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Showing posts from May, 2010

Shiver me Timbers

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Well the bank holiday is almost upon us and it will also be half term around the country. I expect Looe to be very busy and if the weather is anything like the last few days then there will probably be standing room only on the beach. I had a look to see what events are happening in and around Looe and notice that there is a Pirate and Buccaneer Event on May 29th, 30th and 31st at Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, which is only about 20 minutes away by car from Looe. It promises to be a weekend of swashbuckling adventure. Now L ooe and Polperro have a long history of pirates and smuggling throughout the ages. When I was growing up here I remember hearing the stories of how smugglers had dug tunnels by hand beneath the bay from the seafront out to Looe Island. There they would land their bounty probably at night, and then would carry it ashore through the tunnels to evade capture by the Revenue men who would be waiting on the shore. As children, my friends and I would be play pirates and go

Collectible Tin Toys

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I had an interesting conversation with a customer last week in recalling the toys we had when we were children, which was many years ago! I often have people in the shop, usually grandparents, picking up toys and remembering them from their childhood days long ago, and we got talking about the replica wind up tin toys that we sell. Now I am going back to the late 1950's and early 1960's when I was just a young boy and and at that time there were no rules about buying tin toys that I can remember unlike today where we have stricter regulations. They are now more for adult collectors and we cannot sell them to children under 14 as they do not comply with toy safety legislation. Now the one he fondly remembered best of all was Robbie the Robot or Planet Robot as its sometimes called. I do remember my brother having one, which I wasn't allowed near, but then in those days toys were far more expensive and we had few to play with, and for that reason were more cherished. It is pr

Shopkeepers Nightmare

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Well this has to be one of every shopkeepers nightmare in having a window smash and the clear up afterwards. It happened on the Saturday afternoon before the bank holiday weekend. I was standing outside the shop on the pavement talking to a customer about the toy display and there was a tremendous bang as the window literally shattered in front of us. First reaction was disbelief of what I just saw happen and then shopkeepers in the street appearing expecting to see a car accident. Incredibly at that moment there was no one else around and so thankfully no one was injured. If you have ever dropped a glass bowl or vase on the floor then you will know how much glass there seems to be, well this was a ten foot by six foot pane and due to the age of the building, approx 1973 the glass wasn't toughened so it had shattered everywhere. The first job was clearing the road of glass and then the pavement. Have you ever tried to find a company to board up a window late on a Saturday after