Having read the updated posts relating to Brooks saddles, I went onto their web side and saw this link to testimonials from 1937! It makes for amusing reading. I wonder if my gel saddle will still be comfortable after 100,000 miles?
http://www.brookssaddles.com/DBpictures/testimonials_1937.pdf
As an aside, it reminds me of the mid 1980's when I lived in a village just south of Dorking in Surrey. A regular at the local pub was Percy, then in his mid to late 80's (he wasn't sure in which year he had been born), a woodsman by trade. His former trade was evidenced by the two stumps which replaced his thumbs (the result of two separate saw accidents), but he still managed to sniff his snuff, leaving his silver grey moustache and beard a gingery brown colour on one side. Under doctor's orders his main tipple was brandy and water (better for his health); for the price of a shot of brandy, some priceless tales could be heard......
Percy had bought a smallholding in the village with his wife in the early 1930's and whilst the vegetable plot was the responsibility of his wife and children, the animals were his. Because there was no available work in the area for his trade, he took up work at a timber yard some 25 miles away in the vicinity of Kingston upon Thames (the mortgage had to be paid). It appears that there was only one bus a day ran through Ockley, therefore the only way to commute was to cycle, which I gather took the best part of two hours each way, on top of a 10 hour working day. Remember before breakfast he had to see to the animals and likewise before supper, so Percy's full working day was around 16 hours! As he said, it had to be done otherwise they wouldn't eat / have a roof over their heads.
It makes you realise how much easier life has become over the last 80 years, and perhaps how much we take our modern conveniences for granted. It also makes me feel a total whimp getting back home from my 26 mile round trip to my yacht at Bucklers Hard, on an electric bike, needing a whisky and water, to thaw out the legs, and anaethetise the bum!
Mike
http://www.brookssaddles.com/DBpictures/testimonials_1937.pdf
As an aside, it reminds me of the mid 1980's when I lived in a village just south of Dorking in Surrey. A regular at the local pub was Percy, then in his mid to late 80's (he wasn't sure in which year he had been born), a woodsman by trade. His former trade was evidenced by the two stumps which replaced his thumbs (the result of two separate saw accidents), but he still managed to sniff his snuff, leaving his silver grey moustache and beard a gingery brown colour on one side. Under doctor's orders his main tipple was brandy and water (better for his health); for the price of a shot of brandy, some priceless tales could be heard......
Percy had bought a smallholding in the village with his wife in the early 1930's and whilst the vegetable plot was the responsibility of his wife and children, the animals were his. Because there was no available work in the area for his trade, he took up work at a timber yard some 25 miles away in the vicinity of Kingston upon Thames (the mortgage had to be paid). It appears that there was only one bus a day ran through Ockley, therefore the only way to commute was to cycle, which I gather took the best part of two hours each way, on top of a 10 hour working day. Remember before breakfast he had to see to the animals and likewise before supper, so Percy's full working day was around 16 hours! As he said, it had to be done otherwise they wouldn't eat / have a roof over their heads.
It makes you realise how much easier life has become over the last 80 years, and perhaps how much we take our modern conveniences for granted. It also makes me feel a total whimp getting back home from my 26 mile round trip to my yacht at Bucklers Hard, on an electric bike, needing a whisky and water, to thaw out the legs, and anaethetise the bum!
Mike
