#1
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It's older than you think - My city fair
Driving south into my town centre yesterday, traffic was halted as garishly painted trucks, I guess you call them "semis" (we call them "artics" - short for articulated) trucks lumbered about the roundabout and into the main car park.
I noted that many of the trucks were ex WW2 Army trucks, mainly Scammells still on the road after all these years! like this : I learnt to drive on an ex army tractor like that converted into my Dad's breakdown truck. I was about 10 years old and had to stand up to drive it. As I mused on this, I thought about the annual fair that takes up the huge car park with their rides and shooting galleries and coconut shies and ...whatever. The fair has been there one weekend for as long as I've been here (1979). I just got an e-mail on a local news site reminding us that the fair has been on this site, same date since ....1107! (Good ol' King Henry I) That was even before I was born!
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! Last edited by Silly Moustache; 10-20-2018 at 05:04 AM. |
#2
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Yeah, I recognize that truck. And the length of time your fair has been around... amazing.
Bob
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"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website) |
#3
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If you learned to drive one of those beasts at 10 years old, everything else after that must have seemed like a vacation...or holiday as the Brits say
It is astounding to me that your town has had the tradition of a fair for 900 years. In America we think something that has been around for 100 years is a a major accomplishment. We had a French exchange student come over and stay with us when I was in Jr. High school. We took her to Colonial Williamsburg and she was bored to death. We were trying to impress her with our history. My mother said, "These buildings are over 200 years old!". She replied, "My grandmother's house is 700 years old." Kind of put things in perspective for us.
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1990 Alvarez Yairi DY-77 2009 Taylor 414ce ltd. Taz. Black |
#4
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I remember when I was seated at the oak table that we gathered round when I did the 'argument' of my dissertation and being told the table was over 400 years old. Being from the States, I thought the entire world began in the 1700's. It definitely gave me some perspective.
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-- Patience is a strength, not a weakness; and if by practicing patience we stop retaliating to harm and criticism, people will gradually come to understand that our real nature is very special. |
#5
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My mother was brought up on a farm. The main 'house' was the converted hall of a 12th century priory.
Half a mile away my parents were married in, I was christened in, and many of my ancestors are buried in a church, part of which pre-dates the Norman conquest. Next to the church are the remains of a Norman motte. A few miles down the road there is a Roman Legionary fort. Wales is often called the Castle Capital of the World due to their high density, they're everywhere! Last edited by Silurian; 10-20-2018 at 12:32 PM. |
#6
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Thanks for the comments.
Went to see my optician for my annual test recently who has just put in a planning application for change of use for his business premises to private accommodation. He asked me to keep mum about the Roman mosaics on the floor of the basement. When they demolished an old building to build a new city museum, they found the Roman baths underneath, which has been excavated and shown under a glass floor in the vestibule. When the Romans pitched up in this area the local tribes decided not to fight them ... lots of evidence of a relatively settled and affluent Romano-British 1st century A.D. Heard of Boxgrove man? He lived nearby .... about 500,000 years ago. This area has been continuously populated at least that long ... if you believe in carbon dating of course.
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! |
#7
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For the last 200,000 years these islands have been mostly devoid of the various human species. The intermitten glaciation periods made it a somewhat inhospitable place to live.
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#8
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Any relation to that nice Mr Piltdown?
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stai scherzando? |
#9
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! |
#10
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They’re driving on the wrong side of the road.
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Be nice. |
#11
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Things like this are one of the main reasons I am such a die-hard Anglophile.
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"A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." - John Shedd |
#12
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I grew up in a small town on the Oregon coast, when I was around 21 one of the guys that I played adult league soccer with, who was from England, commented to me that Americans don't build things to last. He seemed to assume that because none of the buildings in town were older than 100 years it was because we couldn't build things to last. It took a bit to get him to realize Oregon had only been a state for 120 years at that point.
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One acoustic two electrics One resonator A fist full of picks Two capos And an amp I'm fairly impressed with. |
#13
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The travelling fair is a great British tradition but I think the third vehicle in the video is pushing the legal limit a bit with three trailers on a public highway.
They are driving on the left side of the road which is the right side. So it appears we all drive on the right side but history shows that the left is more right than right. |
#14
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Quote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb5d6ISHoMU
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stai scherzando? |
#15
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Quote:
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