How I started my collection
By David Deal
When I was a child, my parents used to take us from our home in north London for a
fortnight's holiday at Canvey Island. My sister and I used to go out collecting old
newspapers and jam jars during the preceding months to take to the salvage yard in order
to give us money to spend on holiday.
Along Canvey Island sea-front were approximately four arcades. If we had had a
successful salvaging season, we used to have fourteen shillings each to take on holiday.
We then spent one shilling a day at the arcade; always trying to find a lucky machine. We
thoroughly enjoyed our holidays.
Some twenty years later, about 1972, my wife and I were out walking in
Farningham, Kent, when we noticed an auction going on at one of the big houses. I was
given to understand that it was the contents of the deceased head of the Daily Mirror.
Among all the piles of stuff laid out on the lawns was a cardboard box with what seemed
like a thousand bits in it. I was excited and delighted; I knew it was a penny machine.
Never in my wildest dreams had I ever dreamt of owning one. I had no idea how much it
would fetch, but 1 knew it was coming home with me.
When we got to the appropriate lot, the auctioneer got a lot of laughs when he said
would anyone bid for the box of rubbish. I hadn't a clue how many hundreds I was going
to have to pay. To cut a long story short, to heaps of laughter from the onlookers, I
bought it for £8.
My brother-in-law, Pete Bennett worked on the Beds Times at the time, and he had a
friend who said he would try and put it back together for me. He did a superb job, and I
ended up with a wonderful DUO-MAT. It has never gone wrong and has been played
continuously by all my friends, relations and children of the locality. The gentleman who
put the machine together again moved from the area and I never met him. I feel slightly
guilty that he hasn't had the pleasure of seeing the smiles and happiness his skills have
brought to so many people.
Jerry, I hope you have a very successful season in Brighton and that you sign up
plenty of new subscribers.
Kind Regards
David
Many thanks David, for relating the story of the acquisition of your first machine. For
those of you who don't know David ( and most won't), he's the quiet one who stands at
the back at auctions and slips away, unseen, when he's made his purchase. Amazingly,
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