bike whisperer

in a nostalgic mood and around about the Unusual Museums of the Internet, boynton remembered that as a child she would often endow her bicycle as a horse. She dreamt of owning a chestnut, agisting it on the pipe-line, (as people did) but instead rode a beloved hand-me-down malvern star. Sometimes as a horse.
She once wrote a poem containing the lines:
tethering our malvern stars
outside milk bars
This is one of the few vintage malvern star images - (from morwell 1945 via korea) - with the nice line for spins during leisure hours

more nostalgia here at the British Lawnmower Museum Gallery: Allow Nora our Tour Guide To show you round.

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Comments: bike whisperer

Methinks you may be feeling a tad http://nostalgic.net/ ? And I see that in the lawnmower gallery they have just the car for me: http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk/prod03.htm , finally, I meet my rapid transit.

Excellent finds, all 'round.
Posted by .es at August 21, 2003 03:16 PM

Oh what sport! I've only just checked out ONE link on ONE link so far at Nostalgia - but the pictures of saddles are wonderful. Many thanks.

And that car is a find! It's Mine!
I think I once thought that driving a car could be fun. I imagined vehicles like this.
Best driving experience I ever had was in the old Bumper cars at Luna Park - that is, the most confident I ever felt behind a wheel!

(ps - The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: Female!)
Posted by boynton at August 21, 2003 03:29 PM

My God- I did exactly the same thing with my Malvern Star too...
Posted by mcb at August 21, 2003 04:02 PM

They were good sound horses weren't they, mcb.
Posted by boynton at August 21, 2003 04:06 PM

I'm glad someone else has memories of bumper cars being fun. I went on a bumper car ride at the local show recently (with 10 year old daughter) and it was not the remembered experience! The cars bumped and jerked and crunched and crashed, but never actually seemed to drive - I'm sure they did when I was a kid .... am I right, or should I just book myself into a museum?
Posted by wen at August 21, 2003 06:19 PM

I don't know how the modern ones compare - all I remember is a very pleasant experience when I was about 8 or 9 driving at Luna Park with my oldest sister. They did drive, I'm sure.
Perhaps the scale suits kids better - or perhpas the style was better then?
I preferred them to the dodgems, because I didn't like the sparks! (I was a rather sensitive child)
Interesting ground, wen, and prompts me to do some research.
Posted by boynton at August 21, 2003 06:26 PM

Oh - I think I've confused bumper cars with dodgems - these ones definitely had sparks. Maybe they don't make bumper cars anymore.

Not sensitive, Boynton, sensible.
Posted by wen at August 21, 2003 06:35 PM

Well bumpers certainly spoiled me for driving anyway, wen. Where else can you slowly trundle around in vintage vehicles and bump others almost with affection and definitely with impunity?
Posted by boynton at August 21, 2003 06:50 PM

I did try affectionately bumping (more of a pat, really) a telegraph pole with a vintage volvo once....

The pole was quite unscathed.
Posted by wen at August 21, 2003 08:00 PM

Yes I bumped a window with an old Valiant on my L plates. My reversing has never been very friendly

(btw The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: Female!)

Sexist git ;)
Posted by boynton at August 21, 2003 11:31 PM

I think my namesake advocates the self starter. In this Nora's experience the mower never does - or only after she's achieved mower-rage induced apoplexy. Not a good look.
Posted by Nora at August 21, 2003 11:41 PM