Thanks a lot guys
I almost missed this one. Thanks as always.
But what's a spud gun? (Never mind, I wickied it: high technology for a boy; I used a slingshot(catapult).)
We had those too!
In fact no real boy was ever without a catapult, some string, a penknife, and maybe a few other bits and pieces
For everyone else, a spud gun is a toy pistol which fires small pieces of potato, usually just by means of air, but the best ones were powered by paper 'caps'. I bought one for a friend's little lad a few months ago, and was very surprised they weren't now classed as a Section 1 firearm!
Interesting bit about Wostenholm and Bowie; I hadn't heard that. As I was reading somewhere recently, part of the problem with identifying "THE" Bowie knife is that whatever Rezin's original loaner and early presentations looked like, James might have had any number of knives done by any number of makers according to his own ideas or anybody else's, as he upgraded over the years.
As far as I know that part of the Wostenholm article has little factual basis, and sadly I may even have something to do with it. Some years ago, in the late 1980's I think, I read an article in one of the
Knives annuals about an old legend. According to this tale, many years after
The Alamo some Mexican people had bought a small plot of land. To make up a shortfall in the sum required to pay for it, they traded a family heirloom, an old Bowie blade, which they said had been found after the battle. The knife had been a Wostenholm. Now whether or not there is any truth to this story or not, I don't know, but in any case it wouldn't neccesarily link the Wostenholm blade to Jim Bowie. Anyway, in the early 1990's, sometime after the Eggington Group in Sheffield had acquired the Wostenholm name, along with Rodgers, John Clark, and Ibbertson, which they already had, and had hitherto done little or nothing with the name, a dealer over here bought some small Bowie knives off them and gave me one. They were the nasty, short, badly-made, and (then) cheap Bowie knives which had been turned out in Sheffield for the past few decades, blunt as a biscuit, and half as appealing. The knives were so cheap they didn't even come with a cardboard sheath, and they bore the John Clark name (etched). I remarked that I was surprised that Eggington weren't using the Wostenholm name on the Bowies, since they owned the Wostenholm mark, and assuming they knew the tale. The dealer got them to make some more of the knives with the Wostenholm name and sold them with a slightly embellished version of the story. They sold like hot cakes. Since then the legend has been considerably embellished and presented as fact, and the Eggington Group have made thousands from a knife they could barely sell in the past, all on the back of that fairy story. I've always wished I kept my mouth shut!
Possibly Wostenholm did make the famous knife, but I doubt James Bowie would have had much good to say about the junk that's being sold under the Wostenholm name today.
Thank you for the wonderful post Jack.:thumbup:
They say you can't go home again, and I've found that to be very true. Ihave felt that sadness when I go back to someplace I remember as a kid, and it's now an alien environment. The Eastern shore of Maryland used to be like that. A quiet place, cut off from the rest of the modern world. Now all the old places are gone, there's upscale restaurants to feed the rich folks that have developed and built million dollar mansions with half million dollar boats moored at their private docks. The old Ford and Chevy pickup trucks are gone, and now 8 out of 10 cars around are German luxury cars. Lots of money, but no character.
When I was in England many years ago, I wanted to visit some of the old historic places like Sheffield. The cab driver told me that it was all torn down to make way for "modern renovation." In my experience, when they talk about modernization, it means their gonna ruin the place.
Carl.
Thank you Carl, that's very true. Many of my old school mates still drink in one or two pubs at Hunter's Bar, and go back to visit their folks, but few can afford to live round there, and I doubt many would want to. When I was a kid, the shops down the road were a bakers, a butchers, a greengrocers, and a hardware store. They went long ago. Now you can't buy a loaf of bread, but you can pay £500 for a hat! I know that there are countless places like that the world over. My parents payed the price of that hat for their house because there was supposed to be a freeway coming through the area in the mid 60's!
Great post, Jack! Thanks so much!
...in Pennsylvania's Amish country, they do...
It helps them quilt faster.
Yeah, there's places like that in South Yorkshire too!
Thanks again
Jack
