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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Agrippa on October 12, 2013, 09:08:43 PM

Title: almost a joke
Post by: Agrippa on October 12, 2013, 09:08:43 PM
This could almost be in the joke section,  but it was a real life incident.

I was in a pub in Folkestone a couple of days ago, quite a nice place called The Pullman.
There was classical music playing on the speakers. A couple of toerags came in, they looked
like a pair of ratcatchers. When the girl behind the bar served them one said in a Sid James
type voice " Is that classical music supposed to keep the riffraff out?"
The girl at the bar laughed. Then the man said "Well it ain't workin, arf arf !"

A gem of wit in these dull times. 
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Bealman on October 12, 2013, 11:57:48 PM
Indeed. I like the name of the pub, too!

George
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Agrippa on October 13, 2013, 01:26:06 AM
Unfortunately  there didn't seem to be any connection with the trains, Around the walls there were various photos
of holidaymakers in the 50s and 60s with shots of a huge crowd round a bandstand with dozens of Ford Anglias
and similar cars  parked nearby. Even then it must have been prehistoric , hard to imagine people taking holidays
there now, but perhaps years ago people were glad to get a holiday by the sea.
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Bealman on October 13, 2013, 01:44:29 AM
Funny..... I might be in one of those photos! My father was a driver for British Road Services during that period, and would make frequent trips to Folkestone and had digs there. Of course when it came time for holidays (we lived in the North East) off we would go in his Ford Anglia (!!) to the sunny south.... Folkestone, where we could stay in his cheap digs! I'd have been about 10 at the time, but remember we went two years in a row. I still have some photos (colour!!) of the event lying around somewhere here in Australia.

Sounds like the place does not have the exotic atmosphere that impressed a young Geordie lad so long ago.
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Rabs on October 13, 2013, 09:49:45 AM
I think it's safe to say that the atmosphere in Folkstone isn't 'exotic' these days!
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Agrippa on October 13, 2013, 10:27:36 AM
I know what you mean Bealman , in those days if you lived in an industrial area any holiday by the seaside would
be a welcome break. My dad worked in a Dunlop tyre factory and had a Hillman Minx and we went to places
like Dawlish and Exmouth in Devon. Round about then cheap package holidays to Spain were starting and
the Great British seaside resorts started declining. Nowadays plenty of people go to seaside towns for short
breaks , stag parties etc, but I don't think Folkestone will regain its former "exoticism". :(
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Bealman on October 13, 2013, 12:07:20 PM
In hindsight that's probably the wrong word but as a young lad I saw me first palm tree there and thought, wow, I'm really south now.. almost at the equator!

So it was exotic to me. Of course here in Oz I just paid a bloke a lot of money to remove one that went mad while I was away!
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Rabs on October 13, 2013, 12:31:16 PM
Sorry - my post came across wrong.  I wasn't poking fun.  I completely understand that I would have been exotic to most visitors in it's heyday.  Exotic is a subjective term and it's people's perceptions that have changed most now that it's so cheap to go to other parts of the world.
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Agrippa on October 13, 2013, 02:16:59 PM
No worry Rabs, we're just exchanging banter about changing times.

Grammar note : never get exotic, esoteric, or erotic mixed up!

eg   exotic   - palm trees
      esoteric - Mastermind specialised subjects
      erotic - this is a family forum!
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Bealman on October 13, 2013, 11:48:12 PM
No probs here, either. In fact I'm grateful for having being reminded of some nice childhood memories.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Jerry Howlett on October 14, 2013, 01:20:20 PM
Nostalgia attack.
We lived in Wyke Regis Dorset (Google it) and before we moved when I was 7 or 8 to Chippenham in Wiltshire (Don't Google that) our holiday was Weymouth a whole 20 minute bus ride away as the railway had closed to passengers or my parents couldn't afford the fare and lied to me...
The British seaside towns were a haven for all of us in the days before they invented the continent.............. :help: Nurse!!!
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Agrippa on October 14, 2013, 01:33:15 PM
Those were the days ! :thumbsup:
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Bealman on October 15, 2013, 04:02:22 AM
OMG parallel universes! I have in front of me a postcard of the Hotel for the Royal Navy, Weymouth - yet another holiday haunt that father would take the young Bealman to. With it, from the same trip, I guess, is a colourised postcard of the "Devenish Arms" Portland Bill which I don't recall, but knowing my father, the young Bealman would have had to sit there watching him down a pint while his mother downed a half of shandy!

Amazing the old Anglia got us that far, really.
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Jerry Howlett on October 15, 2013, 10:44:45 AM
Quote from: Bealman on October 15, 2013, 04:02:22 AM
OMG parallel universes! I have in front of me a postcard of the Hotel for the Royal Navy, Weymouth - yet another holiday haunt that father would take the young Bealman to. With it, from the same trip, I guess, is a colourised postcard of the "Devenish Arms" Portland Bill which I don't recall, but knowing my father, the young Bealman would have had to sit there watching him down a pint while his mother downed a half of shandy!

Amazing the old Anglia got us that far, really.

More like the Twilight zone, back at my mother's house in the UK there are pictures taken of us outside the Devenish Arms again early 60's. My Grandpa had driven down from Dagenham and taken us up to Portland in his new Mk2 Consul, posh eh!
I was the small lad drinking Coca Cola sitting outside and shivering....
We also used to get visits from an "Uncle & Aunt" who arrived in a Ford Anglia of 1950's origin.   Do do do do....do do do do...
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Dorsetmike on October 15, 2013, 11:48:58 AM
Back in the 60's and 70's I had 2 100Es, 3 Consul Mk2, 3 Cortinas, 2 Zephyrs, a Classic and a Corsair, father worked at a Ford Main Dealer, what would you buy!

More recently I had a 1962 Ford Classic, which got us into Classic car shows for free or reduced entry, when I turned 70 I decided it was no longer fun to crawl under and over it so flogged it.

[smg id=7480]
At Powderham Castle 1999

[smg id=7482]
Just a few at Wroughton Nostalgia show 2002, mine's hidden away in there somewhere about 6 back in the right hand line, the back end of an Anglia is visible on the extreme right. The silver Classic on the left was regularly driven over from Belgium by an ex-pat brit, who had it from new, he was in his 80s, his son usually came with him to share droving.

Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Jerry Howlett on October 15, 2013, 01:46:10 PM
Great pictures of classic cars mike, another trip to nostalgia heaven.
I think most of my Mum's family worked for Fords at one time or another, the exception was my uncle John who owned Gipps greengrocers on Dagenham Heathway. Ironically he STILL HAS the consul that he bought (probably via the family). He is in his 80's and still uses it as his normal run about!
(http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/JerryHowlett/UncleJohnandcar_zps2dbfa763.jpg) (http://s1223.photobucket.com/user/JerryHowlett/media/UncleJohnandcar_zps2dbfa763.jpg.html)

By the way thats my uncle by the car NOT ME!!!!
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Michael Hendle on October 15, 2013, 09:49:10 PM
 :hellosign:
In the 1960's i had a 1948 sit up and beg Ford Prefect,typical Ford paint job black,the good thing with it if it wouldn't start you give it a go with the starting handle,some thing you can't do today,with modern electronics,and also you do your own servicing,with out the need of a diagnostic computer.
:NGaugersRule: :A1Tornado:Mike
Title: Re: almost a joke
Post by: Bealman on October 16, 2013, 05:31:25 AM
You sure, Jerry? I'm just comparing your profile photo.....  :D

Cool cars, though! So you were at Portland Bill in a Mk2 Consul, eh? Very posh! Would have made this Geordie lad very jealous!