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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Kingston special

We loaded up our bikes and went to Kingston.


We were to be 'heritage' figures, greeting passengers of the steam train and providing a moving background of old-fashioned costume and technology. We did just that.


We chatted with people in the crowd and posed for lots of photographs. At one point, a red-headed girl with Downs' Syndrome clambered onto the carrier of my bike (that doesn't happen every day!). She was hard to shake off :-)


Plenty of people asked if they could ride the bikes 'for old time's sake'. This 84-year old had no trouble staying upright!


This handsome couple posed beside the train...
 
...as did these young'uns.



We had a great weekend. Our other mission there was to provide 'old fashioned' games for the children. We brought skipping ropes, stilts, quoits and spinning tops, all of which were used throughout the day. As well, we had our old wooden pull-train painted-up to resemble the steam train, and we pulled tiny children around on the grassed area for hours, or at least, encoureged their parents to do the towing in our stead. It was a much loved experience for the pre-schoolers, I can tell you!
All for free too! The comments from parents about the lack of cost and the way that made them feel made our day.


4 comments:

fredinthegrass said...

Bless you, Rg. What a great time you must have had, and what pleasure you have given to others - a peaceful break from the rigors of politics for sure!

robertguyton said...

It was, Fred (though I did meet Bill English there and had a 'chat' with him about asset sales! Some people are incorrigible :-)

fredinthegrass said...

In other words neither of you would concede the other had a point!

robertguyton said...

Not at all! We both laughed at each others 'take' on the issue. Bill was most convivial and asked after my progress in local body politics. We teased each other about our respective modes of transport and I promised to myself not to talk about the muffin :-)