ScuzzBlog: Diaries August 2018
Entry 16th August 2018: Post 01: Transformer - St Helens and back
Transformer - St Helens and back
Back in the dull distant past I found myself waiting on a street in
St Helens. I had travelled the length of the country in a day from
the south coast of England. A white van pulled to my side and I
was greeted by a young man and his children. He smiled and lent in
to my largish vehicle and said ' I hope you got a lot of space in
there '. I was somewhat puzzled as a Checkmate was hardly that
large.
We entered a large empty house. And I mean large and empty. The
kids could be heard kicking around on wooden floors. The man asked
me to follow and then explained that the house was supposed to
be fully empty on its possession. But when they ventured into the
loft they found it still full.....
We climbed the purpose made ladder and it was then that I first
became aware of the lost world of Mr Lomas and his amazing computer
world. I never asked but I assume he had died or moved to a home.
For now I was given the challenge of rescuing what I could. Trust me
there was a lot. In addition to the Checkmate there was oodles of
disks, software, hardware, other computers, disk drives, books
and magazines. With the help of the children we bagged as much as
I could and drove home with a very large smile on my face.
I had captured it seemed a snapshot of a true Amigans world and
I was determined to keep the world together. And so I set too
recording and safely storing all that I had. To this day I have
still not uncovered all that I found and to Mr Lomas all I can
say... I will treasure it all until the day I die.
Not sure if you have read Monty Pythons 'PapperBok' and the
story of the guy that has a mad adventure through the jungle. It
ends with the statement that the strange this was that the same
thing happened to him the very next day. For me it was just a short
time before I was travelling to Bristol to do the very same again
and then to Evesham and again in an attic filled with Amiga kit.
I have been lucky I guess. My job as ever to keep it all safe.
And to those that say sell and distribute, I'm sorry that wasn't
the deal. I am custodian over complete collections and it very
important to me that it all stays very safe while I carry the
baton.
Onwards.. and I just give a very small snapshot of the joys of
the Lomas collection. For in this box is Transformer and the
secrets to so much more... but without the kit that it works
with and the memory of that day when I first cast light onto
it all it is meaningless. Maybe one day someone will take what
I have and make an exhibit of what it was like to be an Amigan.
The bedroom programmers that the nice Mr Gates and Mr Jobs were
so keen to extinguish with their desire to make everything
inaccessible. Well for Mr Lomas I do hope he's high on a cloud
and reflecting on the world that he was able to enjoy because
other developers, Amiga and Commodore developers, had a very
different view of matters.
Happy days... especially now the rains have come. Cool.
St Helens and Back
A very small fragment of the Lomas collection
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