P A S T memories

This is something that came to mind a couple of weeks ago and has been quietly brewing away at the back of my mind. I don't know why it suddenly came back to me, or why I felt so compelled to do anything about it, but when I saw this week's colours on the Play Date Cafe it suddenly came together.

A little bit of Real Life™ me. I joined the army when I was 16 and spent the next 23 years serving as a vehicle mechanic, working on everything from chainsaws to tank transporters. I spent many years working on armoured vehicles, and one of my favourites was the FV432 which has been around as long as me and is still going strong.
It's good old Cold War technology which can be fixed with just basic tools, and the controls don't come any simpler. There's a throttle pedal, and two tillers which are used for steering and braking; and that's it. To ensure it goes in a straight line there are 4 checks and adjustments that need to be done on a regular basis and they are known as PAST; Protrusion, Adjustment, Suspension, Tillers. Amazingly, even though I've been a civvie for 10 years, and haven't worked on one for about 15 I can still remember the settings and could probably go and adjust one tomorrow if needed. The drawings are done from memory, so may not be 100% accurate.

So, how does it tie in with the Play Date Cafe? Well all combat vehicles were painted in a shade of green known as 'Olive Drab', and the mechanical bits (engine, gearbox, etc) were a shade of turquoise known as "Paint, Finishing, Heat Resisting, High Gloss, Sky Blue" aka "Duck Egg Blue". The red? Well, when we did our training, the training manuals had a red cover.

I have to admit, this has been a real trip down memory lane; memories of people and places, the feel of the glossy painted steering box covers, the smell of hot steering oil, and the wariness of dropping something inside the box and having to explain to the boss why you wanted to do a steering box lift :D