SPIEZ - SWITZERLAND
Grandfather "'avin a fag...!" somewhere in the Alps...
I think that I've mentioned before that I never knew when I was growing up that my Grandfather was once, or ever had been, a smoker. I'm told that pretty much everyone was back then of course, but it still came as something of a surprise to find out about it from these photographs.
I suppose that I ought not to have been, of course. After all, he spent much of his life in the Plumbing Trade, and I imagine that having a packet of smokes was pretty much part of the standard toolkit back in those days, no matter quite how close to the gas-pipes that they'd have been working.
I suppose it comes down to the fact that there was precious little evidence of it going on when I was around, although, now that I come to think about it, there was always a shiny metallic cigarette box sitting on the coffee table and, like many houses around that time, several rather ornate looking ashtrays which I always assumed at least to be for the use of visitors.
Then there were those "novelty cigarette dispensers" that they had around the place, probably bought, come to think of it, on holidays exactly like this one. I vividly remember a small wooden barrel with twelve holes in the top which I used to keep some crayons in. When you pushed down on the little wooden tap, the crayons would miraculously rise up out of the top of the barrel, but it makes more sense that it was probably originally intended as an amusing way of offering a gasper to any guests who might want one back in the days when such things were part and parcel of the natural social order.
Maybe, as he stands there on that driveway, being photographed looking all determined and cool by person or persons unknown, that's precisely the thought he's having; "After this, I'm going to head off back to the souvenir shop and get one of those cigarette barrels. That's exactly what my life needs within it right now..."
I have a small collection of novelty cigarette boxes. No barrel though.
ReplyDeleteYou don't think he was a international Russian spy do you, waiting for his contact to meet him outside the hotel do you? Perhaps that might explain his pose - 'I will be smoking a cigarette with my hand in my pocket comrade' - and the very fierce look. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should say that... Stay tuned to see what I've (apparently coincidentally) written a few days down the line...
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