Thank you all for the very nice comments on the Horse Van. When I bought it, it for sure was the pride and joy of my collection for some time. Bruce, to answer your question as to why I was able to keep it so nice......yes, by the time I was 13 or 14, I had already acquired the sense of being very careful with all of my things, and did not like scratched up or badly used toys, or anything else for that matter. So yes, by that time I pretty much quit playing with most of them, except the race cars, which did see some rough racing down our driveway. What is really amazing to me is that I still have all of my childhood Dinky catalogs, from 1953 through 1959 when my first phase of collecting came to and end. The 1953 catalog is not in good shape, but all still there, including the separate price sheet. Since I was only 8 when I got it, that is miraculous! I also saved all of my written correspondence with H.Hudson Dobson from 1957 through 1960 or so...........I also still have almost all of the Dinky's that I received since about 1951; a very few have been restored, most of the rest are in very good to excellent condition, with many boxes still present.Terry
