Here in Davis we have a little bit of London. Unitrans has several old vintage London double-deckers which still ride around town, letting passengers hop off the rear deck into the middle of the road, keeping the ‘charming’ London place-names, exotic faraway locales such as Golders Green, Shepherds Bush and Finchley Road. UC Davis brought the buses over in the late 1960s to start a bus service, and these buses are not in fact Routemasters, but the models which came before. Presumably if Boris gets his new modern (ugly, unnecessary, expensive) Routemasters on the streets, Davis will be able to buy some of the bendy-buses.
There are four such buses left in Davis, dating from the late 40s and early 50s. One, the 1950 model, will retire at the end of the year. Maybe they’ll put it out to stud.
Altogether now… “I ‘ate you, Butler!”
But how many of your US bloggin’ mates will understand the title and the punchline…..
re exotic faraway locales
I was in a recording studio in New York once, and noticed all the equipment was Japnese except for the mixing desk which came from Manchester, where I lived. Commenting on this he looked at the name on the desk, and the copmany address.
‘Trafford Park!’ he exclaimed. ‘Sounds neat!’
I laughed.
He said; ‘What’s it like?’
‘Hmm . . ever been to Newark?’
‘I get it…..’
Very few, but I don’t get everything here yet so it evens out, I suppose. I doubt a lot of people in Britain get On The Buses references any more (which may actually be a good thing).
Good story, by the way!
I think God had them bring ’em over just so you could feel at home. How many other US towns have London buses?
Probably quite a few, I imagine. America likes to buy our old stuff – London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona is the obvious one! And of course, Piers Morgan.
Well, an old bird dahn in the Colonies gets it. Bleedin’ marv’lous!
(And is that a Fyffes Bananas advert on the front?)
cheers! no, i can’t remember what that was, but it wasn’t bananas