-
- Jay
Telfer may have handed over the reigns of the Wayback Times to
Sandy and Peter Neilly, but he is still going to be visible in
the newspaper.
-
- The
longtime resident of Prince Edward County will be writing Jay's
Blog, a column on his ongoing love of antiques and life in the
Quinte Bay area.
-
- Jay's
Wayback Times, founded in 1995, published 1.7 million papers
in 11 years and more than 258,000 kms
- were
traveled for visits
- and
deliveries to antique
shows, stores and markets.
-
- Jay
Telfer's final issue
|
|
|
- Ad Rates / Articles
/ Classified Ads / Editorial
/ Home / Links
/ Showtime
-
- Jay's Wayback Blog
- About lives, then
and now
-
 By Jay Telfer
When I was 10 years old in 1957, with our new 1956 TV set,
I watched Leave It To Beaver. In a program a few years on, Beaver
was involved in a school aptitude test, to figure out what kind
of work the kids would enter into. Kids then wanted to be firemen,
policemen, doctors, nurses, mechanics, pilots and few wanted
to be farmers.
-
- After the testing, Beaver entered the Guidance councilor's
office and was told, with his vast knowledge, he was destined
to be a shepherd. That was hilarious. A young kid with no experience
slotted into a job where all he will do is watch sheep. A dream,
I thought.
-
 But when I was 10,
I was sure I would evolve into Mighty Mouse, or maybe become
a French painter - assuming I would ever learn French. I could
do a great imitation of Pepe Le Pew - "Hohoho ho."
But, my brother and I got a board game from my cousins in Scotland
called "Scoop." It was a hint of what I created with
the Wayback Times.
-
- The game consisted of multiple $100 pound notes, cards, crime
stories, advertising, star stories, general stories and four
different newspapers; News Chronicle, Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph
and the Daily Express.
- To make the game work, there was a telephone with numbers
on it - you rang the number and you got approval for a story,
for a three star story, an approval for the ads, a rejection
of the story. And when you dialed a number, a "press"
symbol meant that you could have everyone in the game add up
their funds and hopefully you would win.
-
- I found the game a few weeks ago in moving back to Toronto.
The green and yellow box is fading away, but I still have all
the pieces, all the stories, all the cards and all the fake 100-Pound
notes. With the telephone, I would mention that there are many
greasy grubby kids fingerprints on the card.
-
 What I don't have
are the instructions. From what I can figure, there are five
cards dealt, and from the cards, you will see the way to get
a story or an ad in the paper. You would need a telephone, a
General Reporter, and a photographer. (Or for an ad; an artist,
a space salesman and the advertiser's approval.)
-
- All of the stories in the game are all false, but they do
make up the fun of the game. If you can read them (the stories
are tiny) they will make you laugh.
-
- One of the "Crime Stories" read: Murder In Public!
By "Death" Chord.
-
- "Enrik Casblart, the world famous pianist, was murdered
in front of an audience of nearly 2,000 people at the Royal Hall,
Hannogate, last night. He was shot through the head by a gun
concealed in the panelling above the keyboard, It was set to
fire only when the keys forming the tremendous two handed chord
which ends Sendon's new composition, "Futurissima,"
were hammered down by Mr. Casblart, who was playing the work
for the first time.
-
 "As Mr. Casblart
struck the chord, the gun roared out, the pianist reeled partly
backward, then crashed forward to slump on to the keyboard, causing
a grim "discord of death" as he slipped slowly to the
stage.
-
- "By the time the audience was standing and women became
hysterical as blood poured from Mr. Casblart's head.
-
- "The curtain was lowered and the manager of the Royal
Hall appealed for everyone to remain seated and await the arrival
of the police. It is said that the police are now working on
the theory that the murderer is a fanatic opposed to the performance
of modern music of which Mr. Casblart was a foremost exponent."
-
- Just think of a fanatic who hated rap music!
-
- A Star Story: Panacea Discovery - End of All Disease.
-
- "A colourless fluid, named by the discoverer (Dr. A.
G. Lith) "Psycophine," may mean victory over disease
in all forms. The panacea is the result of 12 years of painstaking
and intense research by D. Lith, who says of his discovery; "I
had always been confident that there was within our grasp a formula
for a drug which would be a killer of disease germs, while at
the
- same time, causing no harm in other ways."
-
- "The international medical council has tried out "psycophine"
on victims of every disease from mumps to measles to typhoid
and tuberculosis."
-
 If only there was
a clear colourless liquid - a perfect story.
-
- In a Three Star Story: Country Boy (3) is Amazing Prodigy
-
- "Curly haired Sam Rosworth is the three-year-old son
of a farm labourer, Mr. John Rosworth, of the little village
of Smuddin, Wentshire. He's just like any other rosy-cheeked
country boy - except that if you ask him to quote you something
from Shakespeare, or Bernard Shaw, or any of the other great
writers, he'll treat you to verbatim extracts until you tell
him to stop. Yet Sam cannot read. And neither of his parents
has ever studied the classics of literature.
-
- "If, however this does convince you that Sam is a prodigy,
you can ask him to give you the square root of any awkward decimated
number you can think of - say 9,234,539 - and before you can
say "Rasworth," he'll give you the correct number.
-
- "Or, if that still leaves you doubtful about his genius,
he'll readily oblige if you ask him for a few phrases in French,
Russian or Latin! But ask little Sam of the prodigious brain
what he likes doing best and he'll tell you: "Fishing in
the pond and feeding the grunters at Mr. Brady's farm."
-
- Some of the other Crime stories are "Racehorse doped
by Blow-pipe dartsman," and "Rescued from flames, then
charged with arson." In a General Story; "Miner finds
streak of gold in coal." And another story from Three Star
Stories: was A Robot Bricklayer builds a two-hour house.
-
 My guess from the
age of the ads is the game was made in 1954-55. These were all
fifties fictional tales, but I loved the game and I will try
and get rid of it soon on eBay. (Anyone else interested?)
-
- Among the ads, there is a great ad for British European Airways.
Note the daring speed of the planes: "Viscount - Seats 47
passengers. Crew of 5. Four Rolls-Royce Dart airscrew-turbines,
span 94 ft, length 81ft., 2 in. Cruising speed of 302 mph. Used
on the longest non-stop services. BEA operates the largest fleet
of Viscounts in the World."
-
- Also in the same ad: "Elizabethan (with a triple tailed
rear wing) Seats 47 passengers, Crew of 5, two Bristol-Centaurus
engines, span 115 feet, length 81 feet, 3 in. Cruising speed
245 mph. Landscape windows set below the wings give passengers
a wide panoramic view."
-
- People don't care about engines anymore, the length of the
plane or the view from the windows, Most of all, people care
about the gas charges, the tax on top of other taxes and the
price they lure you in with the newspaper and the price you end
up with on your VISA. Those were the days.
-
- What would it cost to fly a Viscount from Toronto to London
England using $1.19 a litre on gas?
-
- Perhaps that was this game that got me into the publishing
field. Now, as a retiree, I can look at it and have a laugh.
What a fun game to play and for me to remember.
Other articles by Jay Telfer
-
-
|
-
- Return to
top of page
-
- This Is Livin' Publishing
© 2008
- 581 8th Line West, RR1
Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0
- Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833
-
- webmaster
|
|