WITH Grease in cinemas and The Village People on the radio, people were inspired to cast aside their inhibitions and let their weirdness show in 1978.

It seems residents saw John Travolta styling his hair with a tub of lard and popstars dressing like camp policemen and decided they too would shun convention and do whatever they felt like.

News Shopper was inundated with letters from rebels shouting about their unusual hobbies, with Mr Relle from Lewisham declaring his undying love for tiddlywinks.

He was not ashamed to spend his time trying to flip tiny discs into a tiny bucket. He was not ashamed to be a 44-year-old still living with his parents.

He was part of a movement of people who celebrated their strange pastimes, defiant against the taunts of “nerd”.

Mrs Ting of Petts Wood told News Shopper about her passion for batik, an artform in which pictures are built up with dyes and wax.

Adam Spears, of Bexley, proudly displayed his hand-painted goose eggs.

But the greatest rebel of all was seven-year-old Lee resident James O’Connor.

Young James was declared Prince of the Week at a summer holiday club, but when the week and the holiday was over, he refused to give up the crown.

With the ill-fitting paper crown perched upon his head and old curtains draped around his shoulders, he continued to parade the streets barking orders at “the peasants”, as he affectionately called the residents of Lee.

1978 was such a year of rebellion that even vegetables refused to conform to convention.

Arthur Bell, of South Norwood, wrote in to News Shopper to tell readers about his strange tomatoes, which was not a euphemism.

He had bought what appeared to be a regular packet of tomato seeds, but rather than growing into the usual round shape, his tomatoes were square.

News Shopper’s report said: “Scientists so far have failed to produce a rational explanation.”

The same could be said of people’s behaviour in 1978.