NOW WE TRULY STOPPED ALL THE TRAFFIC

Cars were parked on both sides of the long straight thoroughfare. The pavements were packed with pedestrians and traffic was passing in both directions, until we arrived on the scene. 
As we appeared quite suddenly out of the freezing fog, everything came to a standstill which I suppose is right and proper for a funeral. Buses and lorries, cars and pedestrians all ground to a halt. The only moving vehicle in Lumley Road, Skegness for those few minutes was pulled by Cracker, who was to become before he himself died, the tallest Shire Horse in the World. 

Behind him was a simple four wheeled trolley with the coffin and beautiful flowers. The hats worn by Terena and the Undertaker were coated with thick ice across their fronts and my hands seemed to be locked permanently around the reins despite a decent pair of gloves.

After touring the town centre, our journey took us to a housing estate off Lincoln Road, just out of the town; where the whole family of the deceased were waiting to walk behind the dray as we processed to the local church. 

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr

A noisy, bright yellow forklift truck burst out of a yard immediately to our front and began to roar down the road towards us.

The road was not wide by any imagination and we had nowhere to go and avoid this “monster” which had immediately caught “Hebe’s” attention and set all our hearts to our mouths.

To our right side, behind and ahead of us, we were contained by the churchyard wall which continued in solid stone splendour about four feet high as far as we could see.

On our left were a row of smart houses with large front gardens and boundaried at their front by a long, large, and deep dyke.

The forklift rattled and banged and roared its way forward totally oblivious to the terror it was creating in the mind of the horse never mind the human attendants.

Despite all our efforts to attract his attention, the driver seemed in a world of his own.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it was all over.

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr

The First wedding should be called "A FIRE ENGINE CAME TO THIS WEDDING"  the
Second could be called an"INCIDENT WITH A MILITARY POLICE SERGEANT AND A MOTOR CYCLE!"
Both very memorable and amusing....after the event!

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr

Then there is the period in which it was built, during the reign of Great Britain's Queen Victoria. During her period in history, ladies would be wearing wide skirts with crinolines to support their skirt structure. These were popular with Queen Victoria and consequently became a main fashion item.

Ladies wearing this kind of skirt could not get into a carriage with normal door and step arrangements. Their skirts were too wide.

So the “Victoria” Carriage arrived with its wide sweeping rear mudguards and plenty of room for those wide skirts. It was as simple as that, the carriage was developed to cope with the high fashion of the period. It was primarily a ladies' carriage.

I then went on to explain that the car was from the Uk and consequently right-hand drive.

I also mentioned that Ruth was in the back because of the new little dog and the necessity to keep him happy and quiet.

As we talked I noticed he glanced at the “tickets” on our windscreen, one is for the MOT certificate and the other is for current insurance for the vehicle. Both have to be displayed and of course, be up to date.

“You must realise,” he went on,” as you were coming down the road it looked very strange. The car has French registration and yet it had nobody in what is normally the driving seat!” 

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr

The phone rang and it was the Estate Manager from the Revesby Estates, he had his home and office at Revesby Bridge and could see the bank at the end of the Medlam Drain out of his front window.

It was on this bank that our three horses were kept at the present. I had been down to see them earlier and thought them settled for the night to come.

Not on your life, something had got into them and they had dismantled the gate I had erected to keep them on the bank and stop them wandering.

The Estate Manager told me with short breaths that they were getting out and if I could, I needed to get down there pronto!

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr

Arriving at the town (Boston) I watched the buildings in all the streets to make sure the auger did not go through any windows or catch any lamp standards.

Just by the Odeon Cinema, I arrived at some traffic lights at the approach to the river bridge. As I was slowing gradually, eyes in all directions at once, someone hooted their horn.

My eyes were diverted for just a second or two and in that instant, a double-decker bus had decided to stop directly in front!

Rapid stamping on my brakes resulted in my truck dipping forwards and the two steel support rods of the auger ending poked through the back of the double-deck bus just below the rotary sign that tells you where it is going!

I did manage to stop before the rods went in too far, that is into the seats!

As the truck rocked back on its suspension, the two rods reappeared and left two “staring eyes” dead centre in the bus body just a short distance below the rotary signboard.

The driver appeared and looked somewhat bewildered.

“Well I never did!” he exclaimed, “nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr

The time came to load and our queue began to mount the ramp, at the bottom I lagged behind a little to leave space between our car and the line in front, I needed a run at it. I knew that if there was a hold-up and we had to stop partway up the incline we would not restart.

The attendant at the bottom became agitated and jumped up and down in his insistence that we did not hold up the loading process....we had to go and of course partway up the line stopped!!

No way would our little car clutch restart that huge load on a slope. I had to push Ruth out of the door and ask her to bring the deck officer and all the deck crew to push us up the hill. How was that for holding things up........in the meantime I had to hold the whole load on the foot brake on a something like 60% slope.

Ruth eventually returned with the officer and five brawny crewmen and with their help we made it! She was not happy about that!

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr

For the first few moments, all I could think of was the situation encountered by a colleague on the Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company initial training course with me, who had later used his Company car to assist with a rallycross event. The result had been a dented roof and caved-in doors.

He consequently had to leave the company!

Surely my problem was nothing like that? Could I be accused of abusing company property?

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr

I BECAME AN “EDUCATOR”

All kinds of ideas were floated from head office management to try and combat this resistance to a new product. In the end, it all came down to the men at the sharp end like myself who did their best to ‘educate’ the tractor drivers and tractor owners. 

Replacement sales of this new design of tyre were also hit hard and in the Lincoln area in conjunction with our main tyre dealers like Fossitt and Thorne, my boss Fred Popham and I had the idea to begin a series of evening film shows to Farmers and Young Farmers to explain the special benefits of this tyre. These were very successful.

We even gave tyres away! Not ‘willy nilly’ but to the Champion Tractor Ploughmen of the County who were qualified to enter the World Ploughing Championships. I had three in my area, all the very best ploughmen in their own categories.

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at  "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE:  New Web site at  www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details.  http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why 
have a look at our website at  www.crackerbooks.fr