When I reached fifteen years of age, two perplexing questions began to niggle me and try as I might, I couldn't find the answers to them. Nobody seemed to care when I asked; others merely shrugged their shoulders and the rest just passed my observations off as mere coincidences. However, even at that young age, I was no "coincidence theorist" and at the back of my mind I was inherently aware that something was not right.
I know the answers now. I burrowed right into that forbidden rabbit-hole, possibly far deeper than I should have done and came out top-side with my eyes well and truly opened. The down-side was that a dormant cynicism was pushed to the fore and it gushed out like the contents of a vigorously shaken can of coke. Cynicism may be an acceptable trait in it's natural home but can become a deplorable human tenet when it overtakes one's whole being. The excitement which is the human spirit is soon replaced with dark clouds of drudgery, where once nested an ignorance which shimmered beneath a colourful rainbow of sublime bliss. That rabbit-warren is a dangerous place for the unwary and a definite no-go area for angels who prefer to tread with more deliberate feet.
Henry Ford was once attributed with the infamous line, "History is bunk". Have you ever wondered why he uttered such a remark? And if so, what qualified him to say it? Do you think he was privvy to information that most others weren't?
Take his 1908 Model T Ford. How many people know, for instance, that this car could run on alcohol? A knob mounted on the driver's side acted as the fuel-mixture setting with the standard options of "gas" or "ethanol". Check it out. It's all there in Wikepedia. After a further bit of digging, Thorolf has discovered the possible reason why this alternative fuel ceased to be used.
Prohibition.
Cue one J.D. Rockefeller. He gave a bunch of old ladies FOUR MILLION dollars under the guise of "Temperance" to lobby the American Congress for a ban on alcohol. This money was used to buy Senators off and in came the Act Of Prohibition.
Heavens, you may exclaim, what has Rockefeller got to do with the Model T Ford and Temperance and all things alcohol? What are you getting at Thorolf?
Call me cynical if you wish, but J.D. Rockefeller owned the biggest oil company in the United States at the time, Standard Oil.
REDDITCH COUNTY HIGH.
The love of my youth. Cruelly snatched away from me by Fate on 15th April 1972.
PRAA SANDS.
My norwegian freinds and I used to jump off these cliffs pretending we were ski-jumpers. We must have been mad!
With outstretched arms, it was free flight for us. This cliff was one of the "low" ones according to my friend, Jan Fredriksen from Stavanger!
A BSA C15
This is almost an identical model to the one I used to ride. Mine was the C15SS, the Super-Sports which was slightly faster. Fuel consumption was excellent. You could ride for over 80 miles on just a single gallon of 3 star. Top speed was between 75 and 80 miles per hour - that's if you believed in the accuracy of the Smiths clock!
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