2 weeks Ago By Susan Morrison
We are not talking US standards of enthusiasm here. Yorkshire goes for a more low-key approach. Had NASA’s first man on the moon been from Sheffield , I imagine he would have taken a good look around and then said "Call this a beach? Have you ever been to Scarborough?” Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.
He was alone and palely loitering at home while I did the Fringe, so he decided he’d like to sort out our old record player so he could spin his vinyl again. This is all the rage at the moment among men of a certain age. The old fashioned LP is back.
Music trend influencers like Grant Stott actually play them on the BBC, when I know fine well he has access to modern technology in those studios. Markets and second hand shops are bung fu’ of men in polo shirts wandering around mooching through those boxes of albums. Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra.
Every now and then my husband pulls one out and shouts ‘“Fifteen quid! Bloomin ‘eck.” Advertisement Advertisement He has LPs. They are in a box under the desk.
I threatened to take them off to a charity shop once. He pushed them further under the desk. He thinks I’ve forgotten about them.
We’ve got a lorry load of CDs as well, but it doesn’t look like they’re coming back anytime soon. No-one fondly remembers the CD. Just not as sexy, I guess.
The long playing record even got a mission to the stars when we sent a golden LP into space to communicate with aliens, which I think was a bit misguided. They probably don’t have a turntable to play President Jimmy Carter's greeting and ‘hello’ in 59 languages. Advertisement Advertisement We don’t have anything to play CDs on, either.
Come to think of it, no-one I know does, probably not even aliens or Grant Stott. So my husband has been doing some rearranging. The desk sheltering the LPs has been designated surplus to requirement, as was an old printer which I suspect Johannes Gutenberg might have used.
There then passed a few anxious days while he agonised over what to do with the printer. It's old, but it still works. A bit like me, really.
He couldn’t bring himself to take it to the dump. Again, a bit like me. Hopefully.
He discovered ‘giving things away’. Contrary to popular belief, Yorkshiremen are not mean. They’d rather something went to a good home.
Advertisement Advertisement They prefer to watch things slowly circulate around the globe, getting gradually more and more battered but still “got a few years left in it”. Look at ‘Last of The Summer Wine’, which never seemed to pour that final drop. It just endlessly recycled, regurgitated and re-ran every joke in the universe.
He found the freecycle and recycling pages on the world wide web and he is delighted. The printer was his first big success. A lovely old gentleman collected it with effusive thanks.
Now he’s planning to bung on all the random clutter he finds rattling about the desk drawers, like a big bag of pens (some working), a ball of elastic bands and miles of random power cables. He’s a man on a mission. Pretty dynamic, for a Yorkshireman.
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