ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN YESTERYEAR...

Once upon a time, in a faraway country called The Past,

there was a shop named MODATOYS.  I don't think that was

 its sole name during its entire lifespan, as a nagging voice assails

me that it was also christened TOYTOWN at one stage and per-

haps even something else at another.  However, I remember

it as Modatoys, so that's how I'll refer to it today.

The shop opened in the early '70s (if not earlier) and was

around until the late '80s (if not later), and I still have quite a

few items that I bought from the place over the years.  A pair of

mini-binoculars (with a compass and a mirror), The WIND In

The WILLOWS (a hardback and a paperback), TOAD Of

TOAD HALL, MOONFLEET, THREE LITTLE GREY

MEN (and its sequel, THREE LITTLE GREY MEN

GO DOWN The BRIGHT STREAM).

I also have a TWIKKI figure from BUCK ROGERS, a

couple of red paintbrushes, two chess sets and boards (dif-

ferent sizes), and perhaps one or two other things.  Oh, and the

paperback book you can see at the top of this post - ALICE'S

ADVENTURES In WONDERLAND.  I bought it on a mag-

nificently hot summer's afternoon in 1973 or '74 (so I'd still

have been a schoolboy), and one glance takes me back

to that time quicker than Dr. WHO's TARDIS.

When I leaf through its pages, the shop still exists, my

demolished schools yet stand in their prime, and the 'new

town' in which I live is exactly as it was back then - smaller,

brighter, cleaner, newer.  Everything is as it was, even if only

for a few fleeting moments, but oh, what welcome moments

they are.  I wish I could show you the interior colour photo-

graphs in the book, but I can't open it wide enough to

scan without damaging, and that would never do.

Readers, do you have a book or item that serves the

purpose of a time machine and takes you right back to an

earlier era from which you're loath to depart?  Why not tell

your fellow Criv-ites about it in the comments section?  Go

on - it's good to share.  So here's to The Past - it's the

only thing that some of us have to look forward to!

Posted in: Cartoons