Mr Burglartroyd and the Everything Shop in Changes and the Same

Last night as I laid in bed trying to get to sleep I found myself thinking of something that hadn't crossed my mind in years. It's amazing how the brain files things away and then retrieves them.

Anyway, my mind drifted back to the games that my brother and I used to play as young kids after we were supposed to have gone to sleep. Our bedrooms were opposite one another on either side of the staircase which ran through the centre of the farm house. We both usually slept with our doors open and we'd talk to each other at night before going to sleep - though we couldn't see each other from our beds.

Sometimes we'd just chat but other times we'd create little fictional worlds together and improvise (maybe too grand a word for it?) scenes in them. One of the most frequent places we ventured into in our imaginations was the Everything Shop. This was, as the name suggested, a shop which sold absolutely everything. Sam always took the role of the shopkeeper of the Everything Shop and I was all of his customers who all used to come in, one at a time, and ask for whatever completely ridiculous item I could think of.

I can't really remember very many of these characters at the moment except for Mr Burglartroyd. He never used to try to buy anything though - he just came in to steal things. You'll appreciate that at my age then I'd yet to learn the distinction between burglar and robber - so Mr Burglartroyd didn't really have the right name. Mind you, his name was enough to arouse suspicion in the shopkeeper so he never actually got away with anything. Oddly the shopkeeper never had him arrested either - but maybe that's because we didn't have anyone to play a police officer?

These games often ended mid scene with either mum or dad opening the living room door and yelling "No more talking! Go to sleep!" up the stairs at us. Other times we'd actually talk ourselves to sleep...

My mum and Eli in the kitchen on one of my recent visits to see my parents: