The Error World and Charing Cross Collectors market in the 1970s

I've just read Simon Garfield's book, "The Error World" (an affair with stamps), and discover that I'm a rather strange breed - a woman who collects stamps, and not really someone Simon Garfield would like to meet! I'm also not sure he would approve of my use of the ones I don't put in my collection, by making them into stamp collages.   It may be that I did meet him though,  as he writes that in his teens he was taken to a Saturday market underneath the arches of Charing Cross station in London where my parents regularly had a stall selling stamps. As a student,  I sometimes helped on the stall and that's where I met my husband to be, who  had a stall with his brother selling Militaria. Their collection had outgrown their home so some of it had to go. During quiet times, we'd chat and drink bad coffee from polystyrene cups, or play cards.
The market had it's funny side as there were some people there with very strange collecting habits. One elderly gentleman would turn up at our table each week and just ask, "Blocks of Four?", which as a teenager  I found rather odd. Another collected stamps with barbed wire on - I now know why but  at the time didn't understand this at all!  The "Knife men" were amusing but slightly scary with their edged weapons carefully laid out on their table and we did wonder who was buying them and why, not really understanding the appeal of this particular interest. Often on a table next to ours were three very old people who travelled from Brighton on the train with suitcases full of knitted items, including fingerless gloves which were bought by Paula Yates.  Occasionally a fight would break out , or someone would try and pinch something from a stall and there would be a lot of shouting, men  running after the thief,  and once my dad pinned a man up against a wall. He was usually a very gentle man!   A memorable visitor was a man bent double who made his way around using a mirror to see where he was going, or indeed where he'd been!

Well, apart from Simon's short reference to the market, I then read about his entry for the Blue Peter stamp competition and T Shemza! Or rather "T missing" Shemza, the 6 year old winner of the design for the 3d Christmas stamp of 1966. I've got one myself still  proudly labelled  by my 9 year old hand. I can still remember the excitement at finding it! I never had any wish or reason to sell my own British stamp collection, and probably never will. I wouldn't describe myself in any way as a serious collector and had the standard gap in my collecting years, probably from around the time of the market days when things more interesting than stamp collecting were going on in my life. One day I went on a buying trip to Camden Passage and bought a gas mask to give to my new friend on the Militaria stall. Beat that for a token of affection!