Over the past few months my mum and dad have been clearing out the attic in their house. All sorts of stuff has been turning up (my dad has been somewhat of a hoarder), not least old correspondence.
There have been things like my dad's birthday cards from the ages one to eight, letters from my grandmother to me, my brother and sister from the seventies, and a postcard I sent my parents in the eighties. This week something from the sixties turned up.
My dad's parents lived in Margate and shortly after I was born enrolled me in the local paper's (The Isle of Thanet Gazette) Bimbo Club. I should explain that Bimbo was a cartoon dog*, maybe the other meaning hadn't caught on when the club was set up in the 1950s.
I can't find much on the club out their on the internet but I've attached photos of the badge and club rules from the membership card.
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| Bimbo Club badge |
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| Club aims |
It also came with a letter from 'Uncle Barry' (not my real uncle) saying that if I lost the badge I could get a new one for "fivepence in stamps", that if I collected "all the halfpennies I can" it would go to a "Gift Fund... for the benefit of sick children" and that they collected silver paper and tinfoil for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. Maybe we need to bring the Bimbo club back!
I vaguely remember the song Bimbo from my youth but I don't know whether it was this version by Jim Reeves from 1953, one of the other covers or if it was just something that was sung to me when I was young.
* Apparently the dog was originally called 'bingo, but the name had to be changed in case it encouraged gambling. We lived in simpler times.
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