[hmmm ... impatiently waiting for next installment ... she better have a damned good explanation]
***
Interesting also about the founding of the Co-op. I'm curious about this: "It provides them with groceries, butcher’s meat, drapery goods, clothes and clogs." Clogs -- as in wooden shoes? Did they use them in England back then? If so, I'm pretty sure they didn't jam them into the machinery like their French brethren, heh!
I'm reading an interesting book by a Norwegian historian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terje_Tvedt) writing about the industrial revolution and why it took off in England as opposed to any of the other likely places / countries. His thesis, in short: The industrial revolution was, contrary to received wisdom, not initially steam powered, but rather driven by water wheels -- watermills. Steam came later. England's advantage lay in a steady supply of rain that created a network of stable rivers, in a 'soft' landscape amenable to digging canals where great quantities of coal, ore and finished goods could be easily barged around -- preferably to one of several good sea-ports for export. Makes sense, no? Interesting stuff :-)
***
I'm rambling as usual. Must go to work. And thanks for the recommendation!
I missed that romantic phase of my life and I have always had a tinge of regret. My romantic liaisons were limited to helping my future wife's farmer father deliver various animals wearing a suit that was essential wear in my day job, which was an engineer for a large American company that had started in this country. I did this to impress him as he had no time for this fancy new technology and I had a feeling that I was going to end up married to this girl, although it had never been discussed.
My night job was playing guitar in local rock bands, where the compensation had initially been money, then booze, then escalated to groupies and drugs, and then to negotiated deals where the booze, drugs, and girls became a package.
I woke up one morning with an unknown girl in bed beside me and was so aghast it was the end of my rock and roll career.
So I returned to my home town, seriously interested in this farmers daughter, and over the next few months persuaded her to stop her father from polishing his gun whenever I showed up, and asked her to marry me.
She has not one jot of romanticism in her body but we are still together after 58 years. But I sometimes dream of a romantic liaison ...
"The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand."
A beautiful love story.
And then she says WHAT !?!
How could she?
[hmmm ... impatiently waiting for next installment ... she better have a damned good explanation]
***
Interesting also about the founding of the Co-op. I'm curious about this: "It provides them with groceries, butcher’s meat, drapery goods, clothes and clogs." Clogs -- as in wooden shoes? Did they use them in England back then? If so, I'm pretty sure they didn't jam them into the machinery like their French brethren, heh!
I'm reading an interesting book by a Norwegian historian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terje_Tvedt) writing about the industrial revolution and why it took off in England as opposed to any of the other likely places / countries. His thesis, in short: The industrial revolution was, contrary to received wisdom, not initially steam powered, but rather driven by water wheels -- watermills. Steam came later. England's advantage lay in a steady supply of rain that created a network of stable rivers, in a 'soft' landscape amenable to digging canals where great quantities of coal, ore and finished goods could be easily barged around -- preferably to one of several good sea-ports for export. Makes sense, no? Interesting stuff :-)
***
I'm rambling as usual. Must go to work. And thanks for the recommendation!
I missed that romantic phase of my life and I have always had a tinge of regret. My romantic liaisons were limited to helping my future wife's farmer father deliver various animals wearing a suit that was essential wear in my day job, which was an engineer for a large American company that had started in this country. I did this to impress him as he had no time for this fancy new technology and I had a feeling that I was going to end up married to this girl, although it had never been discussed.
My night job was playing guitar in local rock bands, where the compensation had initially been money, then booze, then escalated to groupies and drugs, and then to negotiated deals where the booze, drugs, and girls became a package.
I woke up one morning with an unknown girl in bed beside me and was so aghast it was the end of my rock and roll career.
So I returned to my home town, seriously interested in this farmers daughter, and over the next few months persuaded her to stop her father from polishing his gun whenever I showed up, and asked her to marry me.
She has not one jot of romanticism in her body but we are still together after 58 years. But I sometimes dream of a romantic liaison ...