Over 15 years ago I took Lou to MABE on the crappiest day of the year with blinding winds and rains and we climbed over the gates to look at the huge fields to see if they would be suitable for Car Boot Sales! She thought that I was ‘absolutely mad’ to contemplate the idea but I had been to the same grounds earlier in the year to study the success of MABE SHINDIG where over 12,000 people had attended. My thoughts if they can get that amount of people then I could get at least a few hundred on a weekly basis so let’s give the Landlord a call and put the idea to him. His immediate reply was ‘I don’t want any Car Boot Sales on my land’ asking him ‘WHY’ he staggered me by saying that most of the stuff sold at Car Boot Sales was stolen! He said there would be little point in meeting because he was not interested, with a bit of ‘bull-shit from me I met him at his farm house and we did a ‘handshake deal’ to ‘give it a try.

You all know the success that MABE has become it is a huge part in people’s lives and like a lot of our customers we have some fantastic memories of the buyers and sellers. In 1998 Peter and Pam who live near Carmon Downs joined selling at our Car Boot Sales farm fresh fruit and vegetable, plants, flowers and seedlings all grown on their smallholding farm by Peter. Pam was a very large woman who was somewhat disabled by her size and whilst she had a warped sense of humour she quite often got offensive in her dealings with people mainly driven by the pains she suffered! Peter on the other hand was a mild mannered pleasant gentleman who would not retaliate to some of Pam’s jibes and if she was offensive to anyone he pretended not to hear.

On arriving at MABE one Sunday Peter pulled into his usual spot just by the gate and prepared to set up his stall. Pam had been very rude to me the previous Friday at Falmouth so I did not do my usual courtesy job of helping her out of the van. Phyllis a neighbouring seller asked Peter ‘Where is Pam’ “Oh hers in the van” A few minutes later Phyllis decided to look for Pam only to discover she had fallen out of the van into the ditch and was so large she was almost wedged into the soggy earth. Phyllis went to tell Peter who looked at his wife in the ditch then carried on setting up his stall so Phyllis came to tell me ‘Pam is in the ditch’
“What do you expect me to do Phyllis” I asked as I accompanied her to view the scene. All 20 plus stone of Pam was writhing and wriggling as she turned and rolled from right to left but getting nowhere so I asked Peter ‘What shall we do’ “Leave her there-her will get out in the end” so he carried on serving his customers whilst his out of view wife struggled to prevent herself becoming a mud pie! The view was unbelievable Phyllis and I could not contain our amusement although Pam did not share our fun at the time, but to see this ‘not a pretty sight for sore eyes’ very rude lady bearing all was a justified reward for her rudeness to me and others, I had my job to do so I returned to parking cars wondering how to get her out of the ditch but what annoyed me most was I had left my camera at home! Imagine!!

Ten minutes later Phyllis came to say ‘Pam is still in the ditch what can we do’? “Phyllis I have been on to MAC’SALVORS and they are refusing to turn out” whereby Phyllis burst out laughing almst losing control of her bladder! OMG! To her credit Pam saw the funny side the 3 of us tried to pull her free to howls from her and ‘howls of laughter’ from Phyllis and me we rocked her backwards and forwards and eventually Pam was released from the ditch. Many years after her death Peter and I discussed the old days and ‘the ditch’ incident was mentioned to which we both had a good laugh! Pam was a naughty outspoken lady at times but they dearly loved each other and their family were so important to them both. Her antics kept the gossip alive, sad that it is they are both gone they were two of ‘Cornwall’s finest characters’ and we miss them, well I miss Peter!

Phyllis is now 84 years old still has a brilliant sense of humour and comes to our sales at MABE, FALMOUTH & Truro and I know she will thoroughly enjoy this recap of the early years at MABE!
Note; There is a part 2 of this story which is hilarious but you will have to wait for the 2013 booklet!
Geoff
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