Greetings from Yorkshire!

11B57_78 · 18-04-2013 23:49:31

mpopka a écrit :

How about 2019 - what's planned - anybody know anything?
It's the 100th Anniversary of the production of the first Citroen vehicle....
Regards
mick

... only God knows !

Tibotraction · 19-04-2013 13:57:16

"T,
I posted my response in English - was it translated into French?"

Hello Mick, unfortunately you answer was not translated, but I think that I understood about all the story of your family ; it's fascinating.

Regards,
T.

mpopka · 17-04-2019 01:02:18

Ah!
I see it is nearly 6 years since I last posted on the forum.

So, my Roadster participated in "Le Grande Depart" staged in Yorkshire, for the 2014 Tour de France.
The car was part of the "Publicity Caravan" that preceded the cyclists by 1 hour.

We were in Stage 1 (Leeds to Harrogate), Stage 2 (York to Sheffield) and Stage 21 (Evry to Paris).
You can see a video of the start of Stage 2 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OREHc09wVI&t=48s

Enjoy!

Fred91270 · 17-04-2019 07:02:34

mpopka a écrit :

Fred,
I assure you , I am the real thing!

mick

I saw it !

dzień dobry wink

titeauto · 17-04-2019 14:37:59

Tank-you mick

mpopka · 22-01-2021 10:24:40

Tibotraction a écrit :

Hello Mick, sorry for asking such a silly question, but it seems to me that your name does not sound really English ; did your family come from USSR, or Poland ? Mine came from Brittany, so don't mind about it !

Well spotted, that man!

Here is the "Backstory" ..... No Citroens involved, so skip to the next post.......

Although I was born in 1954 here in York, North Yorkshire, my father was born in a small village called Jukiovich in what was Russia in 1916.

The Versailles treaty of 1919 resulted in this village being part of the "new" Poland.

In 1930 my father's eldest brother, a language teacher, moved to Froncles (52320) in France with his Polish wife.

In 1936 my father joined the Polish Army and the 2nd Polish Cavalry.

In 1938, the horses that the cavalry were using were replaced by tanks.

In 1939 the visiting Germans marched through and ordered the Polish forces to return to their homes and report to their Polish Army officers, who reported to the local German commander.

In 1942, following the failure of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia, Stalin's troops arrived in 1942 and my father, together with the remaining army troops in Poland were sent by train over 6,000 km to Soviet prison camps in Siberia.

In 1943 a new Polish Army was formed under (The Polish) General Anders.
The intention was for them to fight alongside Russian troops against the Germans.

However Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt decided that they would be better deployed in the Middle East.

The Army travelled by road convoy from Siberia to Egypt where they joined the Allied forces in North Africa.

General Anders forces took part in the campaigns in North Africa, the invasion of Sicily and Italy.

My father was a Military Policeman so was not involved in front line action, until.... Monte Casino.

As a result of the shelling he lost his hearing and was evacuated onto a hospital ship that eventually delivered him to Liverpool, England in June 1944.

When he was processed by the immigration authorities, they could not understand his "thick" Polish accent. They also had difficulty in reading the handwriting in his Passport, so MickolaJ (Nick) Popko became Mr Popka.

The family in Froncles and Poland were named Popko and we, the English, Popka!

The Polish arriving in England in 1944 were all "posted" to camps around the UK, Yorkshire and Scotland being very popular.

Eventually in 1947 the Poles were permitted to leave these camps and either return to Poland (and internment!) or integrate into the British community.

The British quickly forgot about the effort and sacrifices the Poles made in WW2 and life moved on.

My father settled in York where he met a local girl of Irish descent and the rest is history!

Sadly, my parents both passed away in 2002.

So, there you go!

Please feel free to ask on anything above!

I understand that I may be eligible for dual nationality..... perhaps Boris Johnson and his chums will drive me to that option, one day.....!

titeauto · 22-01-2021 10:25:51

Tibo où es tu ?

mpopka · 22-01-2021 10:28:10

OK,
So I Just discovered that I already told you the story, back in 2013!

mpopka · 22-01-2021 11:02:49

Now for some Citroen News!

Some of you will, i'm sure, be familiar with the CATS-Citroen website, www.cats-citroen.com

The site was set up by Jeroen Cats, in 1997, the very early days of the Internet.
Before Facebook, Twitter, Forums and mass use of the Internet.

Jeroen worked as an IT consultant for a Dutch Hospital.

Jeroen had one love in life - Citroens, all of them, especially "A Series" and Maserati's.

Jeroen used his skills to collate his knowledge and experience and share it with the world wide Citroen community through the website.

Sadly, at the age of 32 Jeroen left us in 2007, to visit that "Citroen factory in the sky".

His epitaph is:

"Altijd onstuitbaar, toch abrupt gestopt..."

which translates to:
"Always in top gear,..... yet abruptly stopped."

With Jeroen's unexpected departure the maintenance of the website halted and unfortunately the registration of the domain name eventually expired.

A person in Japan saw an opportunity and offered to transfer the domain name that he had re-registered (Cats-citroen.net) to anyone who wished to continue, for USD$1,000.... Today we call them "Scammers".

Back in 2016, I had the opportunity to visit and stay with Jeroen's parents* who live in Limburg, near Maastricht.

The website was discussed and I realised that there was an inexpensive solution to the problem of the scammer... There was a USB stick back up of the website and the use of different suffixes was now permitted.

Back in 1997 all websites had to have a suffix of ".NET" to identify them as being "on the Internet".

So I registered www.cats-citroen.com and uploaded the backup from the memory stick.

It was decided to leave the site in it's original form as most of the information is reference information.

I have added a link to include Citroen Publications that are available for free.

Soon there will be a change to make the site more accessible from mobile devices...

But in the meantime, please have a look at the site and let me have your feedback.

I have also established a Facebook Group which you are all welcome to participate in, we currently have just over 1,700 followers based all over the world.

You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1427643913912512

Since my last posting back in 2013, the "Popka Collection" has expanded to include a 1976 AMI 8, a 1982 Dyane "Cote D Azur" and a 1992 Mehari "Plage".

You can see them all here: www.popka.co.uk

As I write this the River Ouse in York is reaching it's peak of 4.75m above it's normal level as a result of "Storm Christoph", but I'm safe and dry, as are the cars!
See attached pictures of the centre of York...

* Whilst Jeroen was a keen fan of A-Series and Maseratis, his Father, Wiljen, is a Traction enthusiast and is the proud owner of a Citroen Challenger, it may even be the only one in the world!
Pictures are on the CATS.com website

cbaker · 22-01-2021 15:55:44

Wow, Mick! Thank you for these newsy messages. smile
And right on, for having given back to us the cats-citroen website. cool
Now the flood, and with my own namesake to boot! But i swear, it's not my fault! big_smile
I hope things will get better...

mpopka · 22-01-2021 21:07:39

Now Boris knows who to blame!

I expect he'll be sending James Bond to deal with you.....

Watch out for "dapper" Englishmen in Aston Martins asking if you prefer your Martini "Shaken" or "Stirred"!

BTW: Please can we come back to the EU, the "F*ckwits" didn't know what they were voting for in 2016!

Erick44 · 22-01-2021 21:30:02

Bonsoir, voilà une histoire de famille peut ordinaire, la guerre a changer le destin de beaucoup de gens.
Le site de Jeroen Cats est une mine d'informations pour le tractionniste , merci de l'avoir ressuscité.

mpopka · 23-01-2021 11:04:32

Thank you for your support Erik!

Gégé · 23-01-2021 15:00:11

Ayo Mick,

an old photo taken on May 27, 2012 in Ciney, maybe I already posted it ...

mpopka · 23-01-2021 15:14:41

Gerard,
Thank you!
Regards
Mick

jean-michel09 · 23-01-2021 21:56:54

Félicitation pour avoir pu le sauvé car Jeroen avait fait un travail magnifique wink

cbaker · 23-01-2021 23:05:31

Gégé a écrit :

Ayo Mick,
an old photo taken on May 27, 2012 in Ciney, maybe I already posted it ...
https://i.postimg.cc/njNBGfb8/IMG-4043.jpg

Qu'est-ce qu'elles sont belles, les nouvelles Citroën à côté de la vieille "poubelle"... roll roll roll

#26 18-04-2013 23:49:31

Re : Greetings from Yorkshire!

#27 19-04-2013 13:57:16

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#28 17-04-2019 01:02:18

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#29 17-04-2019 07:02:34

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#30 17-04-2019 14:37:59

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#31 22-01-2021 10:24:40

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#32 22-01-2021 10:25:51

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#33 22-01-2021 10:28:10

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#34 22-01-2021 11:02:49

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#35 22-01-2021 15:55:44

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#36 22-01-2021 21:07:39

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#37 22-01-2021 21:30:02

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#38 23-01-2021 11:04:32

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#39 23-01-2021 15:00:11

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#40 23-01-2021 15:14:41

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#41 23-01-2021 21:56:54

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#42 23-01-2021 23:05:31

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