WHICH WITCH IS WHICH?

There's a story behind the little witch keyring you see in the above photo.  Not a particularly interesting story to be honest, but one I feel compelled to tell.  The original keyring I first had was bought in Largs in 1971, and goodness knows how long I actually had it for.  Probably not very long.  In 1975, I saw a batch of the same keyrings in my local FINE FARE (remember that shop?) in two variations.  The first was the same as the one above, with a green shawl (or whatever it is), and the second had an orange shawl.  I bought the green one as it was the same as my original, but when the metal chain split through the rubber ring it was attached to, I bought an orange one as that was all that was left.  I'm giving you the Readers' Digest version here, because I may have individually bought a couple of each at different times (while stocks lasted), but the rubber to which the metal chain was attached kept breaking, so my reunion with this reminder from my past was short-lived.

Still awake?  I next encountered this keyring (in its original colour scheme) in Southsea in 1981, almost 10 years after its original predecessor.  That's the one in the photo, still in one piece almost 38 years later.  Back in the '70s, I'd assumed witchy was a DISNEY character, but now I think I was mistaken in that assumption.  I suppose my primary association with this keyring is Largs, but sometimes it depends on just where my memory lands while hopping through the labyrinthean corridors of my mind.  One time, it might be Largs, another, Fine Fare, and another, Southsea - the chamber spins and stops where it will.  Though if my immediate memory isn't Largs but one of the other places, it always makes its circuitous way back to Largs after visiting the other destinations;  a journey in reverse so to speak.

So here's a question for you all, in a shameless attempt to hoodwink you into believing I was leading up to it when I started typing, and didn't just think of it this very second.  (Otherwise, you might assume - rightly - that there was no real point to this post.)  Have you ever once owned an item which you either lost, gave away, or threw out and then replaced many years later, which, when you think back, you associate with where you obtained the replacement as much as where you acquired the original?  Or vice versa - or any possible variation you can wring out of the question.  Hey, gimme a break, willya?  They can't all be gems.

Posted in: Cartoons