DR. BEAR? YOGI WHO? CHILDHOOD REVISITED...

One day, back in 1965 or '66, while out shopping with

my family in SAFEWAY's, I saw a Dr. WHO TARDIS money

box on display at the front end of one of the checkout counters.  It

was inexpensive so my parents purchased it for me, and on the way

home we stopped in at a cafe in the shopping precinct halfway

between the town centre shops and our house.

In memory, the cafe seems like something out of HAPPY

DAYS.  It had a checkerboard floor and a Juke Box in the cor-

ner, and was a typical 1960s example of pseudo-American culture

that such British establishments usually modelled themselves on at

the time.  It's now been a chemist's shop for decades, but I can't

pass it today without remembering it in its '60s heyday.

The money bank was of a soft plastic, and a good while

later, I slit along the outlines of the door, so that I could place

my MARX TOYS YOGI BEAR (sans scooter) inside its interiors.

(Remember, I was a mere 7 years old at the time.)  Then, in my im-

agination, the bold Yogi would traverse the vast distances of time

and space in his borrowed time machine, landing on barren,

alien terrains in faraway universes.

If you're like me, you probably sometimes played with

your toys in bed, and the side of one's drawn-up knees under

the bedspread provided a perfect mountain ridge from which the

'hero' had a vantage point over any and all enemies who might assail

him.  And so it was with Yogi, who'd emerge from his Tardis (with

my assistance of course) and scan the horizon for DALEKS -

or the insidious RANGER SMITH.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, I managed to find a re-

placement for my Yogi, but I've not yet managed to obtain an

exact replacement for that particular Tardis bank.  However, a

few years before WOOLWORTH's closed its doors for the final

time, I bought a modern-day equivalent Tardis money box, which

has served as a stand-in in the absence of its illustrious predeces-

sor.  (True, it's a darker blue and a harder plastic, but it's

still an official Tardis bank, which'll do for me.)

Anyway, in a completely self-indulgent (and pointless)

exercise in boyhood nostalgia, I decided to reunite 'Dr. Yogi'

and his Tardis for your pictorial pleasure ('though this time he's

brought his scooter along).  See the lengths to which I go in order

to provide you with the finest examples of absurdity available on

any blog?  You don't see delightful nonsense like this else-

where!  (Whaddya mean "Thank goodness!"?)

An example of the original '60s bank

Posted in: Cartoons