A 'Smash'-hit special delivery...
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| Smash Marty was a little dusty when this photo was taken back in 1989... |
If memory serves, the date was December 14th, 1978. The place was Southsea in Portsmouth, and I was down there for a few days to be Best Man at a then-friend's wedding, having taken time off work specially for the occasion. I was looking through the large window of an old-fashioned newsagent's - one of those that had a bit of charm and a hint of the '5os, instead of like today's soulless, sterile places. Of course, there could be a chance that I'm romanticizing the shop in memory's golden gleam, but even so, it wasn't too far removed from the ideal.
Two glorious-red tin pillar/post box banks caught my eye, and I knew I had to have them - for two reasons. The first was that sometime back around 1963, I'd been at Church (or Sunday School) with my mother one Sunday morning when the minister (or teacher) had suggested that the congregation buy toys for underprivileged children. In memory it seems like we went straight to Woolworth's right after the service, but Woolies wouldn't have been open on a Sunday back then, so it must've been the next day or the one after. There my mother invited me to choose two toys, so I picked a plastic post box bank and a plastic steamroller.
When we got back home I ran straight into the garden to play with them, but my mother took them away from me, saying that they were for underprivileged kids. Listen, no kid ever felt more underprivileged than me at that moment, being parted from two toys I wanted to play with. I'd probably forgotten by then what the silly minister (or teacher) had been wittering on about and thought the toys were for me. Anyway, the upshot of this was that, over the years, I gradually developed a mild-though-subconscious fixation on post box banks, but strangely, not so much one on steamrollers.
Sometime before my visit to Southsea I'd been discussing this with another pal, who likewise evinced the desire to own a pillar/post box bank, which brings me to my second reason for buying them - one was for him. When I returned home, I kept one for myself and gave him the other. I had mine for around twelve years when, unfortunately, it got damaged beyond repair and I reluctantly disposed of it. However, that strengthened my obsession with them and I've since bought quite a few different examples of post box banks over the years, to compensate for the loss of my one from Southsea. (If you don't all behave yourselves, I may even do a blog about them some day.)
I've been scouring eBay over the last few years looking for one the exact same - a Chad Valley one, seen in the above photo next to my Smash Martian, but to no avail. Until recently that is, when I saw a pair on offer for a ridiculously low starting price, along with a 'best offer' option. So I offered a modest amount which was accepted, and today two almost pristine replacements for my original arrived at Castel Crivens. Just think - it was in 1978 I bought my first pair, and 48 years later I bought another pair precisely the same.
In honour of the memorable event, I've posed them next to the same Smash Martian seen in the above pic (which, incidentally, was taken on November 5th 1989), and snapped a photo which you can see below. Over 30 years later, and I now have my Chad Valley bank back (well, two of them), and, curiously, I think that brings my collection of pillar/post box money banks to an end as my compulsion to collect them seems to have suddenly abated. But has it? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, does anyone know where I might find a toy steamroller?
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| ...but he's been cleaned up for 2021. Happy looking soul, ain't he? |
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| And here's an approximate re-creation of the 1989 photo, 31 years later |
Just a guess but you mind find a toy steamroller on e-bay.
ReplyDeleteWell, obviously I know that, CJ, and I actually first typed "Now I'm off to ebay to look for a steamroller!", but I like to make the blog interactive, so by asking a question I lured you into responding. Yes, I really am that clever.
ReplyDeleteAh, you're very cunning, Kid. I don't why I wrote mind instead of might on my comment.
ReplyDeleteI do. It's because you no type English very well, Gringo. (I knew what you meant anyway, 'cos I'm a brain-box.)
ReplyDeleteAs you probably remember my unintended collection of money boxes was featured on Moonbase Central last summer.
ReplyDeleteYours are interesting in that the Pillar Boxes actually say Money Boxes all others just have the open mail slot and replica look leaving it to the imagination that coins can be saved.
That's one I do remember, T47. I think these Chad Valley ones were specifically aimed at kids, hence the money box tag, whereas a lot of the other ones are aimed at all-ages, collectors included. The one I briefly got my hands on in 1963 wasn't mine (as explained in the post), so my 1978 Chad Valley bank was the very first post box I ever bought and owned - it's good to have finally replaced it.
ReplyDeleteOh boy I remember those PO Box banks! I just don’t remember how I got one . It’s strange what you remember. I remember the magic shop at Hamley’s was hidden under some stairs.
ReplyDeleteFortunately it’s been moved since .
The curious thing about these Chad Valley banks, PS, is that, short of sticking a knife into the slot and wiggling it about, there's no way to get the money out once you put it in - short of using a tin-opener perhaps. There's just no means of entry by way of a rubber stopper or whatever. Understandably I won't actually be using them as money banks. Was in Hamley's in London once, but there's one in Glasgow now, which has been there for a few years.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall we had a similar type bank as kids but it had two slots (letters and parcels or first and second class) for coins. I do recall having a blue globe of the world savings bank from the 60s I think Bank of Scotland gave them away or some local Glasgow etc savings bank of the time that's no longer here.
ReplyDeleteThey come in all shapes and sizes, McS, which I suppose makes collecting them more interesting. I've got that blue globe one you speak of, though mine says The Royal Bank Of Scotland on it. However, I daresay various banks probably used it at different times.
ReplyDeleteAround 1981, a relative gave me two bottles of bubble bath for Christmas. One was shaped like an old-style red phone box, but the other was the one I really liked- it was shaped like a blue police box! I think the phone box one was thrown out when the bubble bath was used up, but I kept the police box one for good few years afterwards - seem to remember an episode of Doctor Who where he dropped the Tardis into a river, which I gleefully re-enacted with my empty bubble bath bottle.
ReplyDeleteNo connection with your original post, Kid, other than being about children's knickknacks shaped like street furniture!
I think there was an actual TARDIS bubble bath available around about then, DS, so (if I'm right), that may well have been the one you had. And I'd say your comment WAS connected to my post as, presumably, it was my post that inspired it. Besides, I ain't too fussy about being 'on topic' - a comment is a comment and shows that someone is reading.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure mine wasn't the official TARDIS bubble bath as it came in a set with the phone box, but I still treated it like it was a genuine TARDIS.
ReplyDeleteI'm not 100% sure, but I think I may have been given the notorious Doctor Who Easter Egg, the one that has a suggestive picture of Peter Davison on the box (anyone who hasn't seen it can google Suchard Doctor Who Easter Egg)
What was it suggestive of, DS - that he could act? I suppose I'd better take a look at it - I could do with a laugh.
ReplyDeleteWhen the front of the box was opened, it revealed PD standing grinning, with a blast of energy emerging from his crotch.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually now wondering if I only saw the egg in a shop rather than owning it, as I have absolutely no memory of the freebies that are pictured with it in the pics I saw online earlier.
Thanks for that, DS, that'll save me looking for/at it. I'd rather not see Peter Davidson (or any bloke) pointing his crotch at me, as I'm about to have my tea shortly.
ReplyDelete