Egypt4u

TRAINS OF THOUGHT

I am sure we all have that experience from time to time when one thought leads to another and before long we have drifted far away from the original thought. This often happens on the forums and already in my thread about my new little camera we are learning about LLL’s expectant daughter and that she is babysitting the twins.



This first picture in my camera thread was for no other reason than to include the distant union flag. The ploughed field foreground was of no significance but LLL picked up on this and asked about what crop would be sown. She also said that she remembers preparing soil the hard way by hand (and foot)

The deep furrows in the picture set my mind wandering with thoughts about my dad. My father was a regular soldier mostly in Egypt from 1928 to 1933 when he married and left the army. This is him c1930, aged 22, at Malta en route to Egypt.



He found work, with a local haulage and agricultural contractor, as a driver. They were required to take on various tasks and when the company was providing a ploughing service with its steam traction engines, my father would join the team.

As a reservist, he was recalled into the army in 1939. We lived on the rural outskirts of town and I clearly remember seeing the traction engines ploughing the nearby fields in the early war years. Fascinating to watch these giants, one each side of the field winch hauling a six or seven shear plough across the field. The plough then tilted to lower another set of shears facing in the opposite direction. The other engine would then haul it back. This video shows how it used to work.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/kent/hi/fro ... 330293.stm


The engines tended to be Fowlers or Avelings. Aveling & Porter traction engines were built at Rochester on the Medway in Kent. This is the oldest surviving 1871 A & P engine now in the science museum. The other picture is the prancing horse, emblem of Kent that is on the front of all Kent built engines.



At this point I resorted to Google and amongst the Aveling & Porter entries I found this picture of Fred Dibnahs 1912 Aveling & Porter carrying his coffin to his funeral in 2004.



Fred was one of those wonderful characters that make their way into the media from time to time. He was a steeplejack by trade and TV programs showed him climbing chimneys and towers with heart stopping confidence. He moved on to demolish many old chimneys from our industrial heritage and his excitement on those occasions was infectious.

He had a great love of Victorian engineering, steam power in particular. He purchased and fully restored his own A & P steam traction engine and, the year before he died, made a series of TV programs about Britains Industrial Heritage travelling much of the time on his beloved steam engine.

So it seemed appropriate that that same steam engine should carry him on his final journey. RIP Fred Dibnah…..one of Britains great characters.

So there we are, a train of thought that took me from buying my new little camera to the funeral of Fred Dibnah and some family and childhood thoughts in between.

Just thought I would share my TRAIN OF THOUGHT on this dull grey Saturday..

Interesting clips of history Grandad and the photo of the A&P tractor is wonderful. Can you imagine the fellows building those and all the tools and work it took to build one? I highly doubt it could be reproduced today as most manufacturing is mechanized and the materials that craftsmen work with now are much lighter, (maybe) more durable (depends on how you're looking at it) and not as pure (materials now are man made).

It is funny how the forum drifts and sometimes starts thoughts that you'd never otherwise even think about. I don't spend lot of time typically during my day wondering if people migrate for work but the train of thought that started over Grandad's field gave me a few tidbits to ponder.......Mexicans are definitely leaving families and moving to survive while Egyptians don't seem to be......maybe that is what happened to some of the great populations of the world i.e. Mayan that just disappeared - unless they were all beamed up into outer space

I enjoy the thoughts the Forums bring - some quite improbable others just musings that pass the time.

(No baby yet - but the twins managed to wake up t 5:30am!)

All I can add to your post, Grandad, is - "Did you like that?" Fred Dibnah was a great character and much missed.

On your point, LLL, a lot of my Egyptian friends have indeed had to go away from their homes and families to work. From Aswan to Cairo; Luxor to Hurghada; Cairo to Saudi Arabia, and so on. This upsets the family unit a lot, because it means that the older generation are left to fend for themselves, which isn't really acceptable in their society. And sometimes they settle in their new country and only come back for short visits, which has happened in the Western world, thus resulting in care homes for the elderly. Which is better, I wonder?

Some interesting info there Grandad & to add to it....... can you explain the " elephant " in the last photo??

I really don't know the significance of the elephant Kiya. It actually has a round tower on its back and I wondered if it might have represented the Guild or Federation of Steeplejacks but I could not find any reference.

RS, his chimney felling didn't always go quite to plan but his expression "Did you like that" followed each one. And he felled more than 90 in his time.

@RS - Since I saw Grandad's ploughed up field I've been thinking lots about poverty and migration of people. The Mayans in Mexico were a very advanced society. The buildings that are left are phenomenal and in their day must have been fantastic. Very similar to Egyptian ruins where we can now only close our eyes and imagine the glory that was - BUT - for no known reason Mayan civilization just died out. The cities folded and closed. I can only guess the tourists stopped coming

I know I'm being cute when I say this (re: tourists and Mayan cities) it brings to mind the situation in Luxor and Egyptians in the villages are not overly mobile. I'm guessing that many of the village women have hardly left the villages, are kept totlly dependent on the males in their family and would be completely lost if the men travelled away to work - BUT - IF IF IF the work totally dries up, the tourists leave what are they going to do? Sit and starve? Wait for handouts? Take to a life of crime and rob from the rich? (And that only goes so far cause once you eliminate the rich who do they rob then?) OR get up and move? To where when, as a non-mobile society they have few experiences with moving?

I'm not arguing a point nor do I have an answer. This is just something that has come to me by way of seeing the dirt poor conditions many rural Mexicans live in and the dirt poor conditions many Egyptians live in and how each grouping is handling the movement out of poverty. Mexicans are willing to risk life and limb to work and I mean back breaking labour. Asian people have flocked here, lived in deplorable inner city circumstances and labour LONG hours to eek out a living for a better life. You can easily see huge labour teams in the Pacific Northwest of Asian people out in the wee cold early hours picking crops from the fields. Same with people from Pakistan, India - just brings the thought - are Egyptians as a group going to be the next wave to arrive OR are they going to chose to stay?

Darn ploughed field photo! See what your photo started Grandad! BUT it is really interesting how something can start an entire train of thought. That one photo has had me thinking for a couple days now!

Kiya, the Elephant is a part of Bolton’s Coat of Arms and a similar one to that seen in Fred Dibnah’s funeral cortege can be seen here: http://www.bolton.org.uk/elephants.html so it was probably a tribute from the local council of Bolton, the town where Fred lived as he was one of their famous sons.

Further reading about the Elephant connection can be seen here: http://www.boltonrevisited.org.uk/a-about-bolton.html

@LLL, I honestly DO see your point and what you are trying to say, and I don't disagree with your thinking. I just don't have an answer either. I wish I did!

@RS I have no answer either - just a TRAIN of THOUGHT that has been chugging through my brain lately and the more I mull it I starting to wonder if Egyptians will be able to transition to new jobs, new careers, new lifestyles, new living circumstances and on and on.

I know that some Egyptians MUST leave Egypt and move and adapt and adopt successful new lives. Going to be interesting to see how Egyptians in Luxor handle life. Sit and wait? Come to expect easy handouts? Decline handouts and try and make it on their own? (Doing what though?)

Overall just interesting to mull this latest train of thought.......(I bet Grandad has a huge train set up in his downstairs room where he has trains going day and nite! )

Thanks for the links Horus, interesting read.

LovelyLadyLux wrote:I bet Grandad has a huge train set up in his downstairs room where he has trains going day and nite!

Not a huge one LLL, just a small one for when the 'Little Fella' comes to see us......but I have a huge one for when he gets bigger.

Thanks for solving the elephant conundrum H. It had me mystified but I assumed the tower had some significance with steeplejacks.

The daughter's entire second living room is a hugh Thomas the Train set up. The twins live and breathe Thomas. They can recite the name of everybody on the Island of Sodor and have most everybody except for Spencer, Trevor and Hiro the Clunker and Hiro fixed up. They recently acquired Bill and Ben so they have been the favourites lately.

It is funny how one item or photo of something can start an entire train of thought which can take on a life of its own and divert totally from the original topic, post. Interesting too how seeing something NOW can bring back memories from the past.

Your ploughed field photo also reminded me of the smell of freshly turned earth that is basically gone now. Never smell it here but was a common smell as a kid.......not too sure I want to say "ah for the good old days" but I do something think that life, although simpler way back when was better too. Definitely simpler with lots less stress.