UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

RobRusbridge · 18th Sep 2018, 7:55 pm

Right then, plenty of heat generated. Perhaps I can contribute an idea. It goes like this. In this country, there are many, many old people who are quite lonely and there are many, many young parents who are run ragged by their offspring. It would be very good if the old ones could meet with the young ones in a meaningful way, meantime the middle-aged ones could have an hour of easy parenting. What I'm proposing is a very local event where a church, or some other organisation with a hall to contribute, allows someone keen (a BVWS member?) to set up a Saturday Afternoon Pop-Up Museum. The old ones with interesting old things with some play (or at least fascination) value bring it along and set it up on Saturday morning. The parents bring the kids along on Saturday afternoon and they ogle the marvels of anything from a clockwork gramophone to a hand-cranked sewing machine, taking in everything from electric clocks to old tin-plate toy trains along the way. Anything, in fact, which is suitably interesting that some older person would like to bring along. The old ones then spend a grand afternoon explaining their old tech to the young ones and letting them have a go if they seem sensible enough, and all of a sudden you've got lots of older people who are no longer lonely, and lots of young people who have a new interest in old tackle of whatever description, and a working knowledge of old geezers, both of which would be most useful for them to have. There's nothing but hard work to be gained for the organiser but it would, I think, be a most useful thing. Get someone to bring along an old video camera and let the kids "read the news" and email the video to their parent(s). Wind up the old gramophone and teach them a passable fox-trot. Have them call each other on old clockwork-dial telephones connected to a 1980s office exchange. These are the things which will bring old people out of their shells and get young people interested in something other than computer games. My friend has a son who is 10. I loaned out an oval of track and a Hornby O gauge clockwork train for his birthday party in case of rain (this is Cornwall!) and we now have the youngest collector of pre-war tinplate trains in the county. He's also very much into Mamod steam engines because I gave him a traction engine for Christmas (when he was only 9). Toys with fire in their bellies? Yes please. So much less "wet" than computer games. There is a willing audience. What we need to do is put in the work to reach them. It's not as if the people putting on the "pop-up museum" don't get anything in return for their hard work. It's just that there's no real money to be made out of this idea (unless you profit from the tea and pasties on sale).
There we are then, that's better. I haven't ridden that hobby horse for ages.
Rob.

18th Sep 2018, 7:55 pm	#44
RobRusbridge Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: St. Austell, Cornwall, UK. Posts: 67	Re: Changing the BVWS Right then, plenty of heat generated. Perhaps I can contribute an idea. It goes like this. In this country, there are many, many old people who are quite lonely and there are many, many young parents who are run ragged by their offspring. It would be very good if the old ones could meet with the young ones in a meaningful way, meantime the middle-aged ones could have an hour of easy parenting. What I'm proposing is a very local event where a church, or some other organisation with a hall to contribute, allows someone keen (a BVWS member?) to set up a Saturday Afternoon Pop-Up Museum. The old ones with interesting old things with some play (or at least fascination) value bring it along and set it up on Saturday morning. The parents bring the kids along on Saturday afternoon and they ogle the marvels of anything from a clockwork gramophone to a hand-cranked sewing machine, taking in everything from electric clocks to old tin-plate toy trains along the way. Anything, in fact, which is suitably interesting that some older person would like to bring along. The old ones then spend a grand afternoon explaining their old tech to the young ones and letting them have a go if they seem sensible enough, and all of a sudden you've got lots of older people who are no longer lonely, and lots of young people who have a new interest in old tackle of whatever description, and a working knowledge of old geezers, both of which would be most useful for them to have. There's nothing but hard work to be gained for the organiser but it would, I think, be a most useful thing. Get someone to bring along an old video camera and let the kids "read the news" and email the video to their parent(s). Wind up the old gramophone and teach them a passable fox-trot. Have them call each other on old clockwork-dial telephones connected to a 1980s office exchange. These are the things which will bring old people out of their shells and get young people interested in something other than computer games. My friend has a son who is 10. I loaned out an oval of track and a Hornby O gauge clockwork train for his birthday party in case of rain (this is Cornwall!) and we now have the youngest collector of pre-war tinplate trains in the county. He's also very much into Mamod steam engines because I gave him a traction engine for Christmas (when he was only 9). Toys with fire in their bellies? Yes please. So much less "wet" than computer games. There is a willing audience. What we need to do is put in the work to reach them. It's not as if the people putting on the "pop-up museum" don't get anything in return for their hard work. It's just that there's no real money to be made out of this idea (unless you profit from the tea and pasties on sale). There we are then, that's better. I haven't ridden that hobby horse for ages. Rob.