MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

No Graham it's historical.

[Big Kev]

Spare parts for steam engines?

[Stanley]

No Kev. Big clue. Think California or bust.

[Cathy]

Are they ‘last chance’ Toilets?

[Stanley]

No Cathy, they sold something.... If I quote another title pertinent to the move west I shall give it to you.....

[Wendyf]

Was it once a gas station?

[Stanley]

No Wendy, a roadside stall selling food to travellers.......

[Gloria]

Mule Tobacco Barn?

[Stanley]

Sorry no Gloria. What food could be being sold to travellers....?

[Gloria]

First place selling burgers?

[Big Kev]

I reckon Gloria is there but I'm going to throw in water melons, no idea why it just looked like a watermelon stall

[Tripps]

Can I throw in 'hominy grits' just for the sheer joy of using the expression.

Wikipedia helpfully describes them as " Hominy grits is a type of grits made from hominy "

First heard of them in a Tom Lehrer song almost a lifetime ago.

[Stanley]

Sorry but nobody has got there. Kev is the closest. One last clue, the stalls sold produce grown on the farms alongside the road.... You're going to kick yourselves. Best clue I gave was to think of a famous title associated with the western migration....

[Tripps]

Grapes of Wrath ?

[Stanley]

At last! I have to give it to David. There are mentions in individual accounts of stopping at roadside stalls selling grapes and when I was driving up Route 66 to St Louis and my stay with Uncle Bob and Paulette I came across this roadside stand in Missouri. Whilst there is no direct connection with the migration or Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath', one of the itinerant jobs the travellers did was grape harvesting. Bob agreed that these stall sold grapes and were contemporaneous with the migration in the 30s.
Next one?

[plaques]

OK what's this.

box mangle.jpg

[Stanley]

I think I know but will keep stum.

[Stanley]

Nobody seems to be biting. Is it a machine for pressing large items like sheets in a public wash house?

[plaques]

Correct again Stanley. Its a box mangle. A flat bed where a box full of stones to add weight was drawn over the items on the bed. The one shown was in the workhouse laundry Burnley. Having been put through the 'mangle' the sheets etc often didn't need ironing.

[Stanley]

What is it?

[PanBiker]

If you showed a bit more you would see the sea?

[Cathy]

At first I thought turtle eggs, but there’s too many there for one turtle to lay.
Are they sea pebbles?

[Stanley]

Ian knows what it is and not pebbles Cathy. Knock it on the head Ian....

[Big Kev]

Ice balls...

[Stanley]

Quite right Kev.... Next one?