Many thanks, all of you. Yes it does seem like we are talking two different joke shops here. I'm pretty sure that "Rogers the joke shop" (which definitely rings a distant bell) had ceased trading by the time I'd left school (1966) ~ so Grove Vale (now the bakery) is the one ~ and the military stuff & the guy with a beard would be a different shop on North Cross Road (particularly if it was still going in the 1980s). Many thanks for all the feedback ~ brilliant ~ if anyone unearths any old images of "Rogers the Joke Shop" from the sixties, that would be the unholy grail. Thanks again...