 As Chairman Sybil Saunders was reading out members thanks for last months celebration of Lily Hubbard's 100th birthday, the lady herself arrived so we were all able to wish her belated good wishes as she had been unable to the October meeting.
Members then joined in the congratulations for Sheila Dorsett who had recently been awarded an Advanced Food Hygiene Certificate. We were reminded that our next meeting on December 1st will be our Christmas Lunch which is at the earlier time of 12 for 12.30. Tickets are needed for this meeting to help with catering numbers, so please call Shirley on 643625 is you haven't got yours yet. Our after lunch entertainment will be provided by The Chase Singers.
We welcomed back our speaker, Steve Harris, whose talk was entitled 'Manners, Mother and the Milkman's Horse' – a nostalgic look back to the 30s and 40s. In his opening remarks Steve reminded us that those were the days of good manners, good neighbours and mutual respect, he then went on to describe in detail what he meant by that and how our daily life has changed. Then it took a 3year apprenticeship to work in his father's grocery shop – not a quick lesson on the till of the supermarket. Coal fires, gas lights, chimney sweeps and the Monday ritual of washing day were the norm and the best housewives had the whitest washing. No fridges, freezers or TV and the 'wireless' was powered by an accumulator that had to be recharged weekly. Mother was the family disciplinarian unless the offence was very serious when father was summoned and milk was delivered by a horse drawn cart – the horse knowing exactly where to stop at each house and when a grateful customer would have an apple ready for him.
At the end of this amusing talk Steve showed a collection of slides to illustrate his theme including some of his family and their grocers shop, streets with no traffic and interestingly a wartime ID card – did you think that was a new idea' Other slides taken from museum displays showed a cooker and flat iron, a school room and laundry.
All of these memories were shared by most of the audience who, like Steve, had seen a great many changes during their lifetime. At the end of the talk we were left to reflect whether they really had been the 'good old days' or whether we preferred at least some of the modern gadgets we now had.
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