or nothing happens for 40 years and suddenly so many things happen in a wink...
And all that remain is the good memories.
Finding Mr. Simon... took a while. I have spent many hours in front of my computer on hungarian websites, scrolling through pages of magyar... i don't understand magyar and the translator program from google does as if he knew...
Finally, i found on the museum of trade and tourism website a short description of Imre Simon. An exhibition on coffee machine was currently taking place, for a few more weeks. I asked the curator for the possibility of contacting Mr. Simon. The curator, who was a former professor in french literature, could speak my language fluently. She told me Mr. Simon is a busy man and she will do what she can.
I remember telling Mm. Stern that i found the son of Mr. Simon... she spontaneously gave away his nickname of former times (they hadn't met for the past 40 years). Both parents were business partners and belonged to the extended family.
How we did manage to all meet one day in Budapest to visit the exhibition guided by the curator a few days before the exhibition's end is a mystery... anyhow, i bought the day return train tickets for Mm. Stern and i in great expectation of what was coming ahead. I remember trying to reconstruct family trees on train tickets quite well... 3 hours leaves place for great conversation too!
The most emotional moment of my entire research happened... the reunion.
This i regard as the high point of my research. You can have the rarest coffee machines on earth and enjoy them... but, to my point of view, this was the most emotional moment and the moment i am the proudest about. The rest is about coffee machines...
We did go to the museum though. It was all there... At the closure of Szigony, Mr. Simon junior hoped to find someone who would be interested in this small hungarian "factory" and the museum showed interest.
I just show you 3 pictures... the rest will come in later posts.
The street sign of the Szigony Müszaki Vállalat:
The original table and tools of the small factory (where machines were assembled, polished etc.):
and one of my dreams (the other one is the Stella 105E) ... the Szigony electrical base!:
Another emotional moment was when i presented Mr. Simon junior with the enamel sign of his father's business. ( the enamel sign - part of my collection - he kept in his hands during the whole time we visited the museum).
Here, happily remembering grinding coffee in his childhood with the family grinder which is now part of the collection of the museum:
Mr. Simon, if i can share what i know with the people interested, it is because you shared it with me... without boundaries or conditions... freely transmitting your knowledge to me.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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