I was fortunate enough yesterday to find an early R1 heater in a barn on a local Croft. The old crofter told me that he’d always known the lamp and thought his dad had probably purchased it new. There was until recently a general store based here in the north Highlands. Back in the day the shop supplied deliveries to a wide area with a fleet of vans. Along with the delivered groceries, paraffin was dispensed from the back of the van. The old crofter yesterday remembered how everything that came out of the van was tinged with the smell of paraffin and that how he associated the smell with the taste of fresh bread! Can you image what the health and safety wombles would make of that now!
Ah, a lovely story! I do remember a travelling grocer who had a Morris Minor van selling bits out of the back, and when he opened the back doors a nice smell of bread would waft out... but no Paraffin
Oh that smell/taste. Many years ago I was visiting a friend of mine and his wife offered me piece of her home made chocolate cake. When I bit into it there was a distinct smell and yes, taste of paraffin. I was too polite to say anything so I ate it with a forced smile on my face. A few days later I saw my friend in the local market. He was full of gripes and groans, the major disaster he told me was that his domestic oil tank, an old steel version had sprung a leak and he had lost many gallons of the precious stuff. As the tank was adjacent to the pantry wall outside, the leak had soaked into the stonework and mortar and presumably the flour his wife had used to make the cake! I confess that I still said nothing as he waould have wanted to know why I hadn't warned of a possible leak. I felt really bad about that.
Great stories boys. I do have a story about a bakery van driver that went around when Aberdeen was in the throes of a typhoid outbreak in the 1960s but sadly I can’t repeat it here! Nothing to do with paraffin by the way.
Not sure if oil stoves were common in the UK but they were a mainstay here on the east coast of Canada and the smell of stove oil is firmly imprinted in my brain along with Amphora pipe tobacco.
What happened with that van? Typhoid epidemic? This has all the makings of a hair raising horror story...
Well George, in 1964 Aberdeen had a very serious typhoid outbreak. There were lots of jokes and silly stories going around (funny though that I haven’t heard any jokes as yet about this Coronavirus). So, the one I remember was about the driver of a bakery van. He was stopped in a country village where one of his customers asked how he managed when he needed a pee and there was nowhere to wash his hands. “Weel, lass” said Wullie, “It’s nae a problem as I dinna use my hands, I use the cake tongs!” Seems pretty tame now but it did make me laugh and probably blush too as I was young and innocent then.
Sounds like the story of the old lady, that used to offer anyone that came over to her house, plain almonds, as she always had plenty left over. One day someone said to her where do all these almonds come from? And why don't I see you eating them? Her answer was, well they weren't plain almonds to start with, they were chocolate coated one's, my sons wife buys them for me, and i never had the heart to tell her, that I don't like almonds, as i didn't want to upset my sons wife, anyway i just like sucking the chocolate off, and don't want to waste food, so I give them away. So if you are ever offered plain almonds, make sure you know where they have been.
