The Wallahs Last Hurrah

We at PC Towers have occasionally posted on the sights and sounds that the 'modern world' is losing fast.

Kabadi Wallahs Are Disappearing

 

These were primarily from my youth, but have featured those from other countries, that people had remarked upon losing.

Nearly, But Not Quite Gone

When I was a kid, or if I was a German, then the word 'Puttertogetherers' would not have seemed odd. The Germans for example love these combined words, and as recently as 1999, in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, they came up with the word 'Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz' - meaning "law delegating beef label monitoring"  .... it has since been made redundant, after a change in EU laws removed its need, but the Germans have plenty more examples. We however rarely ever use this method of word formation, which makes 'Puttertogetherers' fairly, if not completely unique.

'Puttertogetherers' make these

Almost Gone

In another of our occasional disappearing world series ..... the dying art of the last of the traditional Spanish castanet makers is being reported on a BBC report.

I say 'traditional', because of course like most things these days, there are factory makers (usually in China), who make them for the tourist trade .... anyone familiar with Spain (or even the Spanish speaking resorts across South America), will have seen the glossy castanets hanging from any tourist knick-knack shop.

Spanish Castanets - Big In The 60's

They lasted five minutes if they were ever used, but normally are the bedrock of the souvenirs hanging in many a working class kitchen, where they act as mute reminders of a holiday on the Costa Del Sol.

Still, its another small part of the world that is fast disappearing, and when gone, they are likely to be gone forever.

Disappearing Worlds

For people of a certain age like me, it isn't just the mass immigration in to the UK, that has caused Britain to feel like a foreign country ..... No, there is also the fact that when we cast our minds back, many of the sights and sounds of our childhoods are now long gone, and only live in ours, and our contemporaries, memories. Obviously, these memories are therefore doomed to disappear from any collective consciousness over the next few decades.

There Are Still A Few Horse Totters About

 

So just for the record, here's just a few of those sights and sounds, purely from my personal memory in the UK ..... and from record where the post refers to foreign lands. 

Rag and Bone Men:

These were still a common sight when I was a kid. And yes, they were still on horse and carts like 'Steptoe and Son'. I vividly recall going to look at the horses .... and my dad telling me to keep an eye on the back garden, as he had car parts lying around (this was the age when men still did their own car repairs), which he didn't want 'disappearing'. Nowadays, although there are still a few totters about, you mostly just see vans with tinkers roving around looking for anything that they can lift, including public statues.