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| Copyright REBELLION |
A staggering 33 years ago, in a shop in Edinburgh, I laid a claim on 73 issues of the relaunched version of SMASH!, 13 years after it had ceased being published as an individual weekly periodical. (It was merged into VALIANT, as all readers of a certain age know.) I took #1 home with me that night, and the rest were either posted to me, or I picked them up when the seller later came through to a Glasgow comics mart (or a bit of both).
There were 22 issues missing from the set I purchased, and it took me over 30 years to finally track them all down. To be fair to myself, though, it wasn't really until the latter few years of that period that I actually attempted to find them in any determined way, but eventually I did. I found the last one I needed only a year or two ago, completing the set.
Anyway, last year, I decided to finally read them, and worked through the first 12 issues before tucking them away again. A couple of weeks back, I dug them all out once more and continued from where I'd left off. I'm now up to #30, but I'll be giving them another rest for a while soon, as I don't want reading them to become a dreary chore rather than a pleasure.
But that's mere incidental detail I suppose. The thing that astounds me is that it took me so long to finally get around to reading them. Having said that, it sometimes feels like that day in Edinburgh was only a little while ago, as opposed to the 33 years it actually is. Time really has flown, and it seems as if I did a 'RIP VAN WINKLE' and fell into a deep sleep that lasted even longer than his 20 years.
So readers, that prompts a question. Do any of you ever look at some item in your possession that you remember buying with such clarity that it seems not too long ago, only to be amazed when it suddenly hits you that it was 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years ago? How does that realisation affect you, if at all? Go on, share all with your fellow Criv-ites.
4 comments:
Emanuelle Macron, the likely next president of France, was born in December 1977 which seems astonishing - the president of France wasn't even born when I was reading POTA, The Titans and Spider-Man Comics Weekly. The 1970's are now so distant that it sometimes amazes me that I was really there and makes me realize how old I am even though I don't feel old (in my mind I'm permanently about 25).
In the mirror 'though, CJ, you're temporarily about 50 - and getting older. Scary, eh? Thing is, sometimes the '70s seem like only last week to me.
Agreed! All,is fine and dandy until you look in the mirror. But it's what's inside that counts. I may look older on the outside but I am determined to stay young at heart, or at least young of mind. Yeah I know what you mean about the 70s seeming like only yesterday, until you stop and think about all the years that have passed since them - in a blur. But you only have to open a cherished item acquired back then to be returned in an instant.
When I was in my 20s, PC, it felt as though I'd been around forever. (In fact, that probably applies to any time in my life.) To think that there people in their 20s today who likely feel the same as I did, but who weren't even born when I was their age is quite scary in a way. Eh, what am I babbling about? Only that the seemingly fleeting nature of time continually amazes me. And like yourself, I'm forever travelling back in time when I read an old comic or look at an old toy.
(Originally posted 27 April 2017 at 01:56.)
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