[BITList] And you broke your collarbone, how ?

[HUGH]

John,

Two wee stories, loosely related to yours, neither of them involving really
sad endings.

Before I joined BI I had a Royal Enfield Model G, 350cc.  It had the habit
of losing lub oil, and one day this led to the bottom end running.  I
obtained a new shell, drained the engine of what little oil was left in it,
and took it out of the bike and into my bedroom.  My mother was used to such
things, and I wanted clean conditions to work in while removing the
crankshaft.  I got the bike back on the road, and in due course I went to
sea.  I got a letter from one of my pals to ask if they could borrow the
bike, and off they went.  Alas, the fault that caused it to lose oil had not
been fixed, and the bottom end ran again, somewhere in Glencoe.  They got it
home, and it didn't run again.  I authorised my mother to get it scrapped.

My wife's stepbrother married the daughter of Hans, a German.  Hans had been
a POW here and he'd never gone back home unless on holiday - he married a
local girl.  He was a toolmaker by trade, and he worked on farms here until
his toolmaker credentials were sent over from Germany after WW2.  At his
funeral a couple of years ago, the minister said of him that he kept his
clothes neatly folded on top of the drawers in his bedroom.  The tools, etc,
all shiny, were kept in the drawers.

Hugh.