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lucy sweet's avatar

This is so good. What an amazing professional life you’ve had with such fab people! (Wendy looks smashing in her roller boots.) I’m going to read my annuals later for fashion inspiration and maybe I’ll carry my bacon and egg bag that I made from a Jackie knitting pattern. Perhaps I will even visit the sizzling pubs and clubs of Dundee 😂

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Ah thank you Lucy, glad you enjoyed! Honestly it was such a lark there, I loved it. A load of teenagers being daft with lots of lunchtime boozing. Your bacon and egg bag will sizzle in Dundee - wasn't there a hat to match? x

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lucy sweet's avatar

Indeed there was! I have that too 🎩

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Was it it in your KNITTING book?!

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lucy sweet's avatar

No but I think I wore it to do the ‘promotion’ (one pic of me with bacon on my head)

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Julie Dee's avatar

Bless you. ‘Going too far’- so reflective of more innocent times. Photo stories were just the best. I loved them.

And the lip glosses. Oh I loved those. Felt like being grown up without doing anything *too extreme*😂

Thank you for sharing, lovely. Made me smile on this dreary, blustery morning…..in West Yorkshire X

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Thanks Julie, glad you enjoyed! Where are you in West Yorkshire? My village was Goose Eye, not too far from Keighley and Haworth (although its location, nestled deep in a valley, did make it feel remote!)

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Julie Dee's avatar

I’ve lived in Hebden Bridge since 2005, the part that’s up on the tops and not far from Haworth. so Goose Eye is probably not far at all! I wonder why I haven’t heard of it. Maybe I should go have a gander (forgive the pun😉) :)

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Oh Hebden Bridge is lovely. Goose Eye is a dot on the map - just a cluster of houses, a pub (The Turkey Inn) and when we lived there two derelict mills - now houses. Wonderful - and highly dangerous - to play in!

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Anne's avatar

Think I mentioned when commenting on one of your earlier articles, that I was already grown up by the time Just 17 & Jackie magazines were born, so I navigated my teenage years without their excellent advice.

However, it popped into my mind the other day that there was a magazine about during my teen years that helped me enormously - it was (wait for it..) Motor Cycle News (later to become MCN magazine) - not one word about teenage skin, make up or fashion between the covers, it was all about motorbikes & the motorcycle world, which was actually very useful as the boys in our group of friends upgraded from bicycles to motorbikes as soon as they were legally able.

When this happened the girls of the group were left standing on the periphery, twittering and looking decorative.

It was not a place I fancied being so I devoured each copy of Motor Cycle News and was very soon able to speak "Motor Bike" and became an honorary lad. No standing on the sidelines for me thank you very much! There are more ways to a man's heart than through his stomach!

I will also admit to tearing pictures of the World Champion out of the magazine and pinning them on my bedroom walls (my poor mother thought I was weird) - Mike Hailwood was his name and when I see pictures of him now with my Old Biddy eyes all I think is - why?

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Love this Anne! Motor Cycle News was published by Emap and a huge success. So it helped to fund the launch of Smash Hits magazine and then a new magazine for girl readers of Smash Hits - Just Seventeen (both also Emap magazines). So in a weird way, MCN played a big part in the teen magazines of the 80s!

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Anne's avatar

Oh wow Fiona - that's really interesting - so in a strange way I was actually reading the "grandmother" of Just Seventeen while I was learning all about motorbikes and being an honorary lad! It served its purpose, but if I'm honest I would have preferred and enjoyed a magazine like Just Seventeen.

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Laura Brandie's avatar

Loved reading this!

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Thank you Laura! xx

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Kirsty's avatar

What a fab read! I loved Jackie, I hadn't realised it didn't directly refer to sex! Such good memories and stories for you and Jackie! x

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Thanks Kirsty - yes, it was very chaste though (weirdly) seemed quite racy to my 13 year-old brain! x

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Kirsty's avatar

I remember it as being racier too, must've been though for those times lol

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Sarah Honeyman's avatar

What gentler times they were, I dread to think what advice is being dished out these days 🥴

Great read as always 🥰

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Thanks Sarah - glad you enjoyed. I think the big difference is that the advice was trusted - both in Jackie and Just Seventeen. And now there's such a barrage of info coming from a billion directions, it must be hard to squirrel out the good and useful! x

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Vicki's avatar

Brilliant! I think I may still have that 1978 annual in the pic! What an experience it must have been and to do that at such a young age. Sounds a brilliant gang to have worked with. Great read for a dreich Glasgow morning!

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Thanks Vicki, it is indeed dreich here today! Glad you enjoyed. Many of the gang are still good friends - we've sort of grown up together xx

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