Item(s) You Regret Having Gotten Rid Of?

[randooch]

Great story, Shangas! Congratulations in advance. :eusa_clap

 

[Shangas]

Great story, Shangas! Congratulations in advance. :eusa_clap

Thanks, Randooch!

When my grandmother died last year, I remembered her old sewing-machine. Gran always meant a LOT to me, and that old Singer was a crucial part of my childhood. After I started playing around with it and fixing it up, my dad started reminiscing about his own childhood and he told me about the ONE other Singer machine that was possibly still in our family, which gran owned back in the "good old days". When I found out that my aunt had taken possession of it, I almost DEMANDED that we bring it to Australia.

I know for a fact that the Singer would sit, rusting, unappreciated and unloved in my aunt's house. Yes, my aunt was a dressmaker, just like my grandmother before her, but my aunt has no appreciation for antiques, much like many of her generation. I knew if I didn't act FAST, she would give it away, or sell it, or chuck it out, and then it would be GONE FOREVER.

The reason I was so insistent to my father about getting our hands on it and bringing it back to Australia was because of the story he told me about the clock.

When my uncle (my father's older half-brother) married his bride (my Aunt Margaret), my aunt's brother (then living in Australia) bought, and sent back to Singapore, a beautiful antique mantelpiece clock.

My father loved that clock. He thought it was so elegant and beautiful. But my aunt and uncle never really appreciated it. For years, it sat in their kitchen, above the fridge, gathering dust. My dad wanted to take it back to Australia, but he couldn't gather up the courage to ask his brother whether he could take it home with him. It was a wedding-present, after all, and he didn't want to possibly offend them by asking to take ownership of it.

Due to his inaction, my aunt threw the clock out. When my dad went back to Singapore to visit, he asked her where it was.

"Gone! We chucked it out".

"Oh no! I wanted to take it back to Australia..."

"YOU SHOULD'VE TOLD US!!!!"

It was my fear of THAT happening to ME and the sewing-machine that made me bully dad into securing it from my aunt, before she threw it out as well...

 

[rocketeer]

My 1961 Matchless 650cc motorcycle. It was no longer running and I had nowhere to keep it at the time. The fact that it was not original but had lots of my personal touches about it made it MY bike, I had passed my test on it and had great fun with a Swallow Jet 80 sidecar attatched. I kept the original registration document as it had my name in it when i sold it, the UK had a new style of document so the new owner had no problems with that side of it.
I saw it recently, the new owner has had it 23-5 years now, twice as long as I owned it but he had made a half hearted job restoring the bike with the boring standard parts. The bike looked like something had been taken from it's soul(not the reg document) and it was now an old mans motorcycle rather than a roaring menacing Rocker bike.
Have tried to post a pic but it comes up 'Invalid Url'

 

[randooch]

Upload that picture to a 3rd-party photo hosting site, Rocketeer, like imageshack or flickr, and copy and paste the code. I'd love to see it!

Shangas, sorry about the clock. What a bummer for the ages! The sewing machine, however, will hum on for eternity. :)

 

[William Stratford]

My '97 Virago 535. By no means an antique, but wheels with character and substance in an age of plastic rockets.

 

[Shangas]

Shangas, sorry about the clock. What a bummer for the ages! The sewing machine, however, will hum on for eternity.

Yes indeed. I've made it my mission now, to bring that Singer back to Australia somehow. By hook, by crook, I'll pull the whole thing apart and bring it back piece by piece in my pockets if I must, but I will bring it home!

 

[rocketeer]

My 1961 Matchless 650cc motorcycle. It was no longer running and I had nowhere to keep it at the time. The fact that it was not original but had lots of my personal touches about it made it MY bike, I had passed my test on it and had great fun with a Swallow Jet 80 sidecar attatched. I kept the original registration document as it had my name in it when i sold it, the UK had a new style of document so the new owner had no problems with that side of it.
I saw it recently, the new owner has had it 23-5 years now, twice as long as I owned it but he had made a half hearted job restoring the bike with the boring standard parts. The bike looked like something had been taken from it's soul(not the reg document) and it was now an old mans motorcycle rather than a roaring menacing Rocker bike.
Have tried to post a pic but it comes up 'Invalid Url'

Here is my old Matchless, taken about 1982-83. The leather jacket is a cheapy old British make, probably a straight zip Kett in the same style as a zip sleeve Highwayman, the hat is a Royal Navy cap with a 17/21 Lancers badge, a typical adornment to Rockers caps or jackets from the 1960s and 70s

The pipes on the bike were two original BSA DBD Gold Star silencers, they had home made brackets cut and brazed to the BSA silencers, one of course upside down! Sacrilege some will say haha, these Gold Star pipes were eventually thrown in the scrap as I obtained two new 'Goldie' pipes, poor reproductions looking back. Half a BSA A65 rear mudguard, a Bonneville front mudgaurds and an early reproduction matchless CSR seat. The seat was trimmed with curtain fringing in red around its base, this is the one thing everyone remembers about this bike wheather they loved it or loathed it.
You would have to look hard but it also has a 1961 tax disc displayed, years before the DVLA found out they could make money from repro old tax discs. It is actually a BSA disc with BSA scratched out and Matchless written in
Here are a couple of friends, Carol and Simon in 1981 before I passed my test, the sidecar is the Swallow Jet 80, it slightly resembled an early bobsleigh stuck on the side of the bike. A very rare pic due to most potential passengers having seen Olive in 'On The Buses' Google or YouTube it if you dont know what I'm on about.

Seems like only yesterday
Johnny