I have to be in work early today, which I am decidedly unimpressed about. I just don’t to early. It’s odd because a few years ago I used to get into work for 8.20 every day, but now I get in about an hour later and the thought of getting in that early seems beyond comprehension. I shall soldier on though.
Anyway, there was a horrible story in the news last Friday about a woman who was killed in Colchester, Essex. She attempted to cross the railway lines after the barriers had gone down and she got her foot stuck in the track. Despite a couple of men trying to help her, they couldn’t get her foot free and she was killed when the train struck her. This brought back memories that we had to watch as children at school teaching us the dangers of various activities. One of the films was about the dangers of playing on the railway lines. It has to be said that filmed really scared me, I was probably only 6 years old when I saw it. Had I ever been set for a life dicing with danger on the train tracks this film forever changed my destiny.
I can’t find a copy of the film on the internet but I remember the film, including the football boots hanging on the back of a door and the voiceover saying something like “Robbie won’t be playing football any more”. This being due to him and some friends walking home along the railway line one day and he got his football boots stuck and while he was trying to pull them out, he got struck by a train and his legs were cut off. Just the kind of thing you needed to learn about at the age of 6. I told my sister about the woman being killed in Colchester and asked her what it made her think of – and she named that film as well. It was obviously very memorable – and my sister doesn’t play on the railway lines either.
Robbie isn’t actually a Public Information Film, but I came across some of those when I was trying to find a copy if it on the internet. It really reminded me of some classics out there and they can all be found here. I really remember the one about rabies and that made me a bit paranoid about going anywhere near animals when I was on holiday (even going to visit my aunt in Ireland...).
Some of the more peculiar ones though are... one telling you about the dangers of polishing your floor if you have a rug, one about what to do if there is a nuclear attack and perhaps the most strange one involving the analogy between road safety and a hammer hitting a peach.
Mind you, I have never been hit by a car, contracted rabies or killed myself slipping on a rug so maybe I shouldn’t be so sceptical.
2 comments:
Great post.
Do you remember the film and slogan
"building sites bite" which was designed to keep kids away from building sites?
I remember the rabies and the aids ones.
kahless - I remember one about building sites but not that particlar slogan. Maybe I was *so* scared by that one that I wiped the slogan from my memory!
It was great looking back through the films and so many of them came flooding back.
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