The internet has changed all our lives and certainly the way we collect. Before the late 1990's I used to send off stamped addressed envelopes for peoples' lists of collectables for sale or trade. They would advertise in the small ads at the back of Model Mart and in the local Yorkshire newspaper.
Those snail-mail days are long gone but I do find myself missing them. There was something very tangible about receiving paper letters and lists through the post and following things up on the phone. This is how I got my entire project SWORD collection during the 1990's.
What do you think readers? Was it the Dark Ages back then or actually a great time for collecting?
I too have great nostalgia for the old days, seeing things in magazines etc.
ReplyDeleteI was always using ExchangeandMart in the old days to look at the telescope ads. There were never that many but I would find the section on Telescopes/Scientific Instruments with baited breath and read the ads of things I lusted after but could not afford! I think it used to come out on a Thursday.
On the rare occasions I ordered something, the excitement of waiting for the delivery was incredible! My first little telescope "The Moongetter" from a newspaper ad around 1972 for the princely sum of £2.99. It took ages to come, then one dinner time it was there and mum told me to not open it until the school day was over....that afternoon lasted for ages, I can still remember details of that afternoon, 40 years on! lol
Makes me think of the library too...now, if you want to look something up you do it in seconds on the internet. In the old days you used to sit all night, trying to remember or figure something out and planning your trip to the library the next day to solve the problem!
Those definitely were the days but I am not sure I'd want to go back to all that waiting. It was fine at the time because you didn't know any different...it was magical at the time though!
Great memories Ed. I was just this week thinking of buying a telescope and looking at Moon up close. Small world. What a wonderful hobby to have had as a kid. I so recall sending postal orders off for stuff. I used to buy novelties from Ellisdons Mail Order: the restless Skeleton, Jivara Shrunken head and a cool jackin a box which was actually a skull. I loved that thing so much its untrue. Nearly gave my Dad a heart attack! Somewhere I still have some Postal Order stubs from the early Seventies when I used to send off for Inside Kung Fu magazine and Film Review magazine. And yes, researching at the library. Ordering obscure books was the best [ Just not from Julian Karswell! ]. My favourite was a huge book on Japanese Arms and Armour, which I had to read there. I couldn't take it out! Amazingly I bought a copy for myself about ten years ago on Ebay, from the library of the late John Entwistle, bassist with The Who!
ReplyDelete"Just not from Julian Karswell!"...hehehe...no, that would never do!
ReplyDeleteI remember our library had a reference section of books you couldn't take out, They had a two volume set of The Book Of Hours by the Duc de Berry...I just loved illuminated manuscripts and used to paw over it for hours and copy out the text into my project folder.
I loved it too when other people came into the reference section and saw what I was reading....it made me feel very clever and boffin like....a young Quatermass! lol
I remember ordering a few books from the library too...made me feel very important!
Your John Entwistle acquisition is way cool! :)
Your'e a reader of secret tomes Ed! Leafing through Illuminated manuscripts can be a risky business as they found in the Name of the Rose! Just make sure Ron Perlman's not watching! I recently went into Wakefield City library and had a great time. It was almost silent, very relaxed and full of thousands of books. I asked if they had any old books about Tolkein and to find them they went to the 'Stack' somewhere out of sight. I love that. A 'stack' of old books! So many small libraries have closed its a tragedy. I suppose all that will be left will be the City branches one day. And you had a project folder! Was that your own or from School Ed?
ReplyDeleteThe old manuscripts...yes, can be dangerous stuff, very M.R James too!
ReplyDeleteMy own project folder. I had a couple, the best was my "astronomy project", I still have it it somewhere...many a happy hour spent drawing constellations and planets and trying to draw and colour galaxies and nebulae.
I just loved that subject with a passion and still do.
Yes, a great pity about the libraries closing, the one I went to as a kid is long gone and I miss it. Nothing quite like a good library for inspiring all sorts of ideas and "projects" if you are from the that era!