Evening Gentlemen, well what do you do, the fields, (paddy fields), are too wet to get on to do what we should do, (even the sandy ones)! So we cut hedges, replace gates, load the wheat tippers inside the grain store, shove the spuds out of the door, look at the ■■■■, deepen the ditches, watch the water gushing past, wonder why we have just had the mother and father of thunder storms in January!!! And do what mankind has always done in the past…hope for the best!!!
My heart goes out to those who are really affected by this change of climate…for that is what it is, we are not too bad, most of our ground is sandy, but we have a lot on Kuper Marl…and you do not wish, ever , to be on that in the wet, believe me… But it aint like the Somerset Levels…beautiful bit of England, and should have been drained well by now, (hey, today received my reprimand from the Enviroment Agency, regarding deepening Pickens Brook)…put it in the pending file, (next to the shredder), what utter guff…At least the inhabitents of the “executive houses”, aint got water in their kitchens…yet!!
Maggie D, never ever thought that you were a Midlander! (Your lorries looked too posh)!!
My friend Barry Gibson…what could one ever say. No, I would have been in his fan club!! Part of the long line of “Foden” Gibsons, a real professional, (in the true meaning of the word). Probably the best, most “savvy” After Sales person ever in the UK Renault Trucks set up. I think that he must have joined them in the 70s, probably when my successor in Italy, Jean Paul Nivolet, joined them. Following the transfer, (and sadly later death in a car accident , of Pim Van Van Den Berg, promoted to being the head of Renault Agriculture)…and Pim would have been a class , (if not Tornado like), act to follow!!
Barry was a lorry man through and through. He knew what was needed to keep Hire and Reward men going, and did everything to do so. He and I shared a similar “bolshovic” sense of humer , and perhaps were never “corporate men”!!! And of course having had many years driving Fodens for a living, he and I had many common loves, and knowledge.(A holiday visit, and great day out to that most Foden, of companys Fairwood Engineering of Swansea is still vivid in my mind)!!!
Often Barry would ring me, wherever in the world I was, and outline a problem, and could I help? The beauty of working within an organisation was knowing who did what…who “hated” who, and just simply , how could you bypass the system!!! And the “strokes” that we pulled off…great fun, great enjoyment at “beating” the system, and the end user benefited, and most important…he never knew what we had done!!! Gentlemen, believe me its all about the people…not the product!!!
Fun…how about “wangling” the warranty on faulty Magnum engines…long after I had left RVI…!!!
Barry Gibson was really one of the best…I miss him, (and Margaret), now both sadly gone…and I wonder if those silk suited corporate men of today, even realise just how he, (and others like him), kept the flag flying for Renault in the UK…even if the "sun soaked CGT labour force in Lyon, really did not have a clue!!!
Richard, Im not far from Albrighton, some of my land is close by White Ladies Priory, but the most is around the Blackladies…
I expect you will remember just how those Sealand and District 8 wheeled Leylands used to power through Albrighton centre, (long before the A41 ByPass), with scrap right up to the top of those bulging timber sideboards hell bent on getting to Shotton!!!
Thank you for the memories…Barry Gibson, I raise my glass to you…a true “unsung” hero, and my friend, (and I wish he was here now)!!
Sante, mes amis, Im sad, and happy…
Cheerio for now…for tomorrow the COUNCIL COMMETH…White Hard Hats, and yellow coats…no doubt!!!