Its says 11.34 am on my laptop but I'm not really sure if its the right time.
I know its Sunday but I had to look at the calender to check. After a week's isolation time seems to be thinner as the days blend into each other. God knows what it'll be like after 3 months or longer!
My Missus has just told me that our local mega-car boot sale would normally start at Easter. No chance of that this year as its easily one of the biggest gatherings of people I've seen outside of the Glastonbury Festival!
Last April bought a huge boxed Italian torpedo boat that looked like it had strayed from the set of Thunderbirds. It was a corker and for £15 I was a happy chappy. I did plan to restore the box - make it stiffer - but as with many great plans its on ice. I would love to see the boat bubble across a lake though.
Like many kids of my generation making boats out of whatever was to hand seemed natural. Paper boats where as common as paper planes back then and I'd often see nippers pushing what looked like paper hats across the duck pond on the park. They were quite tricky to make, paper boats. Definitely harder than planes. Its origami for sure and I doubt i could rustle one up nowadays.
Date boxes were brilliant for barge making. Shove a lump of balsa at one end and hey presto, barge central. They floated really well too. Not sure what wood the date boxes were but it could have been a balsa top as well. Balsa was everywhere in the Sixties. Someone somewhere was carving it every second. Like wooden cheese. I bet we used the whole balsa tree population back then!
I think one of my favourite boats was one of the rarest. I say rare because I only got to do it once a year on the family's annual summer holiday to some coastal paradise like Minehead or Ilfracombe. I am of course talking about sand boats. Yes, the unfathomable rapture of creating a speed boat seat out of sand is beyond words. Sitting on that compacted sand seat was the crowning moment of the summer, as you shouted Ahoy Sailors!
I'm unsure if kids these days like sand boats although seaside traditions seem strong so they might well do. When we re-emerge from the current pandemonium I hope to build one with my Grandson Moonbase Junior whilst his brand new baby sister watches from her pram.
I shall buy a packet of paper flags and stick them all in the sandy prow bouquet-style like a diplomat and take Junior on a voyage round the seven seas, only stopping for candyfloss and lime milkshake on the way!
I'll see you on the beach readers with the sun smiling down on us.
* Title: the late great Rick Griffin
No comments:
Post a Comment