sweden and spend an evening shivering in sub-zero temperatures.

When I was a boy a cold Winter would have been quite an ordeal I’m certain because like most people in 1962 we lived in a house without central heating and this was in the days long before double glazing and thermal insulation.

I don’t think we even had a fitted carpet! We didn’t have a fitted carpet for at least another five years or so. The house had an open coal fire in the lounge and a coke boiler in the kitchen to heat the water and that was it. Sitting around the fire was quite cosy of course but when it came to bed time tearing yourself away from it was a real ordeal – rather like Scott’s preparation for walking to the South Pole!

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Posted in Childhood, Europe, Food, History, Natural Environment, United Kingdom

Tagged Bay of Pigs, Cuba, John F Kennedy, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Marilyn Monroe, Nikita Khrushchev, Oswald Mosley

Age of Innocence – 1962, The Joy of Sex and Marilyn Monroe

Posted on April 5, 2015 | 8 comments

I unexpectedly came across Marilyn once in Haugesund in Norway and I discovered that the reason she should surprisingly turn up here is that her father, Martin Mortensen, came from the village of Skjold, just twenty kilometres away and lived in Haugesund before emigrating to America in about 1880. After abandoning his family after only six months of marriage, he was killed in a motorcycle crash without ever seeing his daughter – Norma Jean Mortensen.

Read the full story…

8 Comments

Posted in Childhood, Europe, History, Norway, Travel

Tagged Bay of Pigs, Cuba, John F Kennedy, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Marilyn Monroe, Nikita Khrushchev, Oswald Mosley, Sex Education

Age of Innocence – 1958, The Cod Wars With Iceland

Posted on February 25, 2015 | Leave a comment

“Ross Tiger” by Grimsby Artist Carl Paul – www.carlpaulfinearts.co.uk

In 1958 Britain went to war – this time with Iceland. The First Cod War lasted from 1^st September until 12^th November 1958 and began in response to a new Icelandic law that tripled the Icelandic fishery zone from four nautical miles to twelve to protect its own fishing industry.

The British Government declared that their trawlers would fish under protection from Royal Navy warships in three areas, out of the Westfjords, north of Horn and to the southeast of Iceland. All in all, twenty British trawlers, four warships and a supply vessel operated inside the newly declared zones. This was a bad tempered little spat that involved trawler net cutting, mid ocean ramming incidents and collisions. It was also a bit of an uneven contest because in all fifty-three British warships took part in the operations against seven Icelandic patrol vessels and a single Catalina flying boat.

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