no Basil sorry but you are wrong, the forum was formally started in 1876 by a bunch of very clever convicts who, seeking a diversion from more mundane duties, came up with the title "NOMADS" of course they all had a desire to, well "wander" and could often be seen trying to "borrow" the penal colonys plow horse so as to undertake an actual journey, without having much success, the guards were not all that silly and often seen them and put an end to their frivolity, unless the bribe was high enough and then the convicts could have ten minutes alone with the horse, it was never understood why a convict would want to spend time alone with a horse

not having much luck with the actual travel side of things they decided to just sit around and talk about travelling, and some wag by the name of geofrey the panty nicker decided to call it a "forum", now by the time that the actual forum was started it had 3 founding members all being over the age of 55 and all with distinctly colored hair, upon noticing this greying hairline "wally" who was a lifer for stealing his mistresses wedding dress (what you've never dressed up, yeah right) came up with the idea of "grey nomads" and it has been so for some time now

to enter the forum in those days was not such an easy affair as it is today, they were very fond of a game called "hide the sausage" now I never knew what that meant it has been lost in the analds of history along with its meaning and any reference to its rules but not many liked that particular game except a man by the name of shaun the sheep molester (strange lad) so the numbers stayed low for some time

harold the freckle grabber (one of the the founding members) tried seeking permission from the governor (sir william fullofbull) to actually travel out of the prison grounds of course the governor was not having a bar of this and tried to ban the forum,

not having much luck because by this time ( around 1880 the computer had been invented), of course it was an unwieldy thing 35 prisoners on abacases and 65 men on chalkboards and powered by a large horse on a huge mouse wheel hidden behind the excercise yard out the back and that was to power the candle to see what they were writing

it was around this time that in scandanavia a little boy was caught stealing a loaf of pumperschnickel and immediately posted to the colonys (rather hard because the rotten little mongrel kept tearing the envelopes) but he had an idea that would forever let the forum and the grey nomads have freedom

he invented the interweb, you see it was a simple system really, once the threads and posts had been listed then 100 or more (nobody could count in those days so it was unknown how many were doing it) convicts would copy them all down and bribe the guards with titbits (and those bits are hard to find in a penal colony, so the price was rather high) to distribute the information, it was a huge success and sometimes the information got to the next village and reached enormous numbers, there was one recorded contact of 25 people, a very great success indeed

by this time the grey nomad website (as it was later to be called) was very well known and word filtered down into the absolute dark reaches of the deepest darkest cavern, therein an evil being got hold of the information and decided that she would have the website and all its valuable knowledge and information to herself

now "cindy" (as we will call her as her real name and age cannot be whispered or a catastrophic event will befall us all) tried her hardest to contain the interweb and enslave us all, she tried in vain for 150 years ( and thats a long time for she was no spring chicken when she seized power) but the message still gets out even today that to travel is good and to just sit and talk about it is bad but to enjoy the contact is a good thing

and that boys and girls is how the "grey nomads" came to be, incredible as it may seem, only the names and dates have been changed to protect the innocent and no animals were hurt in the making of this tale, however philip the plough horse developed a strange limp as well as a lisp, and if you have ever heard a horse with a lisp then you know it's not pretty

My sentiments, extactly, Granny. Though I think Basil set the question up, to display Dave's journalistic talents......
Cheers
Sue

Helena wrote:

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Would like to know how long the forum has been going and who had the brilliant idea of starting it.
                                     Helena

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Helena, if you have any more questions, could you wait a couple of days to give me time to work out Dave's answer, to this one.

JohnW

 

-- Edited by jandas fun on Friday 27th of March 2009 07:53:33 PM

thank god it's FRIDAY!!!!! YAY!!! you blooooodyyy beeeeuuuuttttyyyy!!!! I got two days off, it's payday!!!, all three fridges are full, freinds on the way, got me new camps book to drool over, AAAAAAAHHHHH!!! all is right with the world!! I am OUT OF HERE for two days.....

the only problem is that the boolaroo steam and traction society are having their bi-annual display on sunday and the dragons got to work so we cant go!!!!

Thaks Dave good luck with the weekend enjoy laugh lots live longer.
Helena.