Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
It’s amazing the Transit has been with us for over half a century now,
here’s a white example
In the US we had the Econoline Van:
The engine was in a lump between the seats.
It’s amazing the Transit has been with us for over half a century now,
here’s a white example
In the US we had the Econoline Van:
The engine was in a lump between the seats.
The trouble with remembering history is that it wasn`t history at the time.
One of my regrets is not talking to older members of the family about stuff they remembered when they were still around to talk.
Ah. I’ve often wondered what it was that Bruce Berry used to drive.In the US we had the Econoline Van:
The engine was in a lump between the seats.
That’s the great thing about the way back when machine- you could make it up as you go along, they’ll be none the wiser. Particularly if you’re born into a long line of rural dwellers where nothing essentially changed from when the Romans left until about the 1960s. You could get teary eyed, regaling them about the time crop rotation came in in the mid-1700s.My problem (or one of them) is that I have such a poor memory. So in terms of telling my children about ‘the olden days’ I’m hampered by the fact that I can barely remember them.
For example, I went to York on a school trip on one of the last scheduled steam train services. What do I remember about it? Bugger all, except that we had a fish and chip supper at the end of the visit, but the teacher misread the time, and we had a mad dash to York station, as a result of which I had terrible indigestion.
This is true. For example, Lily Savage aka Paul O’Grady went to the same school as me in Birkenhead. He’s a year younger than me, so I should remember him, but I don’t. When people would ask me about my memories of him, I’d make stuff up. Subsequently on reading his autobiography I found out he’d been in the prep school but never made it to the main school, having failed the entrance exam, so in fact I never knew him.That’s the great thing about the way back when machine- you could make it up as you go along, they’ll be none the wiser. Particularly if you’re born into a long line of rural dwellers where nothing essentially changed from when the Romans left until about the 1960s.
Was it even a crime then?I used to have a cassette tape of my parents and assorted aunts and uncles nattering on about their childhoods, punctuated by the sound of chinking glasses. At the end, it turned into a sing-song. Apart from talking about the communal laundry aka the ‘bag wash’, most of their memories centred around people who lived on the shady side of the law, and who ended up in prison for knocking their wives about a bit.
Ah. I’ve often wondered what it was that Bruce Berry used to drive.
This is true. For example, Lily Savage aka Paul O’Grady went to the same school as me in Birkenhead. He’s a year younger than me, so I should remember him, but I don’t. When people would ask me about my memories of him, I’d make stuff up. Subsequently on reading his autobiography I found out he’d been in the prep school but never made it to the main school, having failed the entrance exam, so in fact I never knew him.
I recently recorded some family interviews on my horns from cassette and put it on YouTube. Recollections of life in the blitz and before the nhs and when houses cost not much .I used to have a cassette tape of my parents and assorted aunts and uncles nattering on about their childhoods, punctuated by the sound of chinking glasses. At the end, it turned into a sing-song. Apart from talking about the communal laundry aka the ‘bag wash’, most of their memories centred around people who lived on the shady side of the law, and who ended up in prison for knocking their wives about a bit.
I
Follow-up question: what medium is even available for such a thing? Tapes? CDs? 8 mm videocassettes? These are all as weird and obsolete as the eras that spawned them.
I recently cleared my father's place and kept an old late 60s Grundig 4-track tape recorder precisely to be able to listen to some of the tapes he's recorded. The machine stills works fine despite not having been used for at least 30 years. I hope the more recent technology ages as well.It occurs to me in light of all these recordings of our elders talking about the way things were – which of us has plans to record anything similar for the grandkids? Life before netflix, the internet, cell phones, regular flu shots, etc. will seem as alien to them as the horse-and-buggy days did to us.
Follow-up question: what medium is even available for such a thing? Tapes? CDs? 8 mm videocassettes? These are all as weird and obsolete as the eras that spawned them.
That’s a sad story about the death on the railway Mull. Reminded me of a story of my mother’s about a boy she was at school with in the 1930s and 40s who was the class joker. He was on leave during the war, seeing his girlfriend and was late returning to his base so skipped on a train without the correct travel warrant and was killed when he climbed onto the roof before a tunnel, to avoid the ticket inspector.The oldest person I recall knowing was my paternal great grandmother Alice, born around 1878. (She is described as 23 years old in the 1901 census) The only place I ever saw her was sitting in the same chair in the living quarters of the pub kept by my Grandfather... her only son. This would be at a few consecutive Christmases in the 1950s, when I was under 10 and she would be in her 80s. She said little, and was quite a diminutive, though scary figure..in typical all black Victorian clothes and button boots. She had one of those silver chain purses which contained a seemingly inexhaustible supply of silver 'threepenny bits', which she distributed to us. Her husband, my Paternal Great Grandfather John,, was long gone and I never knew him, though my middle name is 'after' him.
On my Maternal side, a cousin has traced back to the 18thC and recorded stuff I was previously totally clueless about, but in keeping with the thread, the oldest one I knew, was my Grandfather Jack, born 1897, who died in 1969 aged 74. He fought in WW1 ( Driver/Lance Bombardier -Royal Artillery) and was awarded the Military Medal and mentioned in dispatches. He was 5'4" dripping wet.
There's a pic of him somewhere on here in the Photo section, which I'll try to link to later.
Edit: He's here : https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/photographs-from-the-archives.41708/page-6#post-664044
He was my Hero in many ways. A quiet spoken man, with a tremendous sense of duty, but not a trace of 'militarism' or jingoism. He was patient and wise. Although I never met him, Jack's father John, born 1858, gains a mention in a newspaper article from 1909, which I have transcribed here :
Intriguing that the case was adjourned.. so that there is very probably further information somewhere concerning the final verdict. 'Misadventure' wouldn't surprise me.. though it seems very unlikely that young Fred and his mysterious friend spent the previous evening totally unseen by anyone.
It's also interesting to me that the street on which young Fred Cuthbert lived..still exists, though with newer housing. His most direct route from where he had allegedly been for the evening, back to his house, would be straight across the railway crossing.with no need to stray along the track to where he was found.
Most odd.