Quote:
Originally Posted by katex
Please don't think that his remarks to me are anything more than friendly bartering; I think 'he's ace' ... LOL... will get in troube again for that one.
Just try and keep an open mind and get used to his style. If you ask him a direct question, he will pull out all the stops to try and help you.
Met him for the first time on Saturday, and found him absolutely charming.
He was very busy helping someone with (I think) their Ancestry queries, with great patience.
To me, he rocks.  |
Yes that's something that leaps out in his comments, he seems a very patient chap. Very tolerant of others opinions. He also seems very quick to form an opinion of people he's only just come across. He has me down as a teenager, which is very flattering in some ways. The reality is, I've been interested in local history almost as long as he has. In fact it was your very own Bob Dobson who christened me Blackburnlad, because at every book fair he organised, I would usually turn up at his stand asking for books, postcards and ephemera with a Blackburn connection. A little like Walt, I have spent thousands of hours in libraries, including Accrington's. I have an extensive library of my own, built up over three and a half decades. I have contributed to the Cottontown web-site, was an administrator on another Blackburn site and created my own site I have also done substantial research into the mineral water manufacturers of this district, contributing to other sites and publications and I've done substantial research of the breweries of Blackburn. Even with the local knowledge I do have, I don't regard myself as an historian and I certainly don't rudely jump down folks throats because they have dared to ask a question or two. You may regard that sort of behaviour on a public platform as banter, but it doesn't translate that way, when it is put across with venom. As others have commented, it comes over as rude, aggressive, intolerant and harsh. Retlaw may be an authority on all things Accrington, but does that give him a right to belittle or dismiss others input? We don't all have his knowledge of Accrington, so to see him cruelly putting down others comments, because they are less informed than himself, gets my back up.
Colin