MORE POLITE, LESS LITIGIOUS TIMES

In response to my post titled “Rare Spare” of a few days ago, I received a message from an enthusiast with a photo of an old Lucas flasher unit he had added to his own collection of rare spares.  More on that later.

That picture of his old flasher unit sent me to my own stash of old Lucas parts.  I recalled having a few flasher units of my own, and in fact one was still in its original red Lucas box and even included the original instruction sheet.

Reading through this instruction sheet, a couple of things struck me.  First was how direct and simple and just plain polite it is.  Did you note “P.T.O.” at the bottom of the front side?  In case you don’t remember or maybe never knew, that means Please Turn Over.  Second, there is no legalese, no disclaimers, and no warnings not to eat the flasher or try to plug it into a power outlet.

It reminded me of one of the important reasons we own and enjoy old British cars: the cars themselves are reminders of a simpler, less litigious time when product instructions didn’t include a warning not to immerse electrical components in water.

Maybe some things were actually better back then, and if we forget that, we’ll lose something worth holding onto.