sellotape
I think I was 7 years old before I realised that other people had real sellotape. My grandmother invariably bought the stuff from an ethnic gentleman who had a suitcase of deformed specimens on a pitch outside the Rumford arcade or on the South side of Romford market. it was always making a break for freedom to one side or the other ( end rolls after slitting?) this exposed great areas of adhesive that picked up all the fluff in the known universe, there were air bubbles and buckles, and it always split.
It may have been half price, but it certainly wasn`t half as good.

So my early school projects were a collage of 3 inch max tapered lengths with included fluff and invariably several bits wouldn`t stick, at least until I spent some pocket money on real sellotape in WH Smith ! and the new fangled stuff you could write on, Ah bliss!

My dad at about the same time time had bought a little transistor radio which guzzled AA batteries.
ether Stratford or Ilford market sold bulk packs of Hong kong batteries which did the job but their leakproofing was a plastic shrink wrap over a paper label in red white and silver showing a bomb with angels wings and they were called..."Flying bomb" in a torch they went flat and you chucked them, In a radio, they invariably leaked and you had to watch them like a hawk for damp spots on the paper label. It was as if there wasn`t enough Zinc in the case and once started off the electrolyte just munched away. Many of my toys were ruined beyond scraping and metal polish`s powers to fix, hmm a very rough totting up suggests it would have been cheaper to buy ever readies
(tootired Is searching for a funny sig, nothing good so far, Sat 5 Jan 2008, 14:24, Reply)