COB9KY@aol.com
Fri, 3 Dec 1999 17:27:35 EST
Recent postings by Mr Truitt on AMERICA (!!!) and a mention of Warwick Castle
bring to mind two stories.
One of our ex-members Andy Varden, was in a Wars of the Roses group and did
some Summer work for Warwick Castle. He did Living History talks and
demonstrations for the Public. Of course this meant dealing with American
tourists too.
While he was standing at the entrance to the castle, an American gentleman
came up to Andy looking very confused. 'Hey, Bud,' he said, 'Where's the
Castle, then?'
Andy thought the man was taking the mick, but no. On being told that 'this
WAS Warwick Castle,' he replied, 'Hell, we got better than this in
Disneyland! I guess I wasted my time coming here!'
Another day in the Courtyard, they had set up a Living History camp with
tentage etc., and were conducting a tour of the LH Camp. An American woman
had followed the whole tour wide-mouthed and slack-jawed. At the end, she
came up to Andy, made a sort-of-curtsey, and exclaimed in astonishment, 'Gee,
would you believe those tents still standing after all these years ? They
certainly knew how to make things then.'
Of course, this doesn't only happen abroad. When I toured the Shiloh
Battlefield in Tennessee, one of the Rangers told us that the two most asked
questions by American tourists were:
'Why aren't there any bullet holes in the monuments?'
and
'Why were all the battles fought on State Parks?'
Mr Chris (no middle name) O'Brien HGV Class 1
The Scalawag Mess
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