I was singing Lily the Pink to David in the car today, he thought the concept of “Medicinal Compound” very silly.

But, what, I ask you, was the Aintree Iron? A mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a silly 60s song. The writer knows, but isn’t saying.


David regularly gets albums for collector cards- they are frequently bundled in with his comics. He has generally resisted the temptation to waste spend his pocket money on packs of cards or stickers, although he has recently succombed with Pokemon, a craze I find rather uninspiring.

The other day, he asked me if I ever collected when I was his age, and the answer was yes.

Back in 1966/67, Tarzan trading cards were released. For a couple of old Pennies, you bought a smallish paper packet which contained a few cards and a stick of bubble gum. There were 66 cards in this particular set and there was an interesting hook- the back of the card was a mosaic tile for a larger picture. Soon, many of us were buying cards and trading swapsies. I was hindered in this somewhat by Walkers News whose box of cards all seemed to have the same sets in many times when I bought them!

Gradually, my collection built up, until I was short of only one card. For several days, no-one seemed to have it as swapsies. Then, one day, my best friend came round for tea and he gave me the missing card. I don’t remember if it was spare or not, but I happily gave him my (by then substantial) swapsies set. We laid them out and made up the picture.

Suddenly, I felt very deflated- I had achieved my desire and my brief jubilation was followed by despondency. How often does that happen, where you are so focussed on a short term goal that when it arrives you don’t quite know what to do next?

I quickly bounced back. My friend suggested we played snap with our sets of cards and just for a laugh, the loser would take an item of clothing off. It wasn’t sexual as such, we knew nothing of Mr. Wobbly hiding his helmet. (I year of so later, when we did start to hear about what went on, I can remember him dancing round his garden, singing “The facts of life!…The facts of life!” at the top of his voice!)

Anyway, we had been playing for a while and my Dad came in to ask if we fancied Fish and Chips and found us standing there in socks, vests & underpants…

(I much preferred playing these games with my Cousins, two of whom were Girls!)

I never thought I would ever see them again, but I frequently overlook how sentimental people can be. By the power of t’interweb, here is a feature on the Tarzan Card set, with an (incomplete) picture of the backs. You can still bid for them on eBay as collectibles, but I’m not that sad (or maybe too mean, or maybe too worried of what BloggerWife would say).

Image: David Bruce Bozarth Copyright © 2005, an Edgar Rice Burroughs expert. (Permission agreed)