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#69615 05/18/02 11:43 PM
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wwh Offline OP
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I have made duplicate posts many times, because I did not get message post had been entered. In most every case, however, when I saw there were duplicates, I could delete one, until someone else had made a post.


#69616 05/19/02 06:12 PM
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wow Offline
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I imagine must be obsolete except in wine making regions is the 'cooper' - the man who made the barrels.
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Sorry, but right over the road a piece from me is a full time cooper ... and his barn is chock-a-block full of handsome barrels and other nifty "containers." The trade's been in the family for generations and Dad & Sons now operate it very successfully, thank you very much!

As for real blacksmiths, there's one working at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth with his hammer, anvil, and all that, not to mention a great pair of shoulders!





#69617 05/19/02 07:14 PM
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wwh Offline OP
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I had an ancestor who was called a "brazier", but actually made small cannons. When he sold them to the British, instead of to the Patriots, the Patriots destoyed his shop, and he had to flee to Halifax. When I was young "Go to Halifax!" was a euphemism for "Go to Hell". Incidentally, he gave his daughter when she married, a place in Pembroke, MA where his son-in-law ran a forge for turning bog ore into iron for his father-in-law. Bog ore comes from rain leaching iron out of land around a shallow pond, and precipitating. I read that a man could get a ton of the ore out of the pond a day, but what a job it must have been to get it to the nearest forge, which had to have enough water power to operate the bellows necessary to make the charcoal burn hot enough to reduce and melt the iron. I don't know occuational name for guy who made the charcoal. He had to dig an enourmous pit,fill it with wood, and cover it with sod, leving only a chimney. And he too had a long trip to the forge, though the charcoal would have been far lighter than the bog ore.


#69618 05/22/02 04:21 PM
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It just occurred to me that there are occupations without any names. Some years back I was spending a few days in Surfers Paradise, south of Brisbane, and had occasion to take a walk on the beach.

I was admiring the relatively unclad ladies when my attention was drawn to an elderly gentleman who had a fat-tired cart with several very large pressurized bottles containing suntan lotion. Half-naked women were paying him to spread this lotion on their nubile bodies. I started to ask him if he needed an apprentice when my then-wife stopped me with a strong word or three.

And now, as I get ready to retire I find myself looking for a job like that, but I can't figure out what the name of the occupation is so I can write to the Australia immigration people about my plans. And my mail addressed to "Lucky" in Surfers Paradise just comes back unclaimed.



TEd
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