Monthly Archives: August 2020

Fishing means escaping

Posted on 31st August 2020 by Ian

One school summer holiday ended with a day’s fishing on a boat from Lyme Regis. It must have been a bank holiday Monday, for there were a dozen or so men in the group, all from our small home area. … Continue reading →

Posted in Unreliable memories | Leave a comment

No-one riots in Somerset

Posted on 30th August 2020 by Ian

The Sunday afternoon of the August bank holiday weekend brings the annual blackberrying afternoon for our family. “Cecil’s hedges are best,” declared my sister. It is a while since Cecil was the farmer working the land, but, for us, they … Continue reading →

Posted in Out and about | Leave a comment

Historical onions

Posted on 29th August 2020 by Ian

The stereotype of a Frenchman when I was young was a man wearing a black beret, hooped shirt and workman’s trousers, riding an old black bicycle, and carrying strings of onions around his neck. It seemed a strange image, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Unreliable memories | Leave a comment

Gardening was a matter of necessity

Posted on 28th August 2020 by Ian

Gardening was a matter of necessity. In our front garden, we had a few wallflowers and a lilac bush at the gate, in the back garden there was a full range of vegetables. Gardening was about digging trenches for potatoes, … Continue reading →

Posted in The stuff of daily life | Leave a comment

Unwritten past

Posted on 27th August 2020 by Ian

I started primary school in September 1965. Long Sutton Primary School, where I spent the first eighteen months of my education, was probably typical of most small rural primary schools in England. In infant class, pupils were given blackboard slates … Continue reading →

Posted in The stuff of daily life | Leave a comment