Ten In One Scopes

Ten In One Scopes

  Gerrard Wilson

  Copyright 2015 by Gerrard Wilson

  Ten In One Scopes

  Ten In One Scopes

  The toy from my childhood days that I will always remember is my Ten In One Scope. These instruments, these scientific instruments (printed upon each box, it stated, 'scientific instrument, not a toy') were everything us boys wanted, and then some. The girls in our school had absolutely no interest in them, and that suited us boys just fine. It left us free, at playtimes, to indulge our favourite pastime - playing with our Ten in One Scopes. According to the advertising literature, our 'scientific instruments' could be manipulated to perform ten entirely different functions:

  1. Reading Lens

  2. Compound Microscope

  3. Adjustable Telescope

  4. Focusing Binoculars

  5. Directional Compass

  6. Solar Time Clock

  7. Flat Mirror

  8. Magnifying Mirror

  9. Camp Fire Lighter

  10. Code Transmitter

  How we came into possession of these fantastic instruments is a story unto itself. You see, they were on offer from the cereal company that produced Weetabix. All that we had to do, to get our hands on them, was collect the special tokens from the Weetabix boxes (I cannot remember how many were needed, but it must have been quite a few because the girls in our school, feeling sorry for us boys, gave us theirs). When we each had enough tokens, we posted them, along with the required postage and packaging costs (again, I fail to remember the exact amount), to the Weetabix company. Then we waited for them to arrive in the post.

  As we waited patiently for our Ten in One Scopes to arrive, each of us hoped ours would arrive first. I can still remember the day when mine arrived.

  It wasn't the first one, though. Christopher Woods' scope had, for some peculiar reason, arrived a week earlier.

  Because it was a school day, I had no idea that my Scope had arrived in the post until I got home, when mum handed me the package. For years afterwards she loved to recount the story of how my eyes lit up when I saw it, and how they absolutely glowed with excitement when I opened the box and saw my gleaming new Scope. It was a real beauty, my Ten in One Scope. For the first time in my life, I wished that I was at school, so I could show it to all of my friends.

  Next morning, I jumped out of bed and quickly got dressed then I rushed to the bathroom, where I washed my face and hands and brushed my teeth. Having completed my ablutions, I ran downstairs and into the kitchen, ready for breakfast.

  "My, you are in a hurry this morning," mum said to me. Inspecting my gleaming new scope that I had placed adjacent my cereal bowl, she said, "I wonder why?"

  In less than a minute I had dispatched two biscuits of Weetabix to my impatient and hungry stomach. Having finished my tea (I hated tea, but mum insisted I drank it each morning before setting off for school), I grabbed hold of my Scope and packed it safely inside my satchel. Tearing down the hallway, I donned my school blazer and cap, and then opened the front door. "Bye," I called out to mum, as I pulled it shut behind me.

  "Bye," she answered. Running along the path, I could hardly wait until I arrived at school. "He's sure in a hurry," mum said to herself. "It's only eight fifteen."

  I was in a hurry. Why wouldn't I be in a hurry? I had my own, my very own Ten in One Scope to play with.

  Arriving at school, I entered the playground, where I was surprised to see several of my friends already there. Christopher Woods was there, but that was no surprise, considering he had arrived early every day since his Scope had arrived in the post, a week earlier.

  What puzzled me was that most of my friends had also arrived early. Robert Cooley was there, so too were John Morris, Bernard Molloy, Charles Whittle - and also Tommy Sutton who always arrived at school just barely in time, when the bell was ringing.

  Then I saw why this was so, they we each holding a box, a box identical to the one containing my beloved Scope. The atmosphere in the school playground was intense with excitement. It reminded me of the last few seconds before the gunfight at the OK corral began.

  Deciding to play it cool, I approached Bernard Molloy. He had a big grin on his face, so also did everyone else. Perching my satchel on the low wall outside the staffroom, I unfastened it produced my Scope.

  It was still in its box. I opened it without saying a word. Watching my every move, my friends followed my example and opened theirs. In less than a minute we had unpacked our gleaming new Scopes. Then we huddled together and inspected our prized possessions.

  "Did you see this?" Bernard Molloy said to me. It was a small piece of paper.

  "What have you got there??" Tommy Sutton asked him.

  "It's the instructions," he answered.

  "Where did you get that?" I asked Bernard.

  "It was inside the box, I almost missed it," he told me. "I found it after I rescued the box from the waste paper bin in the kitchen that mum threw it in." We inspected our boxes, searching for our instruction leaflets.

  "Good thinking, Bernard," I said to him.

  The school bell rang before we had finished reading our Scopes instructions. Complaining that it must have rung early, we assembled into lines and then filed into class.

  It was an agonisingly long morning, broken only by a short break for milk. Having no intention of wasting even a minute, we perused our Scope's instructions as we drank our milk.

  The bell ringing loudly signalled the end of break. We groaned once again, complaining that the school clock just had to be haywire, and if not, then why were the breaks finishing so soon?

  We had two more classes, that morning, maths and geography. The first one, maths, went painfully slow. I counted the minutes until it was over. The second class, geography, being one of my favourite subjects was less painful.

  When the bell sounded the next time it was for lunch break. We groaned again, complaining that we were not hungry, that all we wanted to do was go outside and play.

  The teacher in charge, however, would hear none of it, and she marched us into the classroom where the school dinners were being served. Life can sometimes be so hard for a child.

  Considering how impatient I felt, at being forced to eat at so important a time, I actually enjoyed my school dinner. You see, it was shepherd's pie; my favourite.

  Moreover, it was followed by my favourite dessert - sponge pudding with thick, creamy custard. When I had finished my lunch, I set my sights on the classroom door - and freedom. Bernard Molloy, Robert Cooley, Tommy Sutton, Christopher Woods, John Morris, Charles Whittle and Christopher Woods, however, all had the same idea. Jumping down from my chair, I dashed for the door. My friends did the exact same thing. There was bedlam in the doorway as, punching, shoving, kicking and gouging; we tried to exit the classroom.

  When we finally broke free of the impossible doorway, we inhaled deeply of the cool, fresh air.

  It felt so good. Inspecting our prized possessions, to see if they were damaged from our undignified exit, we were relieved to see that they were all okay.

  Assembling in the playground, we huddled together and read the last of our scopes instructions. It was a gloriously sunny day, which suited us, and, more importantly, our Ten in One Scopes down to the ground.

  "Look at this!" Christopher Woods said excitedly to me. Using his Scope's mirror, he reflected the sun's rays into the staff room.

  "STOP THAT!" we ordered. "Do you want them to confiscate our Scopes?"

  "Sorry," Christopher apologised. "I don't know what I was thinking of..."

  "Look at this!" I said to him, as I aimed the sun's reflected rays to some girls who were standing closely. Screaming, the girls ran for cover.

&nbs
p; We played with our Ten in Ones Scopes for the remainder of our lunch break.

  We played 'catch the reflection' on the walls of the priest's house adjoining the playground, we played 'explorers', using our Scope's compass to aid our imaginary expeditions to darkest Africa; we also played pirates, scientists and botanists. We did all this - and more - with our amazing, super stupendous, all new, bright and shining Ten in One Scopes.

  Was there life before we had them, our Scopes? How did we learn to get by after they broke? Yes, my friend, they broke, each and every one of them broke, in the end. Don't get me wrong, though, we loved our Scopes and we had many a long and happy hour playing with them. The problem was this; our Scopes had a design flaw. They were made of plastic, and cheaply made plastic at that. And because of this flaw, they broke, fell apart all too easily. If they had not suffered from this fatal design flaw, I am sure that we would still have them today, our fantastic, stupendous, superb Ten in One Scopes.

  A Note: I found some (new old stock) Ten in One Scopes for auction on