Wasted time (28-06-24)
At staff or family parties, cigarettes were passed around. There was a glass on each table, also filled with cigarettes.
The result was a bluish smoke that would make even Feyenoord 'supporters' jealous. Teachers who didn't smoke were softies/sissies, I didn't think I was a sissy and puffed away in class too. Like the movie stars we worshipped at the time.
90 percent of the adults smoked, a percentage that was certainly not less among pigeon fanciers.
EARLY FANCIER
As a 13-year-old, I went to the clubhouse with the clock after the flight. At least if my parents (mother was also a fancier) hadn't 'performed' properly. If they played well, the boss, my father, went himself.
If he had returned quickly, 'it wouldn't have been easy'. If he had been back late, he would have played well, if he was drunk then a super result would have been made.
Then he would come home puffing on a cigar as big as a lamppost.
By the way, about smoking and cigars: I still know the names of the fanciers in the club who did NOT smoke. Those, (four out of 57) were eccentrics. And 'four' is about the number of fanciers left in my hometown.
WRESTLE
January was the 'month of suffering' for many every year.
Countless people who had resolved to quit smoking could run into the walls. Unfortunately. Barely a month later, nothing had changed. .
I now belong to the crowd that stopped. And so I don't have to use expletives anymore because I can't find that tiny 'bow' with which cigarette packets were sealed.
DENSE!
Why do so many people pack so many things in such a way that they can hardly be opened or removed?
I have that very much with opening those black garbage bags of which you can't find the perforation wall.
Jars with 'child-friendly' screw-on lids have often annoyed me, not to mention those evaporated milk cups. How much time I have already wasted to loosen that tab and then get evaporated milk in my face. The foil on a jar of peanut butter is equally disastrous. It is so firmly attached to the edge that a sharp knife has to be used and you'd better buy a first-aid kit with it. Just like with a can of herring in tomato sauce.
I have made up for those countless wasted hours on useless things by not losing any more useless time with 'the pigeons'.
LEARNED
For example, I worked for many years with a double set of drinking troughs. One was in the loft, the other was drying upside down. The idea was to keep tricho out of the loft. These pathogens (protozoa) multiply in (especially warm) water, you could read everywhere. And indeed, since then I have had little trouble with canker.
Was that my merit? Because I was so smart? No, not at all.
Because what did I hear from fellow sportsmen?
They also had less or no problems (anymore) with canker while they.. did NOT work with a double set of drinking troughs.
PATCH
Thus I learned to save a lot of time.
Similarly, if you are going to 'toss', it is best to wait at least 5 minutes before opening the baskets. So that the pigeons could orient themselves.
That was what we all thoght.
It sounded reasonable anyway so I did. But it soon became only 3 minutes of waiting, then 2, then 1. Until that day, once arrived at the 'release point', the basket was taken out of the trunk and immediately opened.
No difference whatsoever from previous times when we often waited for minutes.
LIGHT AND DARK
Like almost everyone else, I start lighting about ten days before the pairing at the end of November. Because I'm a bit quick-witted (😉) I thought 'what if I would do that alone with the cocks?'
Because that's just the way I am. Stubborn as hell. I don't want to hear from hearsay, I want to have experienced it myself. And again, the breeding goes just as smoothly if you only light the cocks, as I and later many readers have experienced.
Removing the darkening in young and also letting go is another thing.
Following logic, you should do so gradually. So that they can get used to the daylight. I didn't pay attention to it. When it was the time for that (early June) the curtains were lifted from one day to the next, as it is for most, but then also the window opens immediately and the birds can train.
FEED
Ludo Claessens thought feeding was the least important thing in pigeon sport. Perhaps a bit exaggerated, but the fact is that in more and more top lofts the pigeons can choose from the same mixture all year round. A sampling of this, two shackles of that and that different every day? I've never dealt with anything like that before.
RING
Running to the loft every time to ring youngsters is also a thing of the past.
When the pigeons are laying with eggs, rings are put on a "garbage can strip" for each couple, a note is made of it and then I hang that strip with rings in their boxes. To ring when necessary and I'm still in the loft.
RING
And then that phone call during a tough race.
"Hello ma'am, with S. Is Ad around?
Who am I talking to?
With S. Is Ad around?
He's watching the home coming of the birds. .
I know, but can I talk to him?
Ok. One moment. Silence for a moment, then:
Hello with S.
Do you also miss many birds?
Man stop it, I only have 2 out of 12.
Oh, then I can't complain. Have 3 out of 14 now.
What a waste of time, those conversations as they always were.
In 2024, we look at the mobile phone and know enough.