WHAT IF? PAST PONDERINGS...

I was gazing at a framed picture of the cover to FANTASTIC

FOUR #1 on my wall the other day and it got me to thinking.  The

comic came out in 1961, but I was too young to know about it then

and didn't discover the FF until '66, when their adventures were

reprinted in the pages of British weekly, WHAM!

Back then, of course, U.S. monthly magazines were stacked in

spinner-racks over in a corner somewhere, while U.K. weekly titles

were usually displayed on newsagents' counters right next to the daily

papers.  That probably accounts for why I was largely unaware

of MARVEL and DC comics 'til around the mid 1960s.

Know what 'though?  I'd love to be able to go back into the

past and observe my younger self buying whatever comics I bought

at the time - just to see what monthly superhero mags, unobserved by

myself, were on sale in the same shop while I was making my purchase.

Imagine being able to see yourself as a kid, standing a few feet away

from classic first (and subsequent early) issues of FF, THOR,

HULK, SPIDEY, etc., but totally oblivious to them.

Well, okay - not just to see, now that I think about it.  Obviously

I'd take back some old currency to buy and bring them back to the

present with me, all in absolute pristine condition.  I could also buy a

few spare issues to sell to modern day collectors  for astronomical

sums, thereby ensuring a comfortable old age for myself.

I find it fascinating to ponder the many goodies I may have

stood next or near to in my youth and simply never noticed what

'treasures' perhaps lay only a few feet away.  Hitherto, I've always

sort of assumed that if I didn't see or know about some item at the

time, then it was likely never available in my neck of the woods,

but that's too simplistic an assumption when I think about it.

Anyone else ever nurture such nutty notions?  Do tell!

******

Incidentally, I do the same thing with people.  When I attended
a new school in a new neighbourhood back in '65, it transpired that
the boy sat at the desk behind me used to live just around the corner
from my previous home.  We'd never met before, even 'though I used
to go by his house every day on my way to my old school.  I later found
myself wondering if we'd ever passed in the street or waited in the same
bus shelter, or perhaps stood next to one another in the same queue
in our local newsagent's - without ever noticing (or remembering).
 Of course, it doesn't matter a whit to the price of cheese, but
such things fascinate me for some strange reason.