WHEN I read the result of the 'Spot the Teddy' competition, it brought back memories of over 60 years ago when the local press, in conjunction with some town centre stores, ran a similar event.

It involved 'finding' an article in the window displays of the partaking shops that they did not sell.

At first only the major stores were interested, e.g. Woolworths, Marks & Spencer, Tyrers and the Co-op, to mention just a few, but the idea soon caught on and smaller shops took part. Albeit the prizes were never substantial but nevertheless, welcome.

It ran for many weeks and certainly acted like a magnet in bringing people into the shopping area. Some of the objects were pretty obvious, others were more difficult to spot and occasionally, there were a few red herrings but even when you found the item it sometimes meant going into the shops to make sure it wasn't on the shelves or for sale.

Our 'corner shop' copied the idea for a couple of weeks. I gave a small prize e.g. to children - sweets or a bottle of pop and if adults then a packet of cigarettes (priced 4d for 10 then, Star or Woodbine!).

P.S. At our corner shop (sweets and newspaper retailers) one week it was a tin of shoe polish and another, a clothes peg, which you had to find.

Mr J. Marsh, Junction Lane, Sutton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.