Sunday, April 22, 2007

Throw back

Now you know you are definately Kenyan old school if you can recall ANY of the following: Happy Trails!!

1) The Slumber bed tv commercial that had those people posing as the springs and then a skinny woman would get on the bed and they would dip slightly, then her fat hubby would get in and ...boy did those springs ever dip!!

2) When KBC(then VOK), used to have cue cards for commercials. Remember the one that was a picture of a guy very drunk and siting behind the wheel of the car and the side note said "Do not drink and Drive" and they would play like the song: "Don't drive drunk."

3) When trying to get to the right radio station involved turning a big nob that was written "tuner" on top of it!

4) When KBC's English General Service and Kiswahili Service was in MW and not FM.

5) Remember that song they played before the news was read? A horrible army like tune. Then that awful beep that followed. The announcer would then say: "Hivi sasa ni saa saba kamili. Habari kwa ufupi."

6) Got late getting back to school at lunch time coz you were caugh-up listening to lunch-time music.

7) Tuned to Kiswahili Service at 3pm to listen to "Desturi ya Kombo."

8) Michael Bolton was a hit. And your mom's or one of your sisters had his tape.(yeah cd's were a bit slow to get then).

9)The first 15 minutes of the Sunday evening news involved showing the former president, getting to church, singing hymns, listening to the preacher (bonus points if you can remember that preacher's name) and then after church service,planting a tree or something like that. Now that was strait-up torture!!

10)Your daily weekday alarm involved on of the following songs:
a) Hata wewe mwanagu amka kumekucha, kwani hizi ndizo saa za kwenda shule.
b) Amka!! Kumepambazuka tena, twendeni tufanye kazi. Ujenzi wa taifa letu Kenya, latutegemea sisi.


11) Remember the following Kids shows:

a) Button Moon and it's jingle: "We're going to Button moon, we follow Mr. Spoon. Button moon, button moooooon." Yes and Mr. Spoon used to have his own space shuttle and would end up on the moon.

b) Wind in the Willows and it's jingle. Loved Toad(the misguided billionaire), the wise Badger and polite Mole. Oh and the thugs were the foxes and were always in berets and turtle necks. LOL!

c) The BBC show Rainbow.

d) Muppets on Acid aka Fraggle Rock. Oh those muffets were waaaaaaay cooler than the regular muppets on "The Muppet Show". They had parties, lived underground, were always throwing themselves off cliffs and never got hurt...gosh!!

e) Mix them, Gather them. Yes it was a show from Coast and oh, it was painful but you still found yourself watching it. I think it was their accent that made it soo appealing.

f) Zama Zetu. And you know nyanya had a story up her sleeve everytime.

g) Kiini Macho. How that Indian guy had a show-contract for that long just lying to unsuspecting kids is one of the greatest mysteries in Kenyan tv history.

9 comments:

Acolyte said...

"muppets on acid" - You made my day with that one!
You forgot to mention, Je huu ni ungwana? That was another must on the radio on Sundays!
Plus all the mama na baba songs that used to come on tv being sung by the choirs.
Yes Michael Bolton ruled the city way back and in some places I am sure he still does!
Nice throwback post!

Anonymous said...

Aiyayayya! Takes me back so far! Good times, good times. Thanks for the trip back in time! :-)

Anonymous said...

Beat time was a must! John Karani rocked on Thursdays and Fridays from 4pm. There was more talking over the music but hey, hot show, then Sundownder, SNS if you can dechiper that, lyrics to my favourite songs, i still have that notebook i used to chora those songs, hehehe!! See now what you gone and done? :-)

Msanii_XL said...

ola!

Memories memories...

lmao@10 those were prolly the most reviled songs in my youth

Nakeel said...

When lunch time music used to be slow soundtracks for the half time of it then slowjams. True Old school.

bomseh said...

I used to tune to English Service on Wednesday nights to listen to Forces Request. The likes of Sura Mbili Kiambo Momanyi, Shadrack Shoto Omnyololo as the salaams kings.

Mondays 2pm and Thursdays 8am for Reggae Time with one Frrrrrrrrr hahaha haaa Ffrrreeed Obach Machoka hahahaha.

Kelitu said...

Aco: Mambo Mbotela was the Howard Stern of Kenya back in the day.
Oh those choirs on tv were just hilarious as well as painful.

Aegeus: Ur welcome for the trip back memory lane. Oh yes, i do remember the over talking John Karani did...he used to mess up my "recordings". LOL!

Bomseh: I remember Jeff Mwongemi used to host reggae time and he would read the lyrics of songs, yes i was out with my music book and writing along.LOL!

Samborera said...

Mwangemi is still on radio. Absolutely insane guy. He's the only person who can get away with shouting [wailing?, screaming?] as loud as he can, while on air.

Unknown said...

What a trip I'm definetely old school by your reckoning. The Mtukufu stuff on news was so real we could recite the first 3 lines of every newscast even before they were said. So many memories here Thanx