First contact...

[kawasemi]

We all did it. Sitting behind the steering wheel of dad's/grandad's/uncle's stationary car in the garage pretending to go driving.

One of my first memories (45+ years ago) was my Opa's (grandad in the Netherlands) work van. He worked as a carpenter in a little village and the van was shared with the local baker - neither company was big enough to afford their own vehicle. First thing in the morning it did the bread deliveries to the local farms and shops and on return collected and delivered furniture for the carpenter's workshop for the rest of the day.

...and the relevance?

Because it was one of these (stock photo unfortunately).

K

[myglaren]

Superb example of sensible co-operation.

[mickthemaverick]

The beauty of the simple life we used to lead. Imagine a brown goods supplier wanting to share with a food supplier nowadays, there would be hygiene rules, H&S rules, carriage of hazardous materials rules, lifting and handling rules, food storage regulations, BS this , that and the other and we probably still wouldn't get the table to eat our toast at because of low emission regulations preventing the van from reaching us!!! Still...............that's progress!!!

[kawasemi]

The beauty of the simple life we used to lead. Imagine a brown goods supplier wanting to share with a food supplier nowadays, there would be hygiene rules, H&S rules, carriage of hazardous materials rules, lifting and handling rules, food storage regulations, BS this , that and the other and we probably still wouldn't get the table to eat our toast at because of low emission regulations preventing the van from reaching us!!! Still...............that's progress!!!

Absolutely. I remember my mother saying that, as a courtesy, the baker did a quick sweep to stop the furniture drawers filling with flour and the carpenters did the same so the morning bread wasn't full of sawdust

[mickthemaverick]

There's me thinking that the decorator in those days used flour and water paste for paper hanging, and if he got his flour by sweeping out the baker's van maybe he invented woodchip wallpaper?

[NewcastleFalcon]

We like a Citroen H Van here as this thread testifies

I-Spy Citroen H Vans (aka HY/TUBE etc)

I kicked it off with Dumbo the Union of Genius Soup Van Edinburgh Uni


REgards Neil

[myglaren]

The beauty of the simple life we used to lead. Imagine a brown goods supplier wanting to share with a food supplier nowadays, there would be hygiene rules, H&S rules, carriage of hazardous materials rules, lifting and handling rules, food storage regulations, BS this , that and the other and we probably still wouldn't get the table to eat our toast at because of low emission regulations preventing the van from reaching us!!! Still...............that's progress!!!

Just keep schtum about it. The less they know the less they have to worry about.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Nice bit of avatar artwork Kawasemi, and particularly appropriate if you know a bit of Japanese, or indeed the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, or the books of.....

Hope that intrigues a few of our more curious members!

Welcome to the forum!

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Nice bit of avatar artwork Kawasemi, and particularly appropriate if you know a bit of Japanese, or indeed the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, or the books of.....

Hope that intrigues a few of our more curious members!

Welcome to the forum!

Regards Neil

Guilty of being intrigued, I have spent some 30 minutes reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins who lived from 1844 to 1889 dying of typhoid. He therefore lived his entire life as a Victorian which shows in his use of language in his work. Sorry to say it does nothing for me as I find it too haphazard in rhythm and lacking in excitement. However great Avatar Kawasemi!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Guilty of being intrigued, I have spent some 30 minutes reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins who lived from 1844 to 1889 dying of typhoid. He therefore lived his entire life as a Victorian which shows in his use of language in his work. Sorry to say it does nothing for me as I find it too haphazard in rhythm and lacking in excitement. However great Avatar Kawasemi!!

Can't work out if you got the links there Mick. Don't want you beavering away in frustration is you haven't.

"Kawasemi" does not mean half a kawasaki in Japanese, and old GMH starts one of one of his half dozen or so most well known poems with a phrase relating to kawasemi, and the picture comes from the cover of a book similarly titled."

That was my wavelength on it, Kawasemi may of course tell us something different

Cheers Neil

[mickthemaverick]

The site which I looked at for the poetry was https://hopkinspoetry.com/poems/ and I found no reference to Japanese Tea houses or small fast birds which were the two definitions I had got from DDG. So not being fully committed at the moment as I have company I gave up after that!
I now realise you are referring to the practice of burning Kingfishers!!

[kawasemi]

You got it Neil.

Kawasemi is not a typo of Kawasaki that was missed by the spell checker. Your Japanese is spot on. Too long a story to tell but I have an interest in Japan (martial arts and art) and the theme of kingfishers has popped up in my life too often to be missed...it became an obvious combination. And hence the avatar.

K