Buried Treasure Part 1

We are currently in the throes of decorating and general decluttering ahead of a house move - I'm not too keen on the decluttering side of things as it usually means I have to decide whether to keep, throw out or charity shop something which ordinarily I would like to keep for a rainy day.

I have treasure scattered everywhere. Sheds, garages, lofts, in the boot of my car, bags under sofas........I'm sure you get the picture. More often than not I do forget what I have and this was the case when the magnificent haul you see here was recently re-discovered in a box in my parents loft.

Everything you see in the pictures (bar the rod stoppers) belonged to my grandfather. After he died, my father presented me with a carrier bag which contained this and much more. The joy of finding long forgotten treasure like this is certainly something that gives me the utmost pleasure.

The leather wallet is a coarse fisherman's compartment wallet by A. Carter & Co. Ltd of Roseberry Avenue, St Johns St Road, London EC - in perfect condition it contains many packets of hook to nylon including the delightful Bombyx hooks to gut, Milwards Cormorant, Express using finest drawn Spanish silkworm and the ever reliable Allcocks Model Perfect!

I was particularly pleased to reacquaint myself with the lovely bait tin which I shall use for worms. I have many of the bigger diameter tins for maggots and find them more pleasing on the eye than a plastic tub. You will also see a split shot tin, pike trace, various implements for removing hooks and attaching bait, two porcupine quill floats and little packets containing hooks and float rubbers.

The rod stoppers are my own and these were also tucked away and long forgotten. They will soon be reunited with their rods. The brass stoppers are from a B.James whole cane Avocet and the aluminium stoppers are from my Allcocks Lucky Strike.

Buried treasure indeed!  

    

  

gadda da vida, white rabbit!

I only found this little gem (above) a few days ago - there is so much coming out now by the magnificent 13th Floor Elevators it's getting hard to keep up. Box sets galore and mostly out of my price range but the lovely Albums Collection (1966-69 Charly Records) was more suited to my often light pocket. Digitally remastered albums: The Psychedelic Sounds Of..., Easter Everywhere, Live and Bull Of The Woods - it's hardly been off the CD player of late. All housed in a super box with splendid booklet it is amazing value at £12.99!

It brings back memories of when I started to get into this stuff back in about 1983. Actually, that's not entirely true as I didn't really see the genius of Roky Erickson and the band until some years later. It was certainly an article in the NME (December 1983) "Tales From The Drug Attic" by Julian Cope extolling the virtues of pyschedelia that really got me hooked. I was an Electric Prunes fan at the time - Copey was quite scathing of them in his article.

15 years old, at school, impressionable and a huge Teardrop Explodes fan anything that Copey was into was something certainly for me to investigate too. I still have the original article from the NME (link above) and the road I travelled after reading it is one I am still on today. My school pal Terry, who was a huge Bowie fan, understood a little I think but I certainly remember a new boy joining our clique - he asked me in a maths lesson who my favourite bands were - I replied "I'm really into Psych" - I laugh looking back, but not long after this Bam Caruso Records started up and they brought out some amazing releases. They must have been good as they also brought out the soundtrack to my favourite TV show at the time, The Prisoner, which was enjoying a re-run (its first I think since 1967/68) on CH4 in 1984. Phil Smee (Bam Caruso) and his Rubble series of psych gems really got me excited - I liked the cottage industry feel of Bam Caruso and also the smell of vinyl, inserts and heavy cardboard sleeves. The Remayns single was something so lovely, not only in sound, but also in looks - it was almost edible!