Strike wrote:

> I just looked that mask up in the May, 1955, Healthways catalogue.  They were apparently made by Cressi and cost (then) just $8.95!  (That was the absolute top-of-the-range mask when most others would set you back about $2.00 and when anti-fogging, spit-in-a-bottle, compounds cost .49 cents!)

1955? As in NINETEENHUNDREDANDFIFTYFIVE? Sheeeeeesh!!!

Strike, did you HAVE to mention how old I was? ;-)

I should also have pointed out that this was a "full face" mask covering
both the nose and the mouth (or were there two models Strike?) meaning,
also, that there was a _huge_ volume to the thing, not good when spear
fishing but how were we to know? So then if you came up and the ping
pong balls had got stuck for one reason or another, you kinda had a problem.

Of course none of us really thought seriously about that at the time. It
was simply accepted as part of the way of life.

Oh, and it cost a _lot_ more than $8.95 in Sri Lanka, I well remember
that my parents nearly had a fit when I was persuading them that I
simply had to have one. :-7

Cheers,

Christian