Regarding a 1968 Norton P11, which was a dual cylinder, four stroke engine, British motorcycle. I purchased this motorcycle in 1969 from a friend of my friend Joel, for $800. His friend had newly purchased it, but it apparently had had a severe pressurized oil leak from date of purchase. This resulted in billowing clouds of smoke emanating from the right side tailpipe, whenever the bike was driven.
One day, myself, my friends Joel Davenport, Marc Kunkel, and Rabbit Wells were standing around inside the garage of my family house in Basking Ridge, NJ. We were looking at the motorcycle after we had taken the cylinder head off. As the dealer had been unable to detect the problem after at least two tries by the original owner, we were confounded. Dad had just come in from work, and saw us standing around twiddling our thumbs.
After a little conversation, and at Dad's suggestion, we put the cylinder head back on. We then plugged all holes we could find with vaseline. Dad next borrowed the ever-present, dangling cigarette, from Joel, and blew smoke through the cylinder head. We all saw a little wispy trail of cigarette smoke coming out of what appeared to be a pinhole in the cylinder head casting. A fingerful of superglue, and a copper rivet, and the oil leak was history.
After the fix was completed, I recall seeing Dad drive the bike around the neighborhood. I had been unaware that he had known how to drive a motorcycle. I later discovered that his father, my grandfather, had owned an Excelsior motorcycle, and had driven it around Europe after ww1.
Bob loved reading Rosamunde Pilcher's novels and he enjoyed giving me lists of words to explain to him. The set below, which he sent to me in 2006, contained so many words that I did not recognise that I had to call for help from a very literate English friend of mine. She knew most of them, see below.
---------------- Bob's list ----------------
1. blighty
David, 22 has just met Elizabeth (p.67) and is explaining his status to her
..."when I was discharged."
"When was that?" "Over a year ago. I got a Blighty, in the autumn of 1917, and started teaching as soon as I was boarded." ...
My nice new Collins Compact starts out:
Blighty n Brit, Aust & NZ slang 1. Britain...
This is your new Brit challenge word.
2. brass rags
A new phrase from Rosamunde Pilcher: "... we parted brass
rags." which I took to mean an unhappy parting. But it's not in Collins Gem. Are you familiar with it?
3. drugget
September, p.47: "[In the church] a worn drugget
led to the altar." (A carpet runner?)
4. guddled
"She had grown up within these walls, played solitary games
in that magic garden, guddled for trout in the river..." (Fished?)
5. eight follow with the word in question in [ ]
a.she [unsnibbed] the door and threw it open
unlatched?
b.It was handy having Edie doing this because it
meant that she stinted on helpings of things he hated, like curried mince and stodgy custard, and was lavish with the mashed potatoes and [chocolate shape].
Could this just mean a piece of chocolate
in some particular shape? GOOGLE is full of that sort of reference.
c....when Edie was a little girl, the cottage
had consisted solely of two rooms. A [but and ben] it was called.
GOOGLE showed adverts for contemporary
British (Scots?) cottages called but 'n bens.
d....my eldest brother was out working on the land, and living in a [bothy] with the other farm hands.
GOOGLE: The Bothy, Clun. A delightful holiday
cottage in South Shropshire, England for that well deserved get-away holiday. ... Email: bothy@clun.demon.co.uk. (delightful, really?)
e.The face of the hillside thrust skywards, cliffs
of rock and scree, sprouting tufts of [whin] and bracken
Collins Gem: whin n. Brit. gorse
f....it was a wonderful comfort to your Granny Vi
to know that even if Geordie was with her no longer, there was a new wee life on the way. And then we heard that Caroline was looking for a Nanny to take care of the bairn. Your Granny was up to [high doh].
(I read that as elated)
GOOGLE:
VOICES Choeur International - Pressbook VOICES Choeur International. Up to High Doh. by Jean O'Sullivan. If,some Monday night, your neighbour on the Metro breaks into song ... www.voices.asso.fr/pressbook/eyes.html
(I read this as Doh as in Doh Re Mi music scale)
g.When my granny heard, she was up to high doh, didn't
want any candle-bearing Catholics in the family; she'd been brought up [Wee Free].
GOOGLE is full of references to a current book titled Wee Free. No help.
I was the kitchen maid and the Cook was a [bisom].
From GOOGLE: LOCAL WORDS AND PHRASES
... Bisom"= a brush or broom. www.iol.ie/~dromore/folk/phrases.htm (not satisfactory).
h.Is she there now?
No, she's [having a toes-up].
The context leads me to read toes-up as nap.
GOOGLE: no help.
======= My friend's replies ===========
I already knew
1 "Blighty" as in "Take me back to dear old Blighty..." - a 1st WWar soldiers song for going home to Britain. A ticket for Blighty was a wound sufficiently severe to warrant being sent home or honorably discharged from the army. 5a The snib is the bit you push up or down to stop the lock being unlocked from the outside - as in my house. So unsnibbed is moving it down to enable someone to use the key from outside to let themselves in. 5b "Shape" is a pudding like blancmange or the pudding I can't remember the name of made with rennet. I suppose this word comes from the moulds it is set in. 5c a but and ben is a small crofters dwelling and I think consists of 2 rooms. I know what they look like from the outside but again could look into a bit deeper. I think they are usually on hillsides and not in villages. 5d a bothy is a sort of barn/outhouse I think but again, though I know the word I'd have to go into it a bit more to get an accurate definition 5f for high doh see below but I do ken the wee frees. Wee frees are small churches which did not belong to the Church of Scotland, the Presbeterian or Catholic Churches and were highly independent and usually very puritan and of narrow beliefs
I have come across but would not have remembered:
3 drugget as a rug of the floor variety
4 I think that guddled is to catch fish in the hand or net on stick - as in tickling trout.
5f suspect it may be short for high dudgeon - meaning very annoyed as my grandma was also agin "papists".
5g besom is a broom - the kind witches fly on so it might be a figurative way of saying the cook is a witch of a person.
5h toes up sounds to me like a version of "putting her feet up"
I do not know:
2 brass rags I have an idea what might be meant but will think further 5.e never heard that one 5f nor this
