Ships that pass............??

[Parksy]

Over the past few years since we took up touring ( we had a seasonal pitch before then for a while when I was ill) we've been to some varied and interesting places and on site we've met and shared good times with some nice, amusing and interesting people.
We've sometimes swapped telephone numbers or more latterly email addresses with those who we've befriended on site but we've come to realise that these temporary friendships are akin to ships that pass in the night.

Of course there are people who we meet up with from this forum from time to time who we do stay in touch with, and we look forward to seeing them again when we re-visit the area where they are or when they are around our area.

The ships that pass in the night are perhaps the motorhomers from 'next door' who you see waiting at the bus stop in the rain and who you offer a lift to, or maybe the tenters or caravanners across the way who share a similar sense of humour or a common interest.
We've been out for shopping or sightseeing trips, meals or to the local to the site pub with some of them, shared drinks and cheesy biscuits in our caravan and their tent, caravan or motorhome, or sat in the awning with tea and biscuits on a damp afternoon many times and we've really enjoyed this social aspect of caravanning to the full at times.

Has anybody else made friends with fellow site users and did you keep in touch or, like ourselves, enjoy the company before travelling on to the next adventure?

 

[emmerson]

Yes, many times Parksy.On this latest Eurotrip, when in France we met a couple from the Midlands with whom we've since spent three days at Rowntree park, and are meeting agin in November. Again, whilst in France, we met a single lady, and agin have spent time with her since returning home.We've also made friends with a couple of site owners.
In fact, most of our friends we've met either through caravanning, or through connections with caravanning.
Mind you, we've also met some horrors! (but they probably say the same about us!)

 

[carper2]

We have met people in France and have met up with some of them for the last seven years. We have met up with some of them at least once a year when we get home.

Les

 

[RayS]

Yes ! - over half our reasonably lengthy Christmas card list is friends made while caravanning. We have enough space for a second caravan and thus have a 'friends only' mini CL - lovely views and surroundings, pity about the Warden.
The strange thing is, however, that many of them would not necessarily be compatible with the others - the Venn diagram circles have vry few overlaps (Prof J will explain). But this keeps the gatherings small and plentiful, so no problem.

 

[Gagakev]

I dont have a problem making friends, it's keeping them I find difficult

After a few drinky's at the end of the night, I just love a good punch up

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all.
no parksy can't say we have made any friends on site that we have met up with again, nearest was a couple from hamburg we met while touring the highlands they turned up at the site we were on, camping with a motorbike in a gale force wind and pouring with rain, we offered them shelter in our awning with a cup of hot coffee and sandwiches untill the rain stopped, when it had not stopped before night fall they accepted our offer to sleep in the awning. next morning the weather was better so they pitched up not far away we talked to them and had them round for coffee a couple of times and they invited us to a local hostelry for a meal as a thankyou,
we exchanged addresses, when they left and had christmas cards send for a couple of years but never met them again.

 

[Parksy]

I'd almost forgotten this but we actually met the true original Elvis when we were staying on a C&CC certified site just over a week ago!
We go to the Twinwood Festival in Clapham near Bedford every year over the August Bank Holiday and because there is a queue of caravans waiting to enter the site when it opens on the Thursday lunchtime and the pitches are first come, first served we always travel down a couple of days earlier so that we can do a bit of sightseeing (we visited Althorp house, ancestral home of the Spencer's including the burial place of Diana Princess of Wales this year), our local shopping, meet up with friends and be ready to move when the festival site is opened.
We stayed on a nice certified site in Clapham village about a mile from the disused wartime airfield where the retro music festival is held and this site has many 'seasonal' caravanners who pay to store their caravans in the site storage area and who have them towed on site and pitched up by the site owner when they ring and book a pitch beforehand.
We spoke to a nice elderly gentleman who was pitched next to us (the pitches were of generous proportions so he wasn't very close) and he told us that he and his wife had used this same site for the past 47 years.
One evening the gentleman's wife was watching tv and he was sitting outside at a loose end so we invited him round to our caravan for a cup of tea and a biscuit.
He gladly accepted and we spent a pleasant hour or so chatting to this nice man who hailed from Barnet. He was born in 1936 which made him 75 years old and he was remarkably sprightly and dapper for his age. He was telling us about the wartime when he was conscripted to work down in the coal mines which he really hated.
One way and another he finally managed to get out of this job and into the Middlesex regiment of the British army which was obviously more dangerous at that particular time but which he much preferred to coal mining.
The old gent's wife had finished watching her programme and it was time for him to go back to look after her so we shook hands and he asked our names and expressed the hope that he would see us again.
We echoed his sentiments and told him our names and we then asked what his name was.
'Elvis' he replied and I really thought that he was kidding us because he knew about the music festival and he knew that we'd enjoyed a good laugh together, but the gent assured me that his name was indeed Elvis and he showed us his drivers licence which proved beyond doubt that he was telling us the truth.
This gentleman said that both his father and one of his uncles had also been called Elvis and because he had been born in 1936 he was the original Elvis rather than the late rock and roll singer from the USA.
We've been lucky enough to make many friends and acquaintances on our various travels but I never imagined that I'd share a pot of tea and some chocolate digestives with Elvis in our caravan!

 

[RayS]

Nice story Steve, but are your sure of the dates ? If your new found friend was born in 1936 and is now 75 he would have been 9 at the end of WW2 and although National Service conscription continued into the 1950's I think the 'Bevan Boy' alternative was discontinued long before this. The earliest he would have gone would have been at 18 i.e. 1954. Now born in 1926 would fit, making him now 85.
All this chimes with me as I too was born 1936 and have been called many things in my life but not as yet a 'sprightly old gentleman' !
The number of people we meet who can remeber those days is getting noticably fewer, but i still find myself being slightly surprised when we consume in one meal what would have been the ration (e.g. for meat and butter) for a week in 1944 and even in the immediate post war years. Better not get started on nostalgia - my short term memory is not as good as my memories from those days. I have written a fairly long article on school days 1941 - 1945 in a village called Sherrifhales which is just north of the A5 at Shifnal and I believe the village school still use it as part of their history course. RAF Cosford test flew horsa gliders before D Day etc.etc.

 

[plotter]

Like Parsy over the years of 'vanning' (36 years) we have met many people and 'bonded' with some the earliest we met in Christchurch (Dorset) some 30 odd years ago and kept in touch for many years before their passing as they were in their seventies when we met.
Later in around 1980ish on a site near Looe we met up with a couple {from Halesowen) and rallied with them for many years and now in our dotage remain in contact.
The latest was via a forum now defunct and this was with Parksy himself and his lovely partner Carole,it is with a great deal of regret that I have to say that we have not seen them in recent times due to myself and SWMBO working and having little free time.
They are a great couple and brilliant devotees of 'vanning' and we hope that shortly we can again meet up.

 

[Parksy]

Nice story Steve, but are your sure of the dates ? If your new found friend was born in 1936 and is now 75 he would have been 9 at the end of WW2 and although National Service conscription continued into the 1950's I think the 'Bevan Boy' alternative was discontinued long before this. The earliest he would have gone would have been at 18 i.e. 1954. Now born in 1926 would fit, making him now 85.

I must have misheard the year when he was born Ray but he really didn't look 85. His wife used a zimmer with little wheels on it to get around the site, she looked her age but Elvis was the one who looked after her with the help of a young relative who was also with them.

Like Parksy over the years of 'vanning' (36 years) we have met many people and 'bonded' with some the earliest we met in Christchurch (Dorset) some 30 odd years ago and kept in touch for many years before their passing as they were in their seventies when we met.
Later in around 1980ish on a site near Looe we met up with a couple {from Halesowen) and rallied with them for many years and now in our dotage remain in contact.
The latest was via a forum now defunct and this was with Parksy himself and his lovely partner Carole,it is with a great deal of regret that I have to say that we have not seen them in recent times due to myself and SWMBO working and having little free time.
They are a great couple and brilliant devotees of 'vanning' and we hope that shortly we can again meet up.

Blimey!! Hiya Mr Plotts, what a site for sore eyes you are

Thanks for the nice comments and it's great to see that you still pop along to this forum now and again.
I sent an email to you a few weeks back but I guessed that you and Marg were both busy working. We really will have to meet up when you have a bit of free time, I'll have a look to see if there are any weekend rallies towards your way when you can pop over for a drink and a natter and I'm sure that you'll be pleased to know that I no longer have to hit the new(er) Pajero with my stick to get it to get it to start and it no longer has it's own smoke screen when it does. (remember that?

)
I'll send an email to you, take care

 

[Tukums]

At Konningshoff Holland in 2009 and in the same area as our pitch was a German couple, we made conversation, my wife could speak a little German. On an Evening we would site outside our vans and chat, I would offer a Dutch beer, which he refused and insisted that I drank his German beer and wine and always agreed German beer is better that Dutch!!! We exchanged addresses and kept in touch. We wrote and told them that in 2010 we would be going to Germany and we would like to meet up. They asked which site we were using and they said they would meet us there, they booked in for the week. We then got a phone call a few days before leaving, they had booked and saved us a riverside pitch, as the site could be busy, nice one for Germans.
So having a long drive to the site with not much sleep, they met us; drinks were ready and some food. They then asked what we were going to do the next day, my reply "a good rest". They came up with a good suggestion a gentle bike ride, it made sense. So off we went and cycled on and on to the Mosel River, 17 miles, then suggested we had a beer (great) and another 17 miles back. Yes relaxing.
We had a few more bike rides with them and he always insisted that I drank Munich Wheat beer.
He was also impressed when I put up the sat. dish, he wanted to watch Manchester United playing that evening in England and of course a few beers. Most evenings they would sit in our awning with us, and talk caravanning, they wanted to know about England.
We still keep in touch and hopefully will meet up in 2012, again in Germany.

 

[mucky pup]

Hi Parksy
Interesting story, i dont suppose you have the old chaps name and address do you. The reason i ask is i was in the Middlesex Regt and can remember a chap called Elvis, we have a regimental reunion every May and i could give him details. I also have back copies of our regimental newsletter called the Die-hards that i will be willing to send him.
If you have any details please email me or ask him to contact me.
Thanks

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

The latest was via a forum now defunct and this was with Parksy himself and his lovely partner Carole,it is with a great deal of regret that I have to say that we have not seen them in recent times due to myself and SWMBO working and having little free time.
They are a great couple and brilliant devotees of 'vanning' and we hope that shortly we can again meet up.

Stop creeping

 

[plotter]

LB glad to hear that you are still of ths Earth LOL. How are you you old B****r its not the same is when we cant wind up Gary!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

LB glad to hear that you are still of ths Earth LOL. How are you you old B****r its not the same is when we cant wind up Gary!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't find that a challenge Plotts. Far too easy

heh! heh! heh!

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

LB glad to hear that you are still of ths Earth LOL. How are you you old B****r its not the same is when we cant wind up Gary!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't find that a challenge Plotts. Far too easy

heh! heh! heh!

Oh and likewise, nice to see you're still alive and kicking.