A report from deep France; (yep, that's where I am at the moment!)
Right, how can I say this without offending anyone/someone/everyone? Oh well, here goes. Just remember it's not aimed at any individual in particular, just a general statement. Over the past year or so I've noticed a lot of "what's this car" or "What's that car" and "Anyone ever seen this picture before?". In every single case where the aforementioned pictures etc have been put up, I have honestly been able to say to myself "yes, I do know that car/picture etc". I've only been round the micro world eleven years compared to the 20/30/40 years clocked up by some, but I find it's the old stagers (for want of a better expression) who are doing all the asking. Do you honestly really not know what this stuff is?! You've been around anything up to four times longer than I have!!! It should be me asking you what this stuff is! I just find it unfathomable that people who are meant to be enthuastiac about microcars have not made it their business to already know what just about EVERYTHING is....
Is the above really the state of the nation (of the forum, as opposed to RCN the magazine) or am I the odd one out for having gone out of my way to stuff my head with everything possible and accumulated everything I possibly can in relation to the micro world. I do find I have been wondering for a little while now if there is anything new to learn in the micro world as presented here, and the above makes me wonder all the more as the ground we tread at the moment here on the forum should have been the ground we covered long long ago no matter how "new" or "old" to microcars we are.
I confess I don't go a lot on reprinting past articles in RCN. Such venerable publications should keep on pushing the knowlege forward rather than stand still or step back. I made it my business to get complete sets (or as complete as I could get) of just about all the different club & register magazines, in some cases going back to the early 1970s. If one is serious about "the knowledge" of these cars, then get on and find those back issues like we who went before had to do....
But then again, in the words of ol' Blue Eyes; "I did it my way."
Oh heck. Did I
really write the above?! I suppose I must have done as it's my name upon it. Right, I think I owe a general explanation of what seems to be at the root of certain erratic behaviour patterns from me over at least the past six months. This is my first public admitance of this, as for reasons in line with the nature of the fault, I didn't and still don't really regard the diagnostic as a problem as such. Indeed, even my family do not know about the forthcoming. Nor do I wish them to know....
Seven years ago I had a certain personal difficulty which, after a couple of months of erraticness in the previous world I used to occupy before I got into microcars, was traced to (and I quote;)
"...a trauma-induced manifestation of a latent strain of otherwise semi-controlled Aspergers Syndrome" I knew I'd always been fixated beyond reasonable requirements on most things in which I was intrested, but apparently, in 2005, it was officially listed as an abnormal mindset. To me personally, I always had, and still do, regard it as my perfectly normal state of existence.
Anyway, to return to the point; In April last year, another somewhat major personal difficulty arose, which I have no intention of disccussing on open forum, which apparently set my mindset off once again. This resulted in Doctors orders to ditch (amongst a few other things) the ICR for at least a year as so not to have the day-to-day running of it inflaming the rising Aspergers re-manifestation. Unfortunately I ignored this advice for some six months, which manifested in mental and temporal conflict between, on the one hand, my need to get away from the ICR for a time, and on the other, an over-riding sense of responsibility because of all I'd done to build it up over the years. This resulted in a certain explosive reaction to a perceived effort to push the invalid carriages off main forum a little while ago which finally (and eventually) made me suddenly get that aspect into proportion.
At the current time, the ICR is semi-mothballed. I still answer enquiries, but restrain myself to no more than two or three a week. My manifested current overly Aspergers mindset is just about under control at the moment, but please note,
not entirely as alas the above quoted earlier posting has proved. Thomas a few posts later, was indeed right about what was going on. Bare with me. I'll get back to my own normality soon enough...
