1976 MZ ISDT replica

t.s harrison and sons limited, union machine tool works, heckmondwike, yorkshire, 1962, that's the year this lathe rolled off the production line, i was three years old, almost half a century has passed since this machine was manufactured, what a different world, up early this morning, barse from the abk crew couldn't get his works van so we needed to make alternative arrangements to pick up the lathe, down to belper van rental just after seven am to find the only vehicle available a box van with tail lift, ideal, booked it and arranged for collection later in the morning, home, breakfast, out with the dog's, home, shower, pick up dangerous and arrange to meet the three generations of the abk posse at the van hire yard, they follow us up to eckington and there follows twenty minutes of hard graft, pushing, swearing and pulling, we slide the lathe onto a pair of old mz fork stanchions so we can roll the big heavy bastard onto the tail-lift platform, once on dangerous hits the button and it lifts the machine up groaning under the weight, we man-handle it into the back of the van, young jake on the heavy end and me and gordy on the light end, gordy and me strap it against the side of the van, pay mr's penny's son and get ready to leave, dangerous stows the mz fork leg rollers and our tool's and i go to thank mr's penny, i've got her a bunch of flowers, she's a lovely lady and it's the least we can do, she gives me a kiss and we are on our way, we are soon home, barse, gordy and jake are standing in my kitchen supping tea when we get back, lathe out of the van, racer out on the yard along with half the contents of the shed as we jockey the lathe into position, i return the van while dangerous and the abk get the racer back in, fuck me!, looks like a bomb has gone off when i get back, the abk skin out and i put the kettle on, we sit in the shed eating toasted teacakes and drinking tea, the rams game on the radio, getting dicked by watford three-nil, deep joy, we need a sort out, up to my ma's next-door-but-one, 'can i put some stuff in your shed ma?', 'only if you get rid of some of the other rubbish!', all my old mz stuff, [contacted the mz owners club, said they could have it for nothing if it helped someone out but they never turned up to collect it!], old slick's off the racer and a load of other old junk, loaded up my old vw polo and down to work to dump it in the skip, shame but i really need some room to work on the racer, sporty and bonny, thanks to barse, jake and gordy, couldn't have done it without you lads, thanks to mrs penny, and last, but not least, thanks to the union machine tool works..........