Ed's Old Ashtray

Well Woodsy,

I found a decent enough photo of our old ashtray. The photo dates from Christmas of 1963 and I can see where my far-less-than perfect memory got several of the details wrong.

But there you have it anyway. You can just spot it standing to the left of our new, state of the art portable stereo unit.

The ashtray appears in a couple of photos from a few years earlier, but it's much harder discern in those pics.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed- couldn't help injecting a bit of colour back to your snap - old Polaroids tend to lose a lot of the blue/green pigment when exposed to light, so I took it into Photoshop and re-adjusted the colour! Voila its 1964 again!  Bill

In Praise of Beef Paste

As we are caravanning I've no access to toys so other things are filling my mind ...  Such as Beef Paste this morning for breakfast!

I saw it in Farmfoods and thought yes! I remember, I used to love beef paste butties as a kid. My Mum made them with thick white bread and butter, altho' it may have been marg - Stork?

Did you eat beef spread butties readers?

Beef paste or spread is basically potted beef of old sold in little handy pocket-sized glass jars. As a kid the biggest brand was Shippams. There was always a thin layer of hardened fat on top. That stuffs delicious!

They did chicken paste as well, which was equally fabtasticle.

My late Grandad, old Jack the postie, liked his beef dripping. Now I don't remember it exactly but I imagine a combination of beef and fat is essentially the same as beef paste or spread. Can anyone confirm this?

Even more nostalgic and the nub of a few jokes is the next spread on my Farmfoods shopping list, Sardine and Tomato paste! 

C'mon Mum, slap it on! 

Yorkshire GRIT

 The Missus and me were discussing whether a paperboy would deliver a Saturday newspaper to our caravan. 

We concluded that they don't exist anymore. Paperboys. At least here in Yorkshire. They're all playing Minecraft. 

I was never a Paperboy or an Altar boy or any kind of boy as a kid but back in the Sixties lots of my fellow nippers were paperboys, zooming round the early morning streets on Choppers with a Satchel full of folded papers.

I don't think they were paid much. Do you?

We're you a paperboy readers? 

Did you you do any other work as a kid for pocket money? Stable hand? Wash cars?

I got Look In like this in the early Seventies, every week, my name scrAwled on the top corner and the house number, Woods 24! Always a great thrill when my Look In comic landed on the mat.

As a reader of American comics back then I'd stare at the back page where calls for GRIT deliverers were advertised along with a whole bonanza of gifts they could earn.

I had no idea what GRIT was. I thought maybe it was just that, grit, with kids lugging round sacks of it on their bikes, gritting the streets!

I realised it was some sort of newspaper but what I'm not sure. You?

I could only gawp at those amazing gifts they could earn.id never seen so much cool stuff on one page! Things like typewriters, baseball sets, bullworkers, radios and TVs. Can you imagine, your own TV in your bedroom in the Sixties! 

Did you have one as a kid readers? A TV in your room?

Did you deliver GRIT as a young 'un in America?

WINGS OVER MOONBASE

 Awaiting for Evri to arrive and collect my daughter's Sindy sales, I'm currently listening to an old fave LP, Band on the Run, by Wings.

I always found Wings pleasantly melodic and wistful. Paul and Linda McCartney, young husband and wife, playing together in the band really counted. You could feel the warmth.

I guess I'm nostalgic about them, reminding me of the Missus and I as was in the Seventies, a shaggy loved-up couple, although we've been apart much more. Paul and Linda were apart for a single night before she sadly passed away I've read.

Anyway, enough soppy stuff. Band on the Run is one of many fine Wings albums. Wildlife and RAM are two more I really enjoyed as a teenager in the Seventies and still do.

They released loads of singles too: Jet, Juniors Farm, The Frog Chorus, Live and Let Die to name a few.

Do you like Wings?

Not everyone's cup of tea I know, can you name the people on the cover of Band on the Run?

Brassed Off!

 I recently found these old brasses of my Mum's in our attic: peacock, slipper and all.

I remember some of them my growing up.

I seem to recall my Mum buying them from one Mr. Singh, a second hand seller on Preston outdoor market in the Sixties.

As if by magic, here's an old print of yours truly admiring the very same brass peacock on its shelf at home circa 1961!

Here are more old shots on the same day. Looks like a party! Do you recognise the drinks?

Not sure what my parents were celebrating.

Happy days! 

CREPE AND SATELLITES

How I remember these from Christmasses in the Sixties and Seventies. They were both on old auction sites.

Crepe streamers, those crinkly bandages that bedecked the walls and plastic satellite star hung on the tree. That clover of foil inside is like a portal to the past.

Do you remember these?

What decs did your family have?

TALES FROM THE CRYPT AND TWO PARACETOMOL PLEASE!

With my circadian clock clogged with up snot I'm not sleeping when I should. Hence I was up late last night nursing my cold, drinking more hot tea and watching more old films, horror films; Amicus anthologies to be exact, those Seventies-set competitors to Hammer's more gothic output.

The first I watched, Tales from the Crypt, is one I associate totally with my older brothers when they were teenagers in the early 1970's. Advertised in the newspaper at the time, along with all the other films on, they saw it at one of the three cinemas in Preston town centre at the time: ABC, Odeon or Ritz. I was a mere boy of 10 when Amicus released Tales from the Crypt in 1971, a classic 'X' for 18's only. 

An earlier American generation, nearly twenty years earlier, would have enjoyed the original EC comic it was based on but I don't think I knew about EC then. Creepy and Eerie were the US imports of note at the time. Maybe my older brothers had heard of EC, I don't know. Nowadays, I'm pleased to say I have a few EC reprints keeping my Warren's company.

Amicus's Tales from the Crypt is that wonderful thing and perfect Christmas fayre; a selection box with something for everyone: Joan Collin's raving Santa, the monkey's paw-styled Death on a motorcycle,  Ian Hendry's late crash victim, the amazing Blind Institute story and of course Grimsdyke the binman's story is simply fabulous and so well made.

But my personal favourite is And All Through the House, the first story and the one set on Christmas Eve. I adore this nostalgic tale starring Joan Collins and the ubiquitous Chloe Franks. The contemporary 1970's set reminds me so much of my parents' house; the Xmas tree, the cards, the decorations and the Seventies décor such as the big radio playing carols, the huge chunky nail-art style pictures and of course the massive transparent cigarette lighter that needed two hands! Its so evocative I can almost touch my past and step right into it, which is indeed a storyline in another portmanteau!

I won't spoil it, although I imagine everyone reading MC will have seen Tales from the Crypt. Needless to say, as in the original EC comics, cardinal sinners, especially the greedy ones, are punished ruthlessly and their just desserts dished out with a very large hammer indeed ... or a spade ... or a sword!

I will say that watching And All Through the House was the start of this year's Christmas for me last night, such is its nostalgic power every year.

I  couldn't locate Crypt's Amicus stablemate Vault of Horror immediately but eventually found it for free on You Tube, but therein lies another tale ..., five!

Do you like Tales from the Crypt? What's your favourite segment? Do you have any EC comics?

Christmas Decs

Christmas back in the day was dripping with decorations in my parents' house.

For my Mum, more meant more and she loved to have more decs than anyone else. This extended to the biggest tree on the street too! 

Basic table decorations were often strange things I'd made at primary school, mostly with used toilet rolls! They included smarty filled snowmen covered in cotton will and paper lanterns that had slits all the way round, which allowed them to be pushed down and out. So many toilet rolls on the dining table! 

These were joined around the house with a thousand festive nic-nacs, which I imagine all came from my Dad's cash 'n' carry warehouse, where he was the gaffer.

I so remember small white Greek urns with a snowman sat in them, nestling in holly. All plastic fantastic.

Similarly plastic were fake red candles in gold holders and Santas of every size and shape.

Paper garlands were strung across every ceiling along with tinsel arcing on each wall and around picture frames. I remember the garlands had rectangular paper lanterns every few inches.

Being Catholic we had a crib. It was in the hall next to the phone on a piece of furniture called the monks bench. It was a lovely crib with ceramic figures and animals housed in a sort of crinkly paper manger. I think baby Jesus liked our crib. I enjoyed peering at it as a nipper.

All this stuff, was though, a mere pre-amble to the main event, a Yuletide starter to Mum's big enchilada: our Christmas tree in the front bay window for all to see and enjoy, both inside and out on the wintry street.

First of all, it had to be real. I've no idea where it came from. Probably the North Pole via Preston Docks, it had to smell of Lappland and reindeer 

Next up, it had to be huge, bigger than anyone's else's and certainly bigger than Ormerods up the road. When I say huge I mean from floor to ceiling. Clamped in its big water-filled base, the fairy at the top had to lower her little head to fit! 

Finally, it had to be filled from top to bottom with seasonal stuff (we'd probably call it tat nowadays!): baubles, crackers, tinsel and in-between branches, balloons, lots of them. This fir tree would have levitated if it wasn't for the base. The whole shabang was encircled with two strings of fairy lights plugged into a lamp, which in turn was plugged into the socket. I've no idea why the lights just didn't have normal plugs!

And that was that. The decs were up, the tree was in and a good supply of sherry was handy for when Mum's friends bobbed round or the local priest, Father Smith, who always enjoyed a Christmas tipple or two.

Did you have decorations at Xmas readers?

SLANG FROM LANCASHIRE IN THE NINETEEN SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES

Here are a few slang words and activities I've dragged up from the chlorinated deep end of my Youth in the Sixties and Seventies. You'll know many more and have your own from your country. These are all from growing up in Lancashire, England. There are some that are too unsavoury to print but these are what's left!

Loo, Khazi, Bog, Throne room - toilet

Privvy - outside loo

Rag - newspaper

Cow Bite - a firm grip on the inner thigh, the then hard squeezing was agony! My brothers' favourite.

Snake Bite - two hands gripping the forearm and a counter twist created excruciating pain! The other older Brother's favourite!

Rib Drill - whilst being pinned down on your back, a single knuckle would be drilled into the middle of the breastbone. A killer! Both older brothers' specialty. 

Hickey, Love Bite - extreme mouth suction on one side of the neck creating nasty-looking bruised circles. A token of love that was everywhere in my school! Yuk!

Greeny, Grolly - a large blob of  verdant phlegm plastered on the ground

Bogey - nostril waste - as in Pickit, Lickit, Rollit, Flickit!

Crusty - hardened nostril waste

AA, Business, Biz, Numbers, Kack, Sh*t, Sh*te, - a poo, poo

Meat and Two Veg, Short and Curlies, Goolies, Gonads - the male testicles, to be protected at all costs during a skirmish with bad 'uns!

Shreddies, Underkecks, Grundies, Y-Fronts - underpants, usually white.

Skidmark - an unsavoury streak in the middle of your usually white shreddies

Tidemark - an unsavoury line on the neck denoting a lack of washing either above or below it.

Kick the Can - a game in which cans or footballs where kicked and collected whilst everyone else ran off never to be seen again.

Right on - righteous, as in Right On Man! That's groovy!

far Out - astonishing, as in That Tank Top is far out Mate!

Mate, Flower , Darlin, Love, Chuck - terms of introduction and endearment [ In Yorkshire: Cocker]

Pencil pusher - office worker

Lazy B*stard - a fellow prone to slacking

Idle Swine - a Lazy B*stard

Tosspot, W*nker, A*sehole, A*separt, Tw*t, See You Next Tuesday - a bad 'un or very nasty person

Cretin, Idiot, R*tard, Spaz, Sh*t for Brains, Twerp, Berk, numpty, Dope - all suggesting a lack of grey matter

Docile, Dopey - not one for fast movements.

Scalliwag - skeleton

Twit - a scatterbrained fellow

Talent, Crackling - the opposite sex, usually at the school disco.

Honey, Honey Pie, Sugar Pie, Tata Pie, Kidney Bean - what my older Sisters called me

Squirt, Little Squirt, Worm, Annoying Little Turd, Sp*nkbubble - what my older Brothers called me

Wiz, Waz, Pee, P*ss, Slash - to urinate, usually at the back of an old building in the Seventies

Spuggy, Bubbly, Chuddy - chewing gum, Anglo Bubbly being the go-to chew for kids my age

Clobber - clothes

Kecks - trousers

Herbert - an annoying person, as in He's a right Herbert

Belm, Thomas - a lie

Prannock, Pillock - a very annoying person

Bovver, Aggro - hostile goings-on

Cake Hole, Mush, Gob - the mouth

Soft, Mighty - a good thing

Split, Skidaddle - as in, to leave the school disco quickly because you've danced with someone else's bird!

Kaboodle, Tackle - stuff

Fettle - to sort something out

Second Shelf - hidden away, as in Up my A*se, Second Shelf

Pushiron - bicycle

Pad, Joint - a place, as in You're Wrecking the Joint.

Fleapit - old cinema

Flicks - cinema of any sort

Flick - a film

Wrinklies, Giffers, Oldies, Geriatrics - old folks, like me now!

TV, telly, box, Tellybox - the television

Wireless - the radio

Nosh, Scran, Tuck, 'Owt Yummy - food of any kind, preferably steak pudding and chips.

Dosh, Spondoolis - cash for things like Led Zep's latest LP

Schrapnel - small change for things like vending machines and bus fare's up town

Dweeb, Dork, Nerd, Geek - all words that came much much later from American TV.

Poser - someone showing off, usually with some very nice 'clobber' and a decent hairstyle

Bird - girlfriend

Get Stuffed, Get Lost, Get Stretched - as in No Way, You're kidding!

Pitch n Toss - chucking coins or cards against a wall to see who could get closest to it

Garden Hopping - sneaking through neighbours' gardens at night

Skool, Skoo - yep, school. the best days of your life and all that.

Deck - record player

Tunes, Sounds - music

Sound - good, as in He's Sound as a Pound that Jimmy Page.

Chavvers - young lad

Kushti - as in its all good

Toerag - a rotten person

Tw*t him - as in give him a good whalloping

A Good Hiding, A good Pasting - being beaten up, being tw*tted.

Clip round the Ear - a swift smack on the lughole usually by Mum or Dad, but basically anyone in the Seventies, as all adults seemed to smack us poor kids!

Lughole - ear

The Strap - corporal punishment in School consisting of a length of rubber brought down fast on the open palm .... at least it wasn't the cane or birch at our school, maybe because it was Catholic!

Redneck - catholic

Proddydog - protestant

Gaffer - boss

Elbow Grease, Hard Graft - all forms of toil and irksome work

Kip - sleep

Forty Winks - a short nap ....

Good idea, I shall have forty winks myself right now!

Which of these and other words do you recall readers?

DUNKIN MY MEMORY IN KUNG FU

 I've been basking in nostalgia looking at Dunkin martial arts gum cards  this morning.

I had a small collection as a teenager back in the mid-Seventies.

I so remember the orange packet with the two kickers in front of the Torii gate.

I'm hoping I still have a couple of these cards in my Kung Fu box.

Seeing Bruce Tegner's books took me right back too.

Bruce was an early American pioneer of paperback pugilism. He covered virtually all the martial arts back then between those soft covers and always opted for a distinctive single colour cover like this red Complete Book of Karate.

and the fabulous Aikido Holds and Locks, which I devoured back in the day.

Probably most nostalgic of all for me was seeing these Kung Fu slippers again. Available aplenty still on Amazon no less, I wore mine out as a youngster! 

After seeing Enter The Dragon in the early Seventies aged 13 [yes, an X certificate film!] I had them on all the time in the house and garden and the Wing Chun class I'd joined. So comfy back then, I doubt I could wear them now. I have an excruciating corn, which I have to pamper with padding. I really must deal with it! Hi Ya!

Anyways, happy days back then Kung Fu fighting!

Were you part of the craze readers?

The Garden of the Terracotta Roof Tiles

 Currently plagued by a trapped sciatic nerve I'm basically seat-bound assisting Junior in his garden pursuits as a budding Indiana Jones.

The dig site garnered a whole tray of finds, mostly terracotta, some fossils (he smelt a rat there!) and a 1936 George V One Penny ( he should have smelt a rat there!).

Junior was most excited about four big pieces of old roof tile he dug up. They were really in situ.

With some help from the Seated One he glued them back together. It says Rowley on it quite clearly.

Using a mix of brick dust and PVA Junior filled in the biggest cracks and set it to dry.

No longer a good roof tile, it'll make a fine display item for Junior somewhere out of the rain in the garden. 

Have you ever dug up anything?

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

It had a Deep Impact on Me

 Me and the missus watched Deep Impact last night. After trying a couple of Harlan Coben crime series' intros, which the Missus didn't like, I opted for pure nostalgia.

I have to say I love Deep Impact. There's no point denying it. That Wolf- Biedermann comet takes me right back to the 1990's. We were in our thirties, the prime of our lives, a young family and our daughter, just a kid, lived at home with us.

Yep, Deep Impact is memory lane, wending it's way back to that nostalgic sunlit valley where our youth lingers.

Those rose-tinted glasses are powerful things. Seductive, alluring and the films we saw back then are windows into that distant land.

Deep Impact has a surprisingly low score on Rotten Tomatoes. 38% I think. I would have have scored much higher but then again nostalgia would drive my vote.

The central character, a TV reporter played by Tia Leoni, is the perfect neutral foul for the apocalyptic action around her. I read that Hollywood insiders think she never lived up to her potential as an actress. I saw her in a Jurassic Park film I'm sure. It's true, she sort of disappeared. A shame. Like everyone in Deep Impact, she's getting on in years now.

Robert Duvall, one of the films elders, is 93 these days! All that olive oil and good vino in three Godfather films paid off! His character in Impact, Spurgeon Tanner, the aging astronaut, is played in characteristically reserved Duvall fashion, which I really like. His clean-cut old-timer says one of its best short lines when sees the comet close-up for the first time,

'Mary Mother of God!'

Or something similar. 

Captain Tanner goes on to lead his young crew into the film's heroic heart with an act of selfless bravery as they head into the comet and oblivion. Humanity is saved by altruism. Has that idea had it's day in Hollywood?

My favourite line in Deep Impact, from an albeit short  role, comes from Dr. Wolf at the start of the movie. He's just received Leo Biedermann's astronomy query and is reading through it whilst eating a particularly floppy slice of pizza at the observatory. Punching in the coordinates, he pizza- mutters,

'Well, hi there little fella, where are you going in such a hurry?'

A moment later, staring at the screen, Dr.Wolf drops his food and the rest, as they say, is a disaster film.

But boy I still so want a slice of that pizza! 

Do you have a movie you just love readers?

THE REAL CORGI ROCKET!

I saw this sleek blue vintage Jensen Interceptor on Ebay recently and I think I died and went to Heaven!

Being my favourite car, ever since I held the gloriously sleek miniature Corgi Rockets version as a kid, I very nearly pressed Buy It Now, but at over £35K I would have had to sell our house!

I'll just change my name I think. To Jensen. Jensen Interceptor!

What's your favourite car readers? Do you own one?

The Cottingley Fairies

Today we drove through Cottingley near Bradford. I instantly recognized the name from reading about it as a kid in my massive Readers Digest book of myths and legends of Britain, which I adored and still have. Do you, did you have it too?

Cottingley was famous for fairies. Photographs of them. Five.

They were taken over a hundred years ago by two youngsters and became world-wide sensations. You might say they went viral.

Only 70 years later did the youngsters admit they were fake. However, the fifth one, continued to be deemed genuine.

See what you think. Here's an original set that sold at Sotherby's. The fifth photo is the last [images: Sotherby's].

I couldn't believe we were in Cottingley 50 years after I first read about it's fairies. Such a small world of time and place.

WHERE TO EAT ON MEMORY LANE

Nostalgia is a funny thing. Memory Lane. And that lane is full of old eateries from yesteryear. Like Berni Inns and Beefeater.

These were the kinds of restaurant chains our parents went to. For some reason they always make me think of thick chips, steak and peppercorn sauce, although I have no recollection of eating there ever. Warm log fires, large glasses of rum and woollen cardigans is another image I have of them.

Oddly enough I think Beefeater is still going. Its linked to the Premier Inn chain of hotels. Brewer's Fayre too. Maybe I have eaten at Beefeater after all!

Other eateries of yore include Happy Eater, that motorway chain with fab pancakes; Pizzaland, where I had my first slice of pizza ... with coleslaw!; Spud-U-Like - this may still be baking somewhere; National Milk Bars - I went to one for a milkshake in Barnard Castle about 20 years ago.

Can you think of any more long gone food joints?

DID YOU LEAVE YOUR ACTION MAN IN THE BATHROOM?

 At my Grandkids' house their bath toys are piled up in a plastic box in the corner of the bath.

I've been trying to remember if mine were too back in the 1960's. It's all terribly fuzzy. 

I know I played with Action Man in the bath; the Deep Sea Diver and the frogman were favourites and I have a feeling that the plastic boats, dinghies and shark ended up in the tub too. I adored the Explorer boat with the outboard motor!

But whether they then sat around on the edge of the bath drying out waiting for the next soak is unlikely. Equally I can't imagine I chucked them all wet and soapy in a plastic box next to the bath. I adored my Action Man. It can't be good for them all that scum!

The clincher though has to be how busy our bathroom was. My parents had a big family; two of them and five kids, me being the youngest and the least likely to be in the bathroom! At some point in the Sixties we also had 2 or 3 lodgers as well, who all worked for the national Telephone company [GTO I think]. Even though they had their own sink in a shared bedroom they must have had a bath now and then.

Certainly no-one showered. Not in our house. There was a rubber attachment for the bath taps, which was a sort of shower head for rinsing hair. I remember it reeked of rubber! No, bathing was the order of the day.

So, with all this evidence, I don't think I will have left my Action Men in the bathroom hung out to dry. Maybe a few rubber ducks and a Matey bottle but not Palitoy's Fighting Man! Never!

Did you readers?

ZOOM CLUB

 

I love this old American TV commercial from 1983 on YT.

Pure Hot Wheels pleasure on a smooth floor with your mates including smashing cars and book ramps too! Just like I did as a kid with mates nearly twenty years earlier!

A great ad capturing the simple joy of childhood play I think. You?

And all Through the House

As Advent wends its incensed way towards the Big Day I've clocked another of my fave Chrimbo films, Tales from the Crypt from 1972.

Inspired by the 1950's EC comics, the movie was made by Amicus the anthology kings at Shepperton [a place I've only just realised I lived not too far from in the 80's when a mature student in Farnborough!], Crypt is a classic of the portmanteau format and like its stablemate Vault of Horror follows a group of five strangers brought together in eerie circumstances all with salutary tales of greed and the punishment thereof.

My favourite section without doubt is the first, And all Through The House. Starring Joan Collins and horror wunderkind Chloe Franks, it tells a story of foul deeds on Christmas Eve when a homicidal maniac is on the loose in 'Burley'.

Despite the horror, this segment says Christmas to me like nothing else. The contemporary set Amicus created might as well have been my parents' house in the late Sixties; the garish wall hangings, the mini-bar, the thick-cut glasses, the huge table lighter, the big radio in the middle of the room, the sparkling tree and the paper Fez hats. Its like a time capsule of my past with other people in the starring role! Simply fabulous film-making and a special treat every December when I watch it.

Here are a few shots of our own tree at Moonbase and the tree in the segment [I couldn't resist], the unfortunate husband placing a tag on a special Christmas gift for his beloved Wife, which he reads aloud before sitting down to browse the last newspaper he'll ever read, the Burley Observer!

And all through the house ..... is Tales from the Crypt a film you like readers?

TERRANOVA47'S OLD TINS OF BADGES AND PINS

True to Murphey's Law, in searching for something specific, something else turns up instead.

I was looking for the remaining tobacciana items and found two tobacco tins, which on opening contained the remains of my childhood badge collection with updates to the early 70's.

So for readers enjoyment and possible recognition:

• An Air Lingus pin given to me when I was in a publicity shot for the airline
• BEA pin from the airlines' stand at an Earl's Court Schoolboy Exposition.
• TARDIS COMMANDER from an BBC Dr Who exhibit at London's Science Museum
• Badges from staying at Butlin's Holiday Camps.
• 007 from the first Bond movie, sadly suffering from being next to a rusty badge.
• Eric Winston was the orchestra conductor at a Butlin's Camp.
• Civil Liberty from a High School club
• The Blue badge was for my Primary School Marvell House. Which is strange as I was in Coleridge House which was red? The Houses were named after poets
• The Empire State Building is the kind of metal badge given out in the USA to show admission has been paid. This is from a trip to the USA in 1959.
• Tonibell Ice Cream was from one of their vans.
• League of Oveltinies is from the days when Oveltine sponsored Dan Dare stories on Radio Luxemburg.
• Castrol and Birds Eye from an Earl's Court Schoolboy Exposition.
• Robertson's Golliwog from senidng in labels on jars of jam
• Uncle Holly was from waiting inline for hours to see Santa at Selfridges Department Store in London. Uncle Holly was Santa's cheap understudy.
• Dr McCoy must have been in a Kellogg's cereal box
• Methodist movement's John Wesley was from visiting his home
• Matchbox Collector was in with a toy army truck
• Desert Commandos was from a brand of dates that had great French Foreign Legion promotions
• Esso Safety and Wall's Curb Drillers are from Police road safety demonstrations in school playgrounds.
• Potato Puffs, Noddy and Murray Mints are mail in promotions
• A Knight of the Banner is from Banner schoolboy shirts,
• The QEII medal was given to me by my Grandmother for the Coronation in 1953
• The Muffin Club was from the BBC children's programme, Muffin the Mule
• Dan Dare was with a Dan Dare licensed belt.

In with the badges were these four US packs of safety razors. Part of another of my eccentric collections.

No doubt the DUREX one will send shivers down any UK readers spine!

Stay well,

Terranova47

NYC

BIN TO THE STARS

I saw this auction item and thought what a great bin! I had a few bins as a kid, vintage cars mostly. I would have loved this space bin with its amazing graphics.

Anyone recognise the artwork?

Did you have a good bin when you were a kid?