Harry Clarke's Legacy

Do you know of the great contribution that Father Harry Clarke made to British culture? In case you don’t, he is credited with introducing the car book sale to the UK in the 1970s. The catholic priest had spent time working in Canada where he saw car boot sales in action, and he recognised a good opportunity for a charity fund raising occasion.

Over the decades Mrs. Londinius, I and our family have often made a visit to a car boot a regular Sunday outing. This has not always been with unforeseen consequences. For example, the las one we visited was in a farm near Cowbridge a week ago last Sunday. The field was bumpy and uneven and quite unpleasant to walk upon, even going at the pace I like to think of as the ‘car boot amble’. As a result, I’ve been suffering with sciatica ever since.

More than three decades ago I attended my oldest daughter’ Parents Evening where the teacher observed that she had a ‘butterfly mind’. By tis he meant that she was never occupied by one topic for more than a short time and was always wanting to move onto something new. Judging by he way she turned out, the fact that she earned a good university degree and has held down an important management job for a long time since it suggests that the teacher was either exaggerating, or that it certainly hasn’t done her any harm. But I have to admit, I do recognise that tendency in myself. I am prone to new enthusiasms, and just as prone to losing that enthusiasm almost as quickly as it developed.

It's probably true that of all the things I’ve ‘got into’ over the years, the only ones I’ve kept going with over a long period of time are quizzing and art. Now, this tendency can be managed so that it is relatively harmless, but it does make car boot sales particularly dangerous places. Mrs. Londinius could testify to this. I still have a too many vintage transistor radios hanging around the house, for example, none of which I ever really possessed the skills to repair.

Funnily enough I have never bought much in the way of art supplies from boot sales – generally they’re not worth using however cheap they are. I haven’t bought much quiz stuff either, although did pick up some vintage quiz books once, including an original copy of the 1940s Puffin Puzzle book – what on earth that was doing at a car boot sale, I have no idea.