Out of the mouths of babes

[Nick Salmon]

A local primary school class has been reading Roald Dahl's book 'Danny, Champion of the World' - which features Danny driving a Box saloon. The school recently asked me to take mine along for them to have a look at, and I duly obliged. Had a brilliant morning in the playground with a very enthusiastic and excited bunch of 8 year olds who had never seen anything quite like it. I took along some engine bits and explained how it all works.  'Suck, squeeze, bang, blow' -  is now being chanted in the playground.

They sent me a delightful 'book' of thank you notes - two of which are below. I hadn't even mentioned Sir Herbert's demise, so the pupil worked that out for themselves. And the note about the horn blowing made me laugh - there were about 30 children and in a crocodile line, entering the driver's side and exiting the passenger side, they all had a go at pressing the button. The rest of the school must have wondered what on earth was going on.

The obvious hope is that one day perhaps one or two of them will remember the experience and seek out a Seven for themselves.


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[Ruairidh Dunford]

Brilliant!

[Howard Wright]

Fabulous.

Extra poignancy as we're baby sitting (is it baby sitting when the offending child is nearly 9?) over half term.  Unfortunately the offending child is "electronics" mad and not even, an albeit bad, description of how a cut-out acts as a diode could dissuade him from his Xbox!

He also thinks my Merc SL far more "cool" than either of my sevens . Where did I go wrong!

Howard

[Timothy P]

Brilliant, the second one made me laugh too.
Sounds like it was a rewarding exercise.

[Chris KC]

Well done Nick! Love the letters...

[Chris Garner]

Yes, well done Nick.
Just the thing to encourage the generations of the future.

[Charles Levien]

A local primary school class has been reading Roald Dahl's book 'Danny, Champion of the World' - which features Danny driving a Box saloon. The school recently asked me to take mine along for them to have a look at, and I duly obliged. Had a brilliant morning in the playground with a very enthusiastic and excited bunch of 8 year olds who had never seen anything quite like it. I took along some engine bits and explained how it all works.  'Suck, squeeze, bang, blow' -  is now being chanted in the playground.

They sent me a delightful 'book' of thank you notes - two of which are below. I hadn't even mentioned Sir Herbert's demise, so the pupil worked that out for themselves. And the note about the horn blowing made me laugh - there were about 30 children and in a crocodile line, entering the driver's side and exiting the passenger side, they all had a go at pressing the button. The rest of the school must have wondered what on earth was going on.


The obvious hope is that one day perhaps one or two of them will remember the experience and seek out a Seven for themselves.

I like the spelling of Austen — they must start them on the classics at an early age these days.

Charles

[Steve Jones]

On the VSCC Light Car French week in Normandy in 2015, the Scatter Rally started from the square in front of the Town Hall. The local Primary School had emptied and the pupils were there to watch the precedings and they lined up in twos to sit in the cars. After waiting patiently their turn in the queue, two lads maybe 9 or 10 years old climbed into our RM one saying to my Wife 'Hello, Lady. My name's Cameron. I'm English but I live in France now'. He went on to ask all the usual questions that young lads ask translating the answers in perfect French to his mate sitting beside him. They both tooted the horn and went off chattering excitedly away to each other. When the 'inspections' were over and the cars left to go Scatter Rallying the kids all lined up each side of the square to wave us off each of them waving a paper union jack on a stick. It was a brilliant hour or so.

Steve

[Dave Mann]

At that age they are full of questions with minds like blotting paper, when our daughters were that age they could converse in English, Fijian and Hindi with the local kids in Fiji. Now our grandson, aged 7, is at it, his last question was how do you make electricity? That had me stumped for a while till I remembered I had a battery less torch.

[Bob Culver]

How to make electricity was the most common question on this Forum!
Roald Dahl is by no means an author only for children. His autobiographies “Boy” and “Going Solo” are great reads. His short stories ditto. No soppy stuff.
At displays it is interesting to overhear people. The crank handle is usually a source of great speculation. Many conclude it is for every start. When my car was in everyday use eons ago larrikins at pedestrian crossings often made to try the crank.