The recent post showing Woodstocks tray of car boot figures which included the little Pear pencil topper took me back to when I was a kid again. Doesn't take much as i'm usually halfway there already, but sometimes small things trigger memories that are largely overlooked. Back in 1969 or thereabouts, while I was in primary school, i was always trekking off to Parkhill Primary at the top of the road in Dingle, Liverpool. My pockets would always be loaded up with stuff to swap, thunderbirds cards, cereal premiums,marbles and anything else I could find that I thought might be useful. I loved finding stuff in my cereal or in crackers at xmas. The other thing I loved to do was taking my pocket money and feeding it penny by penny into gumball machines to get the little plastic pods with the toys inside. Usually the toy was rubbish, a plastic charm or a cheap gilded necklace, but every now and again id come across something cool. One day, I opened one up to find a strange little rubber figure, green and bulbous with staring eyes. My immediate reaction was that he was a little alien, but closer inspection revealed he was a blackberry, with four leaves on his head. For some reason I was immediately smitten and the little figure was drafted into several precarious adventures such as being submerged in the bath in his pod on several occaisions, crash landed in the back yard after a failed re-entry and lowered down holes and over walls into the street on pieces of cotton. Unfortunately, tying the fine cotton round his arm eventually resulted in the traumatic amputation of his limb one day, much to my annoyance. A similar fate befell the rubber Wotan after I tied the cotton onto the top of his head and cut the little knob off the top of his 'suit'.Luckily though the little rubber figures have survived further indignities, several house moves, mice, damp and a number of small children attempting to make off with them over the years and are now safely in retirement in the Wotan Archive on a soft cushion of silica gel. aaaaahh.
Brilliant Wote, you sound like one of the Bash Street Kids with your pockets bulging! Hee hee. I'd also like to retire on a soft cushion of silica gel please!
ReplyDeletewouldnt recommend it mate, its poisonous! and you end up a dry husk like a stiff in a Hammer film!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Wote...very evocative!
ReplyDeleteBeing a telescope nut with optical instruments of all kinds around the house, I have silica gel all over the place...got my first little packet of it with my very first little pair of "Admiral" binoculars from Boots. I thought it was meant to be mixed with water to clean the lenses...thank goodness I went back in the store a week later and asked what it was for...I pretended to the shop guy I knew but was just making sure...felt a right little fool lol.
I loved gumball machines too. Still feel a little whistful when I walk past the modern versions.
ReplyDeleteAs for the alien ... even though you've said he's a blackberry, he still LOOKS like an alien!
And I know the feeling, eviled. My first one was in a handbag ages and ages ago. My thought was that it was for cleaning the leather. Doh! Lucky for me I thought to ask a friend first.
LOL Toad...we are a right pair!
ReplyDeleteWe both thought it was some sort of cleaning product...great minds eh?
Yep! But I won't tell if you don't tell. LOL.
ReplyDelete