AS IF BY MAGIC, A SHOPKEEPER APPEARED

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.

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.