England 40 Years Ago — March 21, 1982

A dozen eggs and one small boy is a potent combination. I wondered why he was content to play with a shoe box all the way home, then found it was the EGG box! It could have been worse, I guess, for he only cracked two and broke one over an old quilt. The quilt needed washing, anyway.

Seeing a baby asleep on an aeroplane isn’t an uncommon sight, but I wonder how many parents see their little ones using a plane as a pillow? $ couldn’t “hatch” his big Fisher-Price aeroplane as he does all his matchbox toys, so he chose it for a pillow, and thereby slept on an aeroplane in his cot.

Much to $’s and John’s pleasure, we took a local train from Reigate to Reading sitting in the last seat on the train, watching the world go by backwards. It was fun to see towns we know by car from a different angle. There were eight tracks going through the Reading station – the center for all trains going West. To speed things up, we took the express back to Redhill, this time in the front seat where we could see the tracks.

Our friends, Barbara and John C, came to spend the day with us Saturday. Their two red-headed boys love trains and thoroughly enjoyed the new layout John had completed at 3:00 a.m. that morning. For that matter, $ was intrigued with it as soon as he saw it and the girls as soon as others began playing with it. After our noon dinner, we went for a long rambling walk past the golf club and looping back around through the town. It seems to be the thing to do after a heavy meal, except at night when it’s dark. We found out that John C grew up across the main highway from here and knows Walton quite well. He remembers a windmill that was one of the few things demolished by a flying bomb in the war. He was also aware of some of the nobility who had put the golf club on the map.

After our ramble, we had a hearty tea – more like a Sunday supper. The children certainly put away the food, probably because of the exercise and having more familiar foods to choose from.

I’ll bet Vivien would be surprised to find he was a direct answer to prayer. We and Philippa were all ready to hop in the car Sunday morning, but the car wouldn’t start. Both John and I tried it repeatedly. John walked in the house in disgust while I gave it one more try. When it still balked, I said, “Lord, if you want us to go to church in Chichester Cathedral, then you’ll have to get this buggy going.” With that, Vivien tapped on the window, suggested we push the car to the front door, and use a hair dryer on the spark plugs. I took a photo of the proceedings. The car sprang to life, and off we went. A one-second prayer resulted in a five-minute miracle.

Despite our late start, we parked a few yards from the church and walked straight into an elderly man who guided us to the steps of the choir. He instructed a younger man to seat us where the GIRLS could see the BOYS singing. There were six men and eleven boys, five of the eleven wearing glasses. The choir was perfectly balanced, and their diction was so good that I understood every word. The slideshow below shows the steeple, the separate bell tower, and an area inside where repairs were being made.

We felt this cathedral, though one of the oldest in England, is the most progressive. They have preserved the ancient parts while constantly adding new things. There is a small side window by Marc Chagall, a flag that Sir Francis Chichester had flown on his boat, and a brilliantly coloured tapestry woven in 1966 hanging behind the altar.

The shopping area of Chichester is still enclosed by Roman walls, and much of it is for pedestrians only. We saw the market cross – a Gothic structure with clocks – at the cross roads in the center. In a long row of shops was an ancient church that took our fancy; it had been turned into a delightful little religious book shop. We ate a delicious dinner in a restaurant called the Vicar’s Hall, housed in a former church building.

We then drove a short distance to the ruins of Fishbourne Roman Villa – a huge place that is now partly covered by a town. It’s amazing what the experts can deduce from rubble. The introductory film put forth the educated guesses as to when the various parts of the buildings were erected, how rooms were changed, the name of the owner, the fact that children of high-born parents lived there, and that the decaying building was destroyed by fire. They had carefully uncovered the oldest mosaics in England made when St. Paul was preaching around the Roman Empire!!!!

Below are photos showing a mosaic at the Roman villa and a mug decorated with an image from the floor. We bought the mug 40 years ago and still have it in our collection.

Lock and Heart-Shaped Rock at the Creek

When John and I walked to the creek on February 12, someone had left a juice pouch, a lock, and a heart-shaped rock high above the water.

Two days later the pouch was gone, but the other items were there in approximately the same position.

On March 3, I took another photo to show nothing had moved. This time I put a date on it.

The next time I went down, the lock had a new position.

Some time between March 10 and 19, both lock and heart were gone.

I’m amazed that the items stayed beside the stream for roughly a month. Granted, the weather was cold and few people were wandering about. How I wish I knew who put them there and who took them away! John’s last time to walk all the way to the creek was the day we found the lock and the heart rock. I think if only the rock was there, I would have brought it home as a memento of our walks to the creek.

A Most Exciting Day for David!

Grandson David knew his day off would be different, because he was slated to run the sound board for the Lenten service. He’d had general instructions and observed a time or so, but there is nothing like sitting in the command seat! He said he made one mistake, but no one in the congregation noticed.

Amy, the music director, was in the choir loft and thought to take a photo and send it to John and David. Wasn’t that thoughtful? I particularly appreciated it.

Earlier in the day we went with David to the Subaru dealer in Asheville, as he began looking for a car to buy. There was nothing that interested him, but he had begun the process. As we drove home, the salesman texted him, asking if he might be interested in a new car that was due to come in soon. David said yes. We hadn’t been home long when word came that the car was delivered and was there on the lot. The fellows went back, planning to see the car and wait for the church service to begin. It takes about 45 minutes to get to Asheville, so they wouldn’t come back home.

David texted me, and I’m sure if there had been wires involved, they would have sizzled. He test drove the car and agreed to buy it!!! On that high, he rushed to church and ran the sound board. His concentration must be superb.

Normally he is on a very late schedule, but David got up quite early to go to the bank. His face was all smiles as he held up the cashier’s check.

Next stop was for insurance. His grin was even broader when he knew the car was insured.

At the dealership, he signed papers in the showroom while the car was cleaned and gassed up. After choosing a service agreement, the salesman sat in the car with him, showing him all the bells and whistles. David knows a lot about cars and probably didn’t learn anything new, but they went through the checklist.

They brought a sign out for him to hold, while the salesman and I took a picture. After shaking hands all around, David was left alone with his car for the first time.

I couldn’t see the screen very well in the bright sunlight, but I asked David to pose beside the car. It looks like he took it under his wing.

The last photo at the dealership shows him in the driver’s seat, ready to start the car. I leaned in and said, “Nobody is looking. Hug the steering wheel.” This was a private moment, not to be intruded upon by a camera.

We stopped for a sandwich at Culver’s. Normally David would have loved a milkshake to go, but he wouldn’t take food in the car on its first day. I have a feeling this vehicle is going to stay a lot cleaner than my old car, Snot. After lunch we drove in tandem until David turned off to go to work. I felt sorry for him, having to work a full shift after a very exciting morning.

There is one thing I failed to do. I didn’t lean in the car and get a whiff of that new car smell. I shall do that tomorrow.

Bed Head or Windblown?

My hair got up on the wrong side of the bed, and I stopped to take a photo of it just before walking with John. As predicted, the wind was blowing. I figured my bed head wouldn’t matter. Here are the before and after photos. You can vote for a winner, but I think they are equally bad.

I got up earlier, hoping to get home before the sun blinded us. That turned out not to be a problem. We saw Logan dribbling a basketball on his porch, and he ran out to speak to us. John said, “Want to walk with us until it’s time to go to school?”

He ran back inside, emerging in moments with Shawn at the door. We waved at her and set off up the street with Logan. He began talking about songbirds, having seen a robin recently. We were impressed when he said he has a small book of North Carolina birds and identified a towhee. Way to go! I didn’t try to identify a bird until I was 40 years old, despite my mother’s life-long interest. Logan has started at age 11. We love that young man and admire his active brain.

Bob picked him up at the big bend. He waved from the back window, and we did the BIG WAVE, as usual. What a fun way to start our day!

When we returned, I wanted a photo of Joyce’s daffodils. A video seemed the best medium on a windy day. I tried to get the attention of the flowers, but they had their backs turned to me.

Shadowed

I was almost to the creek when I noticed how nice my shadow looked. The sun had just come over the mountain, making my silhouette tall and thin. I could adjust to that, even though the truth is far from it. Yes, I would identify as willowy. Just then another shadow from the church drive began to touch mine. Wait! I’m walking alone. Why is there another shadow? Turning my head, I exclaimed, “There’s another shadow! I didn’t see you.”

The man said, “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“You didn’t scare me. I was just surprised.” We wished each other a nice day, and he strode on.

He was carrying a take-out box, and he went into the trailer at the roof-framing place. I decided he had come from J Creek Cafe and was hurrying to eat breakfast before it got cold. By the sound of things, he didn’t share with his yappy dog. I’ve never seen the dog, but it barked as I crossed the road to head home.

My purpose for being there, other than exercise, was to check on the stone heart and lock that had been left by the stream on February 12. They haven’t moved at all! I put today’s date on the photo for easy tracking.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday usually means a photo replaces words. The wordlessness today took place on our street. By tacit agreement, John and I do not talk until we have climbed the first hill. He has no breath to talk, and I am too busy huffing and puffing. I pulled on his sleeve to let him know a car was approaching behind us. I went to one side and he to the other. Looking back, we saw neighbor Bob grinning behind the steering wheel. He used both hands, motioning us to stay apart until he passed. I was enthusiastically waving him on, all of us laughing. As we moved back together, we saw Logan’s hand waving through the back window. It was just this year that we started the BIG WAVE when Logan is going to school. We flail both our arms wildly until he is out of sight to give him a good sendoff for the day. Silly? Oh, my! Yes! But it is harmless fun.

Logan, a Breath of Fresh Air

Neighbor Logan (11) had not come over to visit us for a long time, probably because he was very busy with school and sports. I let him in, and he spotted John at the dining room table. He made a beeline to John, hesitated a moment and sat down opposite him. He knows he is always welcome to share a meal with us, but we had finished eating. When John asked how school was, Logan responded with something he knew would please John. He mentioned that they have been studying Roman emperors in history. There ensued a discussion of what period was involved, and John brought a book to the table with appropriate photos to show him. I was impressed that Logan knew where this fit into the historical time-line.

We think Logan’s sense of appropriate behavior is far above average. He waited until John paused to ask what he came over for. “Could we play checkers?”

I have a standard ritual of hiding a granola bar for Logan to find. I suggested he find that while John set up the game. It’s difficult for me to find a hiding place that is challenging. Recently he asked that I make it a little harder! When he looked all around the room several times, I told him to look waist high. Bingo! He found it.

As the fellows played, I took a photo to show the concentration. They played three games until it was almost time for Logan to go home.

I was playing the day’s game of Set on my phone and showed him my time, which I think was over six minutes. I handed the phone to him, and he finished the same game in one minute and a few seconds. I am always impressed at how quickly he and David can solve those things.

As Logan put on his shoes, he thanked us several times. His manners are superb, much better than those of many adults. Every time I notice, I silently applaud Shawn and Bob for their excellent job in training him. These skills have become natural to him and will help him in everything he does for the rest of his life.

What’s the Story?

As I reached the creek, I saw three items on the rock.

Zooming in, I took another shot and put the camera back in my pocket. All the way home, I wondered why those items were grouped together.

A woman’s story:

My darling love, I went back to “our” rock where we used to talk for hours by the creek. The gurgling water was the same, but my life has been shattered. Nothing is the same since you left. I sat there, having a pouch drink like we used to. Remember that hot summer day when we moved some big stones to change the music of the stream? They have been scattered. I looked at my feet on this cold day and discovered a heart-shaped rock, worn smooth by the flowing water. Picking it up, I warmed it in my hands as if it were your heart I was massaging. If only I could warm your feelings for me again! I went back to the car and got the lock we found the last day we were here. I took it as a symbol that our lives were going to be locked together forever. I’m leaving a message for you, just in case you come back like I did. The rock is my heart longing to be locked with yours once more. You’ll know it was me because of the drink. I still love you.

A man’s story:

While fishing, I saw a rock and a lock under water. Put them on a big rock. Forgot them and my drink when I left.

Sadie Goes to Washington

Sadie moved to Washington State and was very happy to be in a house with a fenced yard. Probably anything was better than being cooped up in a moving car. A few days later her joy knew no bounds when Rose arrived. Rose rescued Sadie when the dog was a puppy, and their reunion was sweet.

Son John $pencer took a photo of her near the Spokane River.

I enjoyed the snow scenes where Sadie was catching snowballs thrown for her.

She was at peace and ready to rest a bit during a hike near the Canadian border.

England 40 Years Ago — February 7, 1982

In all my years of doing the family washing, I had the highest percentage of socks go missing one day. (In England things don’t “get lost,” they “go missing.”) By the next day I’d recovered all four.

Do you remember the verse about the little girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead? When she was bad, she was horrid. Well, little John can be haughty, but more often he’s NAUGHTY. In one day he unpacked the frozen foods all around the car, willfully threw pebbles from a planter into the fireplace, played in the salt pig, knocked down the gate at the door to play in the shower while I was washing my hair, and opened the big box where my angels were and began pulling them out. Imagine me following in the wake of that little swirling disaster, cleaning up one mess as he was making another. He had also made off with my glasses so that I couldn’t see to dress after washing my hair as the door bell was ringing. You might guess this was a day John Sr. went to London. Do you suppose he knows what’s coming and abandons ship?

John had them rolling in the aisles when he went into the office to catch up on a few things. One of the old hands in the chartering department was moving into a vice-president’s office that John had used the last two weeks. As the man pondered where to put furniture, John said, “It’s kinda like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, isn’t it?” The dour Norwegian couldn’t stifle his laughter on that one.

$ decided to stir up a cake while I was fetching the girls and John was upstairs working. He used two dirty beaters, two cake testers, one clean wooden spoon, two bowls and the cheese grater. Unfortunately, the cake he stirred up was one I’d baked that morning.

We had a most delightful weekend in the Cotswolds. The first historical thing we visited was also the oldest – the foundations of a Roman villa. It was hard to believe they allowed about as much space for elaborate baths as for all the other living spaces put together. Tile mosaics were exquisite, and the hypocaust heating system running under all the floors is more advanced than many systems in use here today!

Not far from that villa were the ruins of the Cistercian Abbey of Hailes founded in the 1200’s by a brother of Henry III. Most of the foundations and some of the walls are there, filled in with a carpet of lush green grass. Just across the lane was the parish church still standing which is older than the abbey.

Boss stones from the abbey ceiling displayed in the museum

Tewkesbury Abbey was our last tourist stop of the day. One of the first things we noticed was a coal heater with a little wagon of coal standing beside it. The same kind of heaters were also in Ely Cathedral north of Cambridge. The photo at left was taken at Hereford Cathedral and does not have a wagon of coal beside it.

After we’d walked around admiring the elaborate, but delicate, stone work, there was a special sung evensong service in honour of the 30^th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The reverberation period must have been at least 5 seconds, showing off the fine tones of the choir and the oldest organ in use in this country. That organ has just been reworked and was rededicated only a couple of months ago.

For Sunday worship we sat in the choir of Gloucester Cathedral. A proud sidesman told John their choir ranks sixth or maybe even third in the country. We were sitting at the entrance to the lectern, and each time the men stood waiting to read, they smiled at $. Most unusual to us were the organ pipes over the choir screen painted in colourful scrolls and intricate patterns.

We admired the shiny floor tiles typical of this area – all in two colours. They were made by pressing a stamp into the soft clay tile, filling the indentations with lighter coloured clay, and firing them. After buying a reproduction tile in the bookshop [still on our dining room table in 2022], we went back into the choir (or quire as they spelled it on a sign) to find where that design was laid. We wandered into the cloisters, saw the chapter house where the congregation was invited for coffee, and fell into conversation with the dean of the cathedral who had preached the sermon. Around another corner of the glass and stone enclosed cloister was a sign that on that site William the Conqueror ordered the census later known as the Doomsday Book.

Two Sundays in a row we’ve been in churches with such warm friendly people – Guildford last Sunday and Gloucester this week. At both we felt such a part of the congregation that we were comfortable taking communion. Probably it helps that we know the Anglican service fairly well now. These smaller cathedrals are obviously home churches for many people; the sidesmen greet the regulars as old friends and have welcoming words for strangers. Of course, this feeling can’t extend to the tourist-mobbed big churches in London.

We couldn’t resist buying the record of Christmas music by the Gloucester choir. On reading the cover, we found that Gustav Holst was very active in that church and that Ralph Vaughn Williams was born near Gloucester, though he later lived near Dorking.

I forgot to mention that we saw the tomb of Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral. If we go to enough churches, we will have “seen” most of the kings and queens of England.