Slides. Not the playground structures we slid down as children (and occasionally as an adult if no one was looking or if you have had one or two too many tipples and just happened to be passing by the playground at two o'clock in the morning...no that wasn't me...honestly...), but those little square cardboard frames that went into a projector to display your family photographs on the living room wall. I inherited my dad's slides and there were hundreds upon hundreds of them. Some years ago I scanned them to make them more accessible, then stored them on a mobile drive and forgot all about them...until yesterday.
I needed to find a reference to when we moved into what became the family home. Knowing that we moved to New Zealand in September 1963, and knowing that we spent some time in a rental, I started looking in the folder marked "1964". There, amongst a bunch of shots of the family stiffly posing in the garden of our new home, was this image:
Taken by my dad on the concrete path in the back yard, these are my first model soldiers. The madness started there...
That's a pretty cool find and taken a few months before I was born! Sadly my Dad chucked out most of our old family photos, as I was after one taken probably around 1966-67 of my brother and I at Xmas, with a box of Airfix Arabs (?) in my hand. My madness started there it would seem.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with Airfix was somewhat later...probably 1972?
DeleteExcellent!
ReplyDeleteAlways fun delving into the past...
DeleteI remember having that grey sentry box, Mark! Can't say for sure if I had the same figures, but I do recall having "kilties" (Highlanders) in a band.
ReplyDeleteI had quite a few of these chaps in the end and lots of their ACW companions.
DeleteNice story Mark and good to find that slide. What' not to like with those miniatures, lovely!
ReplyDeleteAgreed
DeleteNice to return to the place where it all started.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it is frightening...especially when you see how young everyone was!
DeleteAre they Britain's figures Mark? That is a lovely image and looks almost real at first glance.
ReplyDeleteBritains they are...I had some of the original lead figures, but the bulk were plastic.
DeleteSplendid…
ReplyDeleteBritains Eyes Right range …
On my pocket money I could buy one a week…🙀
Lone Star ( I think) or Herald Cowboys were a lot cheaper… So two a week and sweets…
Your Highlanders were Herald… I think Britains bought them out.
One of the more well off kids at school had loads of them and all his older brothers hollow cast lead figures… Jealous ?….. Me?… Damn straight 🤣
All the best. Aly
They were all very hard to come by here in the '60s. Only a couple of the upmarket department stores carried them and they carried a hefty price, but lucky for me my aunt in the UK was very generous and sent over 'relief' parcels every birthday and Christmas. I had Guards, the Guards colour party and Guards band. I also recall I had the Royal Marines band, some ACW (including the cannon) and indian sets...but it was a long time ago now and the details are very hazy. I do recall at least two of the hollow lead figures...one whom had lost his head.
DeleteNice story, lovely figures!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain.
Delete