Una wrote (or was it Iain? Sorry, getting muddled):

But problem 2 is solved by problem 1. Get some of the old geezers and ask them what it used to be like. Of course, you'll have to be quick: they're dropping like flies.>

Dunno why, but this reminds me of Anna Russell's words re collecting folk songs (I can't find the CD, so this is a mis-remembered version')

"You go to a village and find the oldest inhabitant, and ask him to sing you the songs his mother taught him.

"Well you'll probably find that he's deaf, and if he isn't deaf he can't sing, and if he can sing he doesn't want to, and by the time you've persuaded him and he does sing, you won't understand a word of what he's singing about.

"This is how folk songs have been passed down from generation to generation."

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