homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,
Welcome Gentle Men:

It is always grand to see prodigals return to the fold if only "for a chunk o' fire" as the older folks used to say way back in the smokey post war days of coal burning stoves and fireplaces. That dates me Dux. Incidentally, I've read that the much used literary device of London's fog (by Conan Doyle and the like) was not really fog at all but coal dust suspended in the air. I don't go back quite THAT far of course. My grandparents were born in Victorian times.

No, Dagwood's wife was Blondie I believe, Daisy was the name of their dog. Remember the famous "Dagwood sandwich" which always seemed to have a fish head dangling out of the stack? I remember those Katzenjammer kids too but only vaguely as they were replaced by some other comic (perhaps "Beetle Bailey") in my childhood "funny paper".

Times must have been grim indeed back in those post war days for British kids. Everyone had thought the end of the war would bring immediate prosperity to all except the despised vanquished. We may have been unaware of it at the time but we American kids had it made compared to you lot in so many ways.

As a kid I used to collect comics and trade them with friends. At one point I had so many under my bed I had to put them in several large cardboard boxes. It was not uncommon to come away from a trading session with 30 or more "new" comic books for my personal reading pleasure. For years, even into adulthood I kept a choice stack of those comics in the attic. Alas they were eventually lost. Some no doubt would have brought substantial sums had I sold them. Pity.

I recall there were always ads on the back of most comic books targeting the specific audience of boy or girl depending on the specific appeal of comics of the day (except Disney comics). I remember there was a big cannon being flogged and all the Red Ryder-Daisy BB guns and ammo were often advertised. Schwinn bicycles were another coveted item featured in comic book ads. I got a Daisy one Christmas but I never got one of those Schwinn bikes. The ads and artwork interested me but I had no idea then that I would one day be employed in the advertising profession.

Comic books back then were far thicker than the anemic but powerfully illustrated versions that passes for comics today. I well remember those larger comic books that came out on a fairly regular basis. They were much sought after even though the usual tariff was painful to our pocketbooks. Most went for 25 cents each as I recall. My own monthly alowence came to about $20 so I could afford comic books most of the time. I had a few bills to pay. For instance I had a small account at the local bank where I payed a set amount each month for my Boy Scout's uniform. How proud I was when I walked (or probably ran) downtown to the bank and made that final payment, then wore my uniform for the first time. It was easier to please kids then.