A blast into the past.....

Mair and Jono with the replica spitfire

 This weekend we saw the much published 'Forties festival of food and fun". Unfortunately due to commitments we were not bale to get there until near the end, but it was a fantastic show.
Jono has been looking at the second world war in history at school (No, Jono, I was not a girl then and no I don't remember it!)

Attempting to drive the tram

Being a typical pre teen he was not filled with enthusiasm at being dragged out in the cold and wet, but as soon as he got there, he was bemoaning the fact we couldn't have come earlier.

He was fascinated by the replica spitfire and watching this being dismantled, it showed him in the flesh , so to speak just how small and fragile these air craft were.

Outside the tram

The children could not believe that these trams transported everyone from Colwyn Bay to Lllandudno untill 1956 (no Jono I did not go to school on one!). One of the gentlemen who helps to look after these old trams was more than happy to chat to the children about it and let them on and off and try out the steering.

Watching the spitfire being dismantled and loaded up.

Mair loved the old fashioned bus, and Jono was amazed at the steering wheel and all the controls in wood . I was again remined of a by gone era, where health and safety didn't really exist, but there was such a beauty in all the mechanisms that we just have lost these days.

Mair inside the bus

In the days when we didn't have health and safety paranoia

Mair and the bus

It was lovely to watch everyone walk up and down the road in 1940's dress. All the women in dresses with their hair beautifully rolled up, stockings and coats, and the men in suits and jackets and hats and overcoats. I was really struck how very smart they all looked. Contrasted with a group of chavs who walked past them with skin heads, tracksuits, trainers and token mean looking dog! No wonder my mother used to bemuse how tatty a generation we are.

Mair and Jono with the truck

I was struck how much my mother would have loved coming to this event. She would have truly been transported back to her 'courting' days. The music, food, and all the effort put into turning this particular part of Colwyn Bay into the 1940's was considerable and really worked. You really felt like you had walked onto a film set.

Staggered the wheels are the same size as Mair

I hear that the people organising this event plan another one next year. I would encourage everyone to support this. We are always so quick to moan that there's nothing going on, so when people make such a supreme effort to organise such an event, lets make sure we support them.

The children had a great time and have talked about the machinery for days.

I am just left with a certain melancholy that we have lost 'something' in all our advancement and technology.