EPISODE 335: A FASCINATNG RESPONSE TO THE SLOVAKIA STORIES by Bill Z——, artist, Canadian, ex-Slovak
alan skeoch
May 2021
Artwork by Bill Z done during a 1979 visit to his Slovak relatives
Thom N—-, friend from the deep past, sent MY Slovak Episodes to his close friend Bill Z—– who responded with some
interesting comments and a series of his artistic interpretation of Slovak life about the same time
as we visited Slovakia. Most of the readers of my episodes are not Slovaks. But I bet dollars to do-nuts
everyone has seen Fiddler on the Roof ! Similar set designs. Bill Z and Thom N are real persons but I have not included
their full names.
By the way, Thom, I had a nice long discussion with Bill…complimented him on his art…perhaps you can
forward this note to Bill.
Al,
Bill Z, a best buddy is an incredible artist and was the Media Consultant for the Etobicoke Board of Education.
He was a docent at the Dali Art museum in Sarasota for over a decade when wintering at his condo in St. Petersburg.
He continues to study art around the world. I sent Bill your last missive about Slovakia and his response deserved forwarding to you and your son .His sketches tell a story themselves.
From:Bill Z Sent:May 5, 2021 5:52 PM To:Thomas N Subject:Re: follow up / My response to Al’s 1993 nostalgic trip to Bratislava
Thom, Feel free to forward to Al and his son. Be forewarned, the photos may scramble from the original aligned format. – Bill
Dobrý deň Tomas,
Thank you for forwarding yesterday the fascinating accounts and nostalgic photos of your friend Al Skeoch’s 1993 trip to Bratislava to visit his son teaching English there! … I happen to have been a student there in Grade 9 for the beginning of the 1953-4 school year before switching to Vaughan Road C.I when our family ‘moved on up’ to the suburbs.
Considering my background, Al’s vivid emailed accounts easily teleported me to Bratislava and the rural countryside of my thirty two plus relatives of all stripes in central Slovakia. Most were labourers, farmers, field hands, homemakers, a couple of doctors, educators and politicians, each hard-working. All those memories of the year I lived and studied making connections there with relatives and fellow classmates in 1974 came rushing back to mind as if yesterday.
I also went back a couple of times, once in 1979 to participate in the internationalDetva Folkloric Festivalwith a contingent of Slovak dancers from a Toronto cultural club representing Canada. A real blast! Another time, after the fall of Communism, to include more time with my academically educated cousins, those professionals who prospered regionally and beyond, now living in the cities of Bratislava, Prague and Vienna. Some also visited me in Toronto. A true pleasure! I regularly exchange emails with my closest cousin Marta, who studied the Queen’s English for two years in London. Speaks fluently, and with a cultured British accent to boot.
The history of Czechoslovakia’s breakup as referenced is a most interesting one. Particularly the ’stolen’ flag shenanigan by the Czech Republic (which I subsequently googled out of curiosity). And I easily related to, or experienced, many of his same personal eye-opening real life adventures. The episode of the secretive party in a wine cellar of a distant darkened village. The ruins, dilapidated shacks, abandoned farmers’ homes unlit at night, and dirt roads along the way as the country transitions from one generation to another. The outdoor markets selling handmade wooden crafts, corn husk dolls, embroidered items. The refreshing panoramic views from the peaks of the scenic Tatra Mountains, the lively music, the local food, delicious dumplings smothered in gravy, and home-made wine or slivovice, and as you and Cathy regretfully experienced in a Prague tram, the scourge of Roma pickpockets, once surprisingly denounced on Canadian T.V. by an international Czechoslovak beauty contestant. The initial cultural shock and language divide. Curious stares of locals turning into smiles and then as strangers turning into friends. It sure helped that I understood and spoke the dialect, admittedly with a lot of hand gestures. Unlike Al, I did get a personal tour of a large scale, well run collective farm while I was there that year. Super clean. Healthy animals. Very impressive!
Not sure if you have seen these quick, plein-air sketches of things large and small created in ’74 while hanging out that year most weekends in my home village of Dojç located an hour or so north of Bratislava. I had great fun in attempting to capture images of authentic Slovakia at the time, and to this day they bring back some of my life’s most precious memories!
Again, thank you and Al for sharing.
Be well. – Bill
The village church: functioning communal well in the centre of Dojç: inside my uncle’s barn with wheelbarrow and wagon wheels: my aunt’s cooking utensils, pots, pans, pails and lids in her kitchen.
Stripping feather for down for comforters: detail of my uncle Villo’s workshop: a wedding parade marching down the street: my uncles, aunt and a cousin making sausage after having slaughtered a pig they raised.
My niece Pavlinka watches uncles Villo and Stefan washing and butchering the pig: choice cuts hanging on the ladder ready to be smoked for winter: Aunt Paula washing the natural casings for sausage-making.
The last sketch was done in December in the village cemetery. The stone marker has a portrait of my long-deceased grandmother, her name Vincentia Zilinkova can be seen carved in the gray granite below.
“Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world. “ – Alfred Lord Tennyson,Ulysses
EPISODE 334 THE LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR RUNS AGAIN — 100 YEARS AFTER THE FACTORY BURNED TO THE GROUND IN 1921
alan skeoch
May 4, 2021
Tom Parker, Dalbeattie Men’s Shedders Club, diving the Little Skeoch (vintage 1921)
“Alan, there’s a package in the post box from Scotland. Who do we know in Scotland?”
“Certainly no relatives because most of them left for Canada and the Virgin Islands
in 1846.”
“Open it.”
“A car magazine!”
“Not just any car magazine, Alan, look closely at the cover.”
“THE LITTLE SKEOCH… Must be from Geoff Allison…maybe some word about the Little Skeoch.
“A slip of paper just fell out…note from Geoff…
And sure enough. There it was…the Little Skeoch…en route to the paint shop.
Moving with its own motor. Boldly doing so. Bold Print. “SKEOCH: THE SCOTTISH
CAR STORY 100 YEARS IN THE MAKING” Driven by arch mechanic Tom Parker
…triumphant despite Parkinson’s disease. “Helping with the car has made such a
difference to my life. I can work with my hands…really was therapeutic for me and I am
so proud…”
As you read this story the Little Skeoch is in a paint shop in Dalbeatie, Scotland.
Perhaps the paint job is already finished. Burgundy. The same colour as the original
Skeoch motor car in 1921 which was launched at the Scottish Show in Glasgow’s
Kelvin Hall. Selling For 180 pounds, the Little Skeoch was expected to make motor
cars within the financial reach of ordinary people. Unfortunately bad luck dashed
the dreams of designer and founder, James Baird Skeoch and his son Ronald Anderson
Skeoch when a fire “ripped through” the Burnside Motor works in Dec. 1921. Only 12
Little Skeoch’s were built none of which survived. Ronald Skeoch planned to
rebuild the car and spent much of his life gathering parts and plans. Sadly he died
before a dream could become a reality. All seemed lost until his daughter Betty and
granddaughter Fiona discovered the motor parts and plans while clearing the estate.
Fiona wanted to do something meaningful with the pieces which included a picture
of the Little Skeoch in 1921.
ENTER THE DALBEATTIE MEN’S SHED
Note to Alan Skeoch from Geoff Allison, secretary, the Dalbeattie
Men’s Shed.
At the same time a group of retired men in Dalbeattie were looking for something
meaningful to do. Why not try and rebuild the Little Skeoch? Robin Gilchrist, chairman,
and Geoff Allison, secretary, and the ‘Shedders’ decided in 2018 to build the car and
maybe…just maybe…have it ready for June 2021 Scottish Motor Show. One hundred years
after the dream that became an incinerated nightmare, the Little Skeoch would
rise like the legendary Phoenix from the ashes.
“We knew that we could do it…And we damn well did!” if i might borrow and change the words from My Fair Lady.
Geoff gives the credit for the rebirth of the Skeoch motor Car to their team of Shedders…
local volunteers and the businesses in Dalbeattie. James Baird Skeoch, a local man,
‘designed it…the likes of which have never been built again until now”
“So, Alan, do you think James Skeoch was a long lost relative?”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to think so. But really I have no idea. We share the
same last name which is a bit unusual. And the name James has been handed
down through the family for more than a century.”
“Do you think you could built a car?”
“Nope. I can barely lift the hood of our car to change the washer fluid.”
BELOW IS EPISODE 134: THE LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR…LIVED ONE GLOIOUS YEAR
EPISODE 134: ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A MOTOR CAR CALLED THE LITTLE SKEOCH
(also called The Skeoch Motorcycle Car)
alan skeoch
Nov. 27. 2018
REVISED OCT. 2020 (slightly)
It has now been two years since I touched base with the men rebuilding The Litle Skeoch Motor Car
in Scotland. It is a daunting task. We had planned on a visit to their workshop but sad events
got in the way…and Covid 19 makes such visits difficult today. How the world has changed.
Maybe I can get a progress report from Scotland. Meanwhile I feel this story should be part
of the Episodes (#134) just in case it gets lost.
alan
Maybe we should bring back the LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR. It was small,, cheap and simple…sort of a 4 wheel bicycle seating two people with a chain drive and small
motorcycle engine. So small that only two very slim people could ride in it since the
car was only 31 inches wide and a little over 8 feet long.
Some of you may think this is some kind of joke. Wrong. In 1920, James Skeoch built his first Little Skeoch, then entered it in a Scottish auto show and sold it
in ten minutes. All told less than a dozen Little Skeoch’s were built in his small factory. Ten were quickly purchased at that auto show. Price? 180 pounds…which was the cheapest car in the show. None have survived. Sadly in 1921 a fire consumed his little factory and as a result the Burnside Motor Company in Dalbeattie, Scotland, ceased to exist.
Pictures of the Skeoch production line were retrieved from Skeoch family albums. Not exactly an automated factory.
But the LITTLE SKEOCHS were real mini cars and seemed about to make a big splash in the booming car market of the 1920’s
until fire ended the enterprise. Everything became a blackened pile of scrap iron.
James Skeoch moved on. His skills were valued. He had a long successful career and died in 1954.
Not many people, by 1954, were even aware that there was such a car as the SKEOCH. Memories are short especially since
none of the Little Skeochs survived. Gone Gone Gone.
Well, not quite.
POSSIBLE REBIRTH OF THE LITTLE SKEOCH
The Skeoch is about to be reborn. All was not lost. By good fortune the motor and gearbox of one of the Little Skeoch’s
has been found. A group of men, largely retired mechanics and carpenters, have decided to rebuild the car and to do so
in the same Scottish town where the originals were built. Dalbeattie.
This is Fiona Sinclair, granddaughter of James Skeoch. Her family records and artifacts gave a big boost the idea of
rebuilding the car. When Ron Skeoch, James Skeoch’s son died, treasures were found in his home… The plans, radiator and other
parts of the Little Skeoch
And this is Geoff Allison of Dalbeattie, Scotland, who is one of the prime movers of the restoration project.. He has founded
the Dalbeattie Men’s Shed which is hardly a glorious name for the little factory where All the bits and pieces
of the Little Skeoch have been assembled along with quite a gathering of men…engineers, mechanics, widowers,…some
men who are just lonely and want something to do in their retired years that seems meaningful.
The brainchild behind the project is Martin Shelley, a car enthusiast, who suggested that the Dalbeattie Men’s Shed might
consider doing something remarkable and then dropped the bits and pieces on to their work benches.
Their job makes me think of
the Nursery Rhyme about Humpty Dumpty. Only this time Humpty Dumpty, i.e. The Little Skeoch, could be put back together again,
HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON THE WALL
HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL
ALL THE KING’S HORSES
AND ALL THE KING’S MEN
COULDN’T PUT HUMPTY TOGETHER AGAIN.
…Then along came GEORGE ALLISON and his men from Dalbeattie, Scotland…who
plan to put Humpty togehter again.
.
i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article12137301.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/Mens-Shed-Dalbeattie.jpg 810w” src=”https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article12137301.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Mens-Shed-Dalbeattie.jpg” alt=”Dalbeattie Men’s Shed members Geoff Thomas, John Forrest, Robin Gilchrist and Geoff Allison with part of the original engine and plans for the Skeoch car.” content=”https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article12137301.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Mens-Shed-Dalbeattie.jpg” class=””>
Dalbeattie Men’s Shed members Geoff Thomas, John Forrest, Robin Gilchrist and Geoff Allison with part of the original engine and plans for the Skeoch car. (Image: Jim McEwan)
Will the Little Skeoch ever see the light of day again nearly a century later? That remains to be seen. The job is demanding and the cost of the right parts is high but
the men are optimistic. And Fiona Sinclair hopes a reborn Little Skeoch will be on the road so her mother, the daughter of James Skeoch will be able to take the first ride.
These four men are only part of the gathering of men devoted to the project…about three dozen strong. Men who wanted something to do and both Shelley and Allison found that
something.
“This is a truly local car, it was the only cycle car ever made in Scotland and it was manufactured right here in Dalbeattie.
“This was a Dalbeattie man building a car the likes of which has never been built since.
“We have already had a lot of interest from visitors staying here.
“It’s already attracting a lot of attention and when it is finally road-worthy will really put Dalbeattie on the map.”
Project manager, Men’s Shed member Robin Gilchrist, 73, reckons sufficient local skills exist to do the job “in-house”.
He said: “We will draw in a lot of expertise because some of the work is quite technical in nature.
“There’s enough specialists in Dalbeattie who can help us do the precision engineering work.”
Quotes from an interview with journalist Stephen Norris (Scottish Daily Record, March 6, 2018)
HOPE YOU AND THE BOYS ARE WELL…VERY FRIGHTENING TIMES FOR ALL OF US…I EXPECT YOUR
SHOP IS CLOSED. OUR PLAN TO VISIT LAST YEAR DID NOT HAPPEND DUE TO SAD DEATH OF OUR
DAUGHTER IN LAW.
I MAY SEND SOME STORIES…NOW AT 135 OF THEM MEANT TO HELP THOSE IN ISOLATION…TRAPPED
IN THEIR ROOMS BUT SOME MIGHT INTEREST YOU AND THE BOYS
ALAN
Good morning Alan,
The pandemic closed our Shed in March, and the lockdown rules in Scotland, being the most stringent in the UK, mean that we are unlikely to re-open before April 2021. We are trying to keep our previously active members in touch with each other via email, telephone and video conferencing. We have also managed to move some of the Shed activities to individual’s homes so they can progress their projects within isolation/distancing rules. More than half our members have managed to keep projects such as 3D printing face masks, engraving, bicycle and engine refurbishment alive – and the biggest of these re-locations was the Skeoch. I recommend our Skeoch webpage https://dalbeattiemensshed.co.uk/skeoch to you for a brief history of how the project has progressed. We moved the car and workshop equipment out in June, primarily to improve the health and wellbeing of one of our members with advanced Parkinson’s. Since that time the project has accelerated almost to completion. Apart from some minor adjustments the vehicle [less hood(canopy) and radiator badge] is finished awaiting space in a paint shop for finish painting – see the September update on our website. I am re-scheming the unveiling of the finished car as our original intentions have been crushed by the pandemic. We were hoping to display the car at the 2021 Scottish Motor Show, 100 years after it’s first exhibition there in February 1921 – but the Show will not run in 2021. Our reserve intention was to display the car in the Glasgow Transport Museum thus keeping the launch near to where James Skeoch’s daughter resides, and close to an airport for people wishing to fly in – the museums are closed for the foreseeable future too. At present it’s looking like a triple launch: we will display the car in the picture window of Paterson ATV [ https://www.patersonatv.co.uk/] for a couple of weeks after completion for Dalbeattie townsfolk; I am working with the Chief Executive of the Scottish Motor Trade Association [SMTA own the Scottish Motor Show], to put together a multipage article for their trade magazine [https://content.yudu.com/web/fiqy/0A4403c/autoretailerissue02/html/index.html] aiming for the February 2021 edition; and finally I am working with the organisers of the RHS, Royal Highland Show, [https://www.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/084117-royal-highland-show-2021/] to see if we can display the Skeoch on the Dumfries & Galloway stand in June 2021. The RHS is held adjacent to Edinburgh airport so is close to Glasgow and James Skeoch’s daughter as well as being convenient for anyone flying in.
Picking up on a couple of items in your 132-4 newsletters
You were chasing Skeoch heritage in Bute. Before our Shed closed for the pandemic we had a visit from a relative of one of our members who has gaelic as is his first language, and the Skeoch name was discussed. The visitor reminded us that in Scots gaelic the root ‘ach’ means from, and Skeoch is probably a corruption of Sgitheanach meaning from Skye! Just a thought.
I liked your pictures in 132 – I toured NE USA and SE Canada with my daughter in August 2019 and spent some time in Toronto, we enjoyed the scenery but it was not as colorful as your photos. My daughter returned to Toronto with 2 of her colleagues in October 2019 too. My annual break with my daughter this year was Nashville, Memphis, Natchez and New Orleans in September but that was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Good to hear from you again, stay well
P.S. BELOW IS AN ARICLE ON THE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR WRITTEN
FOR BBC SCOTLAND NEWS , Feb. 27, 2018
Drive to rebuild ‘forgotten’ early car
By Nichola Rutherford BBC Scotland News
Published
27 February 2018
IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
image captionThe Skeoch Utility Car was built using parts normally used to manufacture motorcycles
When James Skeoch designed and built one of Scotland’s firstaffordable cars, he must have dreamed of huge success.
With a price-tag of just £180, the first Skeoch Utility Car was the cheapest on display at the Scottish Motor Show in 1921.
It sold within 10 minutes and a further nine were quickly snapped up by customers keen to join the automobile revolution.
But within months Skeoch’s business was in ruins. His uninsured workshop in Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway, burned to the ground.
Since then the Skeoch Utility Car has been largely forgotten by all but keen historians of Scotland’s motor industry.
Now, almost 100 years later, plans are are being drawn up to recreate the so-called “cycle car” in the town where it was manufactured.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
image captionThe Skeoch car was the cheapest on show at the Scottish Motor Show in 1921 and apparently sold within 10 minutes
The ambitious project has been taken on by a group of mainly retired local men, known as Dalbeattie Men’s Shed.
Using some of the original parts and working from the original drawings, they hope to build a working Skeoch car in time to mark its centenary.
Motoring enthusiast Martin Shelley approached the Men’s Shed with the idea for the project after reading about the group on the BBC Scotland website last year.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
image captionBurnside Motor Works in Dalbeattie, where the Skeoch was manufactured, was devastated by fire in December 1921
image captionThe Skeoch radiator badge was among the original parts found in the home of Mr Skeoch’s son following his death last year
image captionDalbeattie Men’s Shed have also been given an original engine and gearbox with which to build a Skeoch car
Mr Shelley said: “After World War One, the ordinary working man was much more used to the idea of riding a motorcycle or driving a car so they knew about the technology and now they wanted to try and build their own cars.
“In the early 20s, there was a huge flowering of people making these cars. As it turned out, Skeoch in Dalbeattie were the only people in Scotland to ever attempt to make these things commercially.”
The original drawings and parts – including the radiator badge – were found in the Wishaw home of Ron Skeoch, James Skeoch’s son, after he died last year.
Mr Shelley said he hoped they could be used to capture the “spirit” of the 1920s vehicle.
“You could make a replica of the car which would pass muster, using a modern engine and a modern gear box and using modern parts. But the spirit of the car is very much based on the parts that were available in 1920,” he said.
“This project will be very like the original car and that to me is what the joy of the whole thing is.”
image captionFiona Sinclair hopes to be able to sit in one of her grandfather’s cars
image caption“It’s going to be something for posterity,” said Geoff Allison of Dalbeattie Men’s Shed
The granddaughter of James Skeoch, Fiona Sinclair, is also involved in the project.
She never knew her grandfather – he died in 1954 – but she hopes that her mother – Skeoch’s daughter – will get the chance to ride in one his cars.
“I think it’s going to mean a lot to my family,” she said. “It’s tragic that the fire put an end to his ambition.
“I’m actually rather hoping I can physically get to sit in the car, I’m not quite sure I could be trusted with driving it.
“It’s only got two gears apparently but I think it would be rather wonderful. What I really hope is that my mother gets the opportunity to actually sit in the car as well.”
The project is “immensely exciting”, said Geoff Allison, the secretary of the Dalbeattie Men’s Shed, which has members with engineering and mechanical skills.
“It’s engineering-rich, it’s Dalbeattie-rich, it’s community-rich, it fills so many of our requirements,” he added.
“It’s big, it’s going to be eye-catching, it’s going to be something for posterity. It’s got a lot to recommend it.”
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