LITHERLAND CARNIVAL c.1969. This is an unusual float from the carnival that year (taken when I was coming up to aged 11 with a little Kodak “Box Brownie”). Humpty Dumpty is asking us to KEEP STAIRS WELL LIT! Trips on the stairs being quite risky for big egg people and humans too. This is from the days of the good old “public information film” when we were asked to KEEP BRITAIN TIDY, kids were told how to CROSS THE ROAD and even “Reginald Molehusband” even told us how to PARK YOUR CAR…

Of course a lot of these are now laughable (see them on YouTube) but it was a different age. We shouldn’t laugh at them too much because these messages were only trying to make the world a better place, preventing accidents and tragedy.

Look at the craftwork in producing the big egg man – all in aid of preventing a few accidents. A problem today is people can’t give straightforward advice for fear of being politically incorrect. Going back to where we came from sometimes seems a good idea.

These days we still have preventable trips/falls in the home and a few could do with Reginald’s lesson in parking! Britain is certainly not tidy and given Litherland’s litter problems we could all do with following the advice printed on every bin then – “put it here”.