David Hall
was a child in the 1950’s, an era where children
should be seen but not heard and
youngsters were chastised if they spoke out of turn or interrupted an adult who
was speaking. This concept was the essence of the song Little Children by Billy
J Kramer & The Dakotas which was No. 1 in 1964.
However, in
recent times the watchword has been transformed to children should be heard with young people now encouraged to
partake in decision making committees at school, some make TV programmes one
each year for the BBC and some become Authors at an early age.
The
following interesting interactions have taken place with children who David has
met whilst undertaking their Grandad’s funeral.
The marketing
of Vintage Lorry Funerals started when David gave Richard Simpson, Editor of
Trucking Magazine, the exclusive on his business venture and Richard ran a 4
page feature on the 1950 Leyland Beaver’s new role. A Photographer left his
home near Ashford in Kent
and drove to Bradford-on-Avon to undertake a
detailed photo shoot of the vintage lorry. At the end of the session David
asked if he could have his own picture and climbed into the cab, placing his
right forearm on the open cab door window, adopting a 1950s Lorry Drivers pose.
At that moment the sky changed and an atmospheric picture was captured,
featuring a John Constable like sky. David has used this picture as his main
marketing image for the past 14 years.
Just about
this time a young Grandson would travel with his Lorry Driver Grandad during
his school holidays and the young lad was shown the Trucking magazine featuring
the Vintage Lorry Funerals article.
Sadly within
3 months the Grandad passed away whilst taking a 45 minute break in the middle
of a journey in the Midlands. His children met
in the front room of a house in Ross-on-Wye, evaluating what they should do for
their Dad’s funeral whilst the children were banished to the kitchen. During
the discussion there was a knock on the door and the Grandson who had travelled
with the Deceased walked in and said, ‘If you go through Grampy’s cab you will
find a Trucking magazine and a story about a bloke from Bradford-on-Avon
who uses a 1950 Leyland Beaver in funerals.’
This lead to
Vintage Lorry Funerals first opportunity in Ross-on-Wye and to reward the young
man for his help David offered to take him in the cab, sitting him on the
engine-cover, between David and the Funeral Director. The young man was
obviously upset loosing his Grandad so David decided to distract him by showing
how to double-de-clutch. David said that he would act as a robot and only act
when the young man instructed. So when changing up into top gear the young man
was instructed, when David put the Leyland Beaver in neutral, to count to 5 to
let the engine revolutions die down before shouting ‘change’ and David then put
his foot on the clutch and moved the gearstick into top gear. On the journey to
the cemetery a number of gear changes took place and this proved to be an ideal
distraction. The picture below was taken to provide the young man with a
lasting memory of the day, and it is understood that he is now a skilled Motor
Mechanic. It wasn’t a day to smile for the camera as the young man had just
seen his Grandad’s coffin being lowered into his grave.
During a Southampton funeral the Son of the Deceased travelled
with David in the cab and he told David about his family, including a young boy
with learning difficulties who didn’t attend mainstream school and his autistic
tendencies were a major concern to his family. The Family left the service at
the crematorium at some distant from where the vintage lorry was parked and
suddenly, without any warning, the young boy darted across the car park and ran
towards David. As he approached he thrust out his right hand and said, ‘I would
like to take this opportunity to say thank you on behalf of my family for
giving my Grandad a good send off.’ David then invited the young boy to become
his little helper and David watched the 7 year old carefully roll up the
ratchet straps as he had been shown. David then gave the young boy a guided
tour of the cab and explained what every switch did as the young boy pointed to
it. His Mum & Dad apologised that their Son had caused a problem and David
replied, ‘Meeting your Son was a privilege not a problem.’
John
Blackstock had been an International Truck Driver who had taken his two Sons
with him in his Volvo Double Sleeper Cab during their summer holidays. In their
teens the boys followed different paths and went their separate ways, one
became an I.T. Director in a big company however, the other, through tragic
circumstances, had never worked. As the two ‘boys’ would be together the first
time in years for their Dad’s funeral David decided to build something that
would remind them of happier times. Next door to the Funeral Directors in Coventry is a school and
young school children passing the vintage lorry started to hum the Death March.
One young boy looked up at the replica Volvo Double Sleeper Cab and wanted to
climb up onto the deck and play in the cab. A more nature girl said, ‘No, you
can’t to that, this model has been built because the man who has died probably
drove a lorry like the model.’
David was
taking pictures of a Traveller’s funeral outside a house on a busy main road in
Mitcham, South London. David was standing on
the opposite side of the road with a young Traveller boy close to him. David
asked the young boy to get one of the adults to stop the traffic so that he
could get a good picture. The young boy, to David’s horror, ran out in front of
an oncoming lorry, waving his arms above his head shouting, ‘Stop the
(expletive) traffic’ and repeated this 5 times. David was mortified.
