Tuesday 29 September 2009

Find The Fault No 41

We've all known garages like this I'm sure. The family car didn't start losing oil until the 1920's, so houses didn't come complete with a purpose-built addition to park the Austin in. We had one on the side of the Victorian house I was lucky enough to have been born in, a lean-to affair with a corrugated iron roof (yess!) that my elder brother once fell through with such force that the sound of collapsing metal still reverberates in me now. We didn't have a car until much later, so our neighbour kept his little Morris in there. Dark and somehow comforting, another memorable day in my fourth year saw me climb into its leathery interior and take the handbrake off. It very slowly rolled forward and firmly wedged itself into my father's workbench. I remember clambering out, shaking with fear and running crying round to the kitchen where my mother was boiling up tripe (I would imagine). "What's on earth's the matter now?" she asked, probably waving wooden laundry tongs at me. "I've crashed next door's car", I spluttered through my tears. Anyway, quite apart from the obvious, I think the FTF artist could have taken a bit more trouble with the decoration on the gable of this improbable garage. A nice sunrise motif would've been nice.

17 comments:

Kevan said...

He'll have troubel getting those doors shut.....

Kevan said...

Or even 'trouble'...

williamandemma said...

Quick off the mark for once - I think that a garage door should be able to close once the car is in (nice car by the way)

williamandemma said...

darn - not quick enough

Peter Ashley said...

Kevan good morning! Blimey you were quick, I get my breakfast much earlier this Tuesday. Congratulations, you get the uncorked bottle of turps.

Peter Ashley said...

Of course all we need now is for Diplo to tell us that's an early manifestion of the sliding door.

Peter Ashley said...

Or even 'manifestation'.

Peter Ashley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Diplomate said...

Well - funnily enough. I guess you've PC Henderson's "Round The Corner" system in mind Peter. Hendersons have been around since 1921. Given the artist's record for omitting detail,this could be a posibility. The "folds" in the door aren't apparent and the guide track in the floor is missing. Frankly none of this really matters as the car is not fully "home". Perhaps this is a drive-thru gate house allowing access to the 18thC stable block at the rear of the house.

Diplomate said...

Actually - it could of course be that the doors are intendd to open outwards but this is Kieth Moon's dad's house - and we know he didn't have a swimming pool.

Philip Wilkinson said...

Never mind the sliding doors. The reason the car's not 'home' is that the wretched garage isn't long enough. Look at the proportions: if it's barely more than a car's width across it needs to be much longer if anything other than a Morris Minor (1928 version maybe) is to fit in.

Peter Ashley said...

I think you'ere absolutely right Philip. Those doors have been forced back into the garage so that the garage can be used as an open-ended car port, and so that they don't flap about in the wind.

Diplomate said...

or drive-thru gate house

Philip Wilkinson said...

But the garage doors I really like are those concertina-style ones with notices on them, which can be made to read odd things if you look at the concertina sideways, so only half, say, of the letters can be seen. I was pleased that Patrick Leigh Fermor also appreciates these doors. In In Tearing Haste, the collection of his and the Duchess of Devonshire's letters, he has a marvellous drawing of such a garage in Mayfair, which can be made to read: 'O PRIG GAGIN ON ANUS'. (It actually says 'NO PARKING. GARAGE IN CONSTANT USE'.)

Bucks Retronaut said...

I remember a cicular tin sign which stood outside a tiny petrol station in Suffolk which was supposed to display the alternative messages "OPEN " or "CLOSED" depending on the positioning of a central vertically hinged flap which acted like the page of a book and obscured half of the sign at any given time.Trouble was that said flap was missing and so the only possible constant message read "OPSED".Mut have confused the hell out of the Singing Postman.
And while I`m at it I loved the road sign in Shefford that the Highways Authority had put near a road bridge over a turgid excuse for a stream to inform the weary traveller that The River Hit was about to be crossed.This sign had to be replaced regularly as the PC mob couldn`t stop the Phantom Graffitist from inserting an "S" before the "H" to uproarious effect (on me,anyway )
Now it`s all spoilt because said Mob have cottoned on to the Cunning Plan of making the sign T shaped, so that they can get the word "Hit"emblazoned thereon with no space available for the "S".
There`s just no fun anymore.

expat said...

I may be in danger of becoming the rear light specialist, but isn't this another vehicle with no lights?

Bucks Retronaut said...

Better a Rear Light Specialist than a Tail Gunner.