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Memory Items

This page is for my memories of childhood items.
They won’t mean a lot to anyone else… unless they had one or two of them as well.

This is Kingly Critter. My nan had him displayed in a budgie cage

Advert seen in numerous comic books during my early years. Actually sent away and got some. Shrimp lavae in brine.

My sister Dianne and I received one each from Nan Foster. Initially I had a Flintstone version but swapped it over to Secret Squirrel with Dianne later that night.

Cuisenaire blocks. I think they’ve been discountinued as a learning aid.

I remember my next door neighbour, Darrel Horton, and I got these 1970 Christmas and raced them along his verandah.

My first matchbox car. Came with an orange Mustang as part of a track set.

I was told this was staple entertainment for the family before I was born. You’d spin the brass spindle knob at the top and the horse images would rotate past the line.

This was another toy inherited from the family. I can never remember the projector actually working I just looked at the slide images.

This was my reader in Grade One (1970). Books Two, Three and Four were red, purple and green.

Tupperware. My family had parties, attended parties and kept a lot of it in the seventies. I especially remember these icy pole ones. Chewed most of the plastic stick bits.

My first action figurine. Action Jackson! Had an additional uniform for him. I think it was an astronaut.

Squatter. A sort of Australian Monopoly buying hay bales. Played it over the road at the Trevarthens.

Another inherited game. There was a scorecard of a match between Australia and England in the inside of the box cover. It may have been Brian’s. Test Match was a simple action game made up of cardboard discs positioned directly under a cricketfield presentation. One person would move the tab (rotating the cardboard disc) at the bowlers end and the other would move the batsman’s disc correspondingly to score. I think I actually played it into my late teens!

This ad was just about on all my comics. It was a New York company. I never sent an order for any.

I remember seeing this one a lot. Always intrigued me.

There’s a lot I could write about Planet of the Apes. This is my first POTA comic. It cost $1. That was a huge amount for a comic in 1973! It was issue 3. I stopped buying the monthlies after about 20 issues. I have a PDF of this copy.

Many times I put the plastic record on the turntable and followed the words in the booklet. Was it played at 33 1/3 rpm?

I had about 12 or so sets of three dics. UFO was my favourite as I loved the show. It was broadcast about 1971 or 72. Only once. And I drew images for the rest of my primary school years.

The Jolly Swagman was a promotion brought out by AMPOL service stations. I can seem to find much of it mentioned online. Very early 70s.

My comics collection. I could write a lot about each issue. I have started collecting them again – ones I can remember owning. Ones I can’t buy I track down PDF versions.

My Skippy plate and mug set. Heinz Baked Beans on toast and hot Milo wathcing Banana Splits on TV.

Spirograph. Spent far too much time doing these. Group them together to make images of dogs and other animals but really, just a jumble of circluar patterns.

I had heaps of toy soldiers. Nearly all these Airfix sets. French Foreign Legion (in dark blue plastic) was my favourite. Donated my big icecream container full to nephew Gary.

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