Pop culture icons from the 1970s and 1980s are set to go on display in Keswick later this month when a new museum opens in the town.
Linda and Aaron Curley are set to open their Retro Zone Museum in the former Biketreks shop in Keswick’s Main Street.
Hundreds of nostalgia-inducing items from toys and technology, including computers and electronic games, to original mobile phones and the iconic Sony Walkman, will all be showcased.
A Space Hopper and bikes from the period will also be on display, including a Raleigh Chopper and BMX, plus the Sinclair C5.
In addition, visitors will be able to journey down memory lane thanks to old chocolate and crisp wrappers along with forgotten aftershaves and perfumes.
Linda, who was a sales assistant, and Aaron, who worked in sales at an electrical engineers, have both given up their jobs to concentrate on the museum.
“It’s a passion. We have put our heart and soul into it. It is what we wanted to do,” Linda said.
All the items are part of Linda and Aaron’s personal collection.
For Linda, that collection really took off 15 years ago when her mum was cleaning out the attic in the Cockermouth home where she had grown up during the 1970s and 80s.
She came across some of my items and passed them on to me, to see if I wanted them. I went through them and thought, ‘oh my God I remember all this stuff’ and suddenly I was taken straight back to being a child and was remembering all these happy memories that I had playing with these toys,” said Linda.
Display cabinets were bought and Linda and Aaron’s home became a shrine to a bygone era.
“Visitors kept saying you need to show people this collection as everybody left our house with a smile on their face after they had seen it,” said Linda.
Keswick was chosen as the location to create the museum because Linda spent a lot of time in the town when she was younger as the family always came for days out.
Linda said: “We thought, where can we show this? Where there is going to be quite a lot of people – it was just logical that Keswick was going to be the place.
“For youngsters these days, who only experience the world through a mobile phone, I think it will be nice for them to see how tactile it was back in our day when we had all these things to play with.
“With technology coming on leaps and bounds, it is also nice to see where the mobile phones and all that technology started from.
“I want people of all generations to come in. We have got quite a good mix of stuff so everybody should be able to relate to something or other.”
