Recently the Missus and me spent a lovely wet day in the picturesque Ruhr town of Hattingen. A tumble of gorgeous half-timbered houses and shops, criss-crossed by leafy passages with Blankenstein Castle towering above, I renamed it Hatty Town after a favourite kids TV show.
Despite the rain I was on a mission to find a vintage toy shop, Schönes und Altes, just off the town centre.
When we turned up it was closed for 2 hours over lunch till 3, so we came back at 4 and with perfect timing the elderly proprietor was just returning after falling asleep!
I'd already browsed the baskets outside and picked out some loose Big Jim cowboy items.
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Once inside my eyes were wide and mouth open. It was an Aladdin's Cave of Fifties and Sixties German toys and games, almost Museum like. I didn't want to touch anything!
The very affable owner chatted to my wife as I looked round. We got the impression he was pleased to have customers and once we explained we'd travelled from England he was even more cheerful. A true Anglophile he was.
I settled on a few terrific items: a mint boxed MM HSI dumper, a transparent water pistol ray gun with spinning alien, a Rotamatic water pistol and together with my Big Jim bits it came to the bargain price of €15! We gave him €20.
On the way out the elderly chap shoved a bag of miniature food packets from the Sixties in my hand and wished us a pleasant journey home, before he turned to chat to the local clock man.
Wow, what a magical experience! Taking a trip back in time in a wonderful country, with a little old shopkeeper to boot! Sher Schon! SFZ
ReplyDeleteHatty town was OK, but I was a Lidsville fan myself.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the economics of Germany allow such a store to exist with such favorable prices.
ReplyDeleteMy signal is terrible but I just wanted to add a little. We arrived before the shopowner. And we were just about to leave three euros ( for small items in a 50 cent box outside) with the barber next door when he turned up after his lunch break. He was apparently so impressed with our honesty that he said pick the things you would like and I'll give you a really good deal, hence the bargain price. He was a very amiable chap with quite a sad backstory, which I can't really go into here. Suffice to say if I lived in Hattingen I'd probably offer to help him list his inventory on eBay and get it out to a wider audience. It was a really charming old toy shop and as we all know they are a rare sight nowadays.
DeleteGermany is far from poor Terra, but neither are they as greedy as we are in the UK.
ReplyDeleteIt's todays society unfortunately, I blame social media, it's all me, me, me now!
DeleteThose little shops ARE magic!
ReplyDeleteI came across a similar one on a visit to Torquay a few years ago. It was an old Victorian style shop front with an Alladin's cave of vintage stuff inside.
I reacquired a gold Corgi Bond Aston Martin for very reasonable terms!
It is good to see that the trip to Germany is proving successful. That looks like my kind of place.
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