I guess it must have been 1966 or '67 and getting very near to Christmas. At one time, looking back ages later, I thought it was 1968, because I associated the time and the toy with a comic and a cafeteria, but I'm sure I had it for longer than the latter date would allow, so I could be combining two separate but similar occasions in my memory. What the heck am I gibbering on about? Santa and his Space Blimp, pictured above, which my mother bought for me from WOOLWORTH'S one dark evening in the '60s. The way I remembered it for years (years after the event it has to be said) is that I had a copy of SMASH! with me at the time, and then we retired to The NORFOLK Restaurant - which was a restaurant in name only as it was actually a cafeteria. In one hand, I had my new Santa toy, and on the table lay my copy of Smash!, in which The SPECTRE (not the DC COMICS version) dodged bullets in a shooting gallery.
Well, as I said, that's the way I used to remember it, but thinking back, '68 seems too late - I'm sure I had the toy before that. And, without checking, I'm not sure whether that particular instalment of The Spectre was published in a December issue. So, again, as I said, perhaps two separate events that have rolled together into one over the passing of the years - an impression more than a memory in fact. Not that it's important to anyone but myself. What is important is that I loved that Santa toy, and owned Santa and the reindeer head up until 1972 or '73 (the 'blimp' itself met a premature end), before I cruelly dispensed with them (and other childhood possessions) in an attempt to be more 'grown up'. I was a fool and have regretted it ever since. In fact, it's probably that event that laid the seeds for me being receptive to the idea of tracking down the things of my youth, of fanning the collecting spark into a flame when the opportunity presented itself a decade later.
I want this toy more than I want to marry SALMA HAYEK (when she's divorced from her present husband of course). In this toy lies a portion of my childhood that I want back, and that's more important than an awesomely alluring sex goddess any day of the week (except Fridays). Do you own this toy or know where I can get it? If so, let me know at once and filthy lucre could be yours for the asking. Don't let me down.
(
Update: Now got
one two.)
