Hello to all militaria junkies - 4 Aug 2008

My interest in Miltaria started when I was about 5 or 6 years old, way back in the mid-60's.

I recall cutting from the back of a cereal packet (Kelloggs Cornflakes or maybe Krispies??) some stand-up cards of Napoleonic cavalry men, there was about 6-7 different ones to collect as I recall, and I proudly had them on my windowsill for ages. I have since mentioned this to other friends and colleagues of the same interest but non can remember them, I surely never imagined them and out there somebody has proof !!

However moving on to my early teens i was an avid model maker, Airfix being the primary benefactor of my measly ten new pence a week pocket money. There were 1/12th? scale models of King Henry VIII, Napoleon, Cromwell, Julius Caesar, Black Prince, also aircraft of every description, my biggest single outlay was for the new 1/24th Harrier GR1 for the outrageous sum of £5.10. Add to that tanks, ships, dinosaurs, the Aurora collection of movie monsters, the Phantom of the Opera, the Forgotton Prisoner, The Mummy, Frankensteins Monster, and my favourite the Creature from the Black Lagoon, complete with glow in the dark webbed hands and feet...aahh the memories come flooding back....

This was of course just all boys toys, the closest i came to any real 'miltaria' was my dads paybook when he served in the Royal Tank Regt in the 1950's. Not very exciting I know, but aroundabout 1976 I was rumaging around the back yard of a recently deceased neighbour, known only as 'Sandy'. He was an old gentleman, a nice chap who always wore a red beret and had a little dog as a companion, however he must have passed away and his uneccessary worldy goods were just dumped in his backyard. There, just lying on the path was a silver cap badge, so i picked it up and took it home; the thing polished up well and i put it in my 'bits box' and forgot about it.

Years later i took it out and looked closely, a winged parachute stared back at me, after putting two and two together i realised this kindly old man must have been a trained killer who spent the war years fighting nazis and jumping out of airplanes. His red beret i never found, which now i regret, but moreover, i also wished i had more time as a kid to talk to the old guy and maybe listen to tales of derring-do and unknown heroes, alas maturity doesnt come until much later in life, if ever at all, and this old guys war tales went with him to the grave.


That was it really for about 20 years, college, marriage, kids, mortgages, career, divorce, all followed and really only in the last 6 or 7 years has the time and finances allowed me to rekindle my interests.