We were sat having our Sunday morning drink of  tea and I said we had to name him.  So we bounced names around, Bertie the Bus seemed a good alliteration and covered the size of the monster we will call home for a while.  But the name had slightly more importance, it’s rhymes with Gertie.

So  who or more precisely  what was Gertie.  Poor Gertie was a circus elephant. On one particular day while she was at Butlins in Skegness she broke her chains and during her moment of freedom unfortunately fell in the swimming pool.  All the efforts of those around could not rescue Gertie in time.  This was before I was born.

About that time my father had purchase an old ambulance which he proceeded to kit out as a  motorhome, to take the  then 4 Thompson’s on their holiday.  Hence they found themselves at Bultins in Skegness.  Very distressed  at the failed attempts to save Gertie the new motorhome was christened in her memory.

The photo is Gertie outside our shop in Elland.  As an aside look closely on the wall of the shop you will see a vending machine for tights and stockings (Nylons).  A daily job was to replenish stock in the vending machine.  A pair of tights (or stockings) were placed into a red tube, these tubes where then loaded into the vending machine.  Customer caught out could nip round insert their money and walk away a new pair of nylons.

My first camping experiences where in Gertie.

So Bertie in remembrance of both the circus elephant and my father and my  early years of camping.