I’m writing this on Boxing Day, If I don’t the editor will be on my case! So no comments on the New Year, we’ll deal with that can of worms as it unfolds.
I hope you all had as good a Christmas Day as I did. I had the best Xmas present ever, the chance to hold my new great grandson for the first time, just a week old and the bonniest baby you have ever seen! (I know, they all are…..) It was at Christmas dinner with the family. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate. One thing came to mind, one of my most treasured possessions is a photograph of me at about three months old on my Grandma Challenger’s lap with my mother and Great Grandma Shaw, my grandfather’s mother. So we did another four generation image yesterday. I hope that when Kahara gets to an age where he values these things that he treasures that image as much as I do the one I’m posting this week. Perhaps it’s a good time to remind you again, write names and descriptions on the backs of your family pictures! It makes it so much easier for generations as yet unborn.
I got another present and I’m afraid this one is self-congratulatory. Daughter Susan tells me that one of the ladies in her knitting circle reads for Newspapers for the Blind and she said that these articles are popular with her audience. I’ve always liked the idea of reading for the blind and I was so pleased to hear that. So my message to my listeners is I’m glad they like my ramblings and hope I can keep up the standard. Thanks to the volunteer readers who make it possible. There is so much good in the world but it doesn’t get recognised, it’s bad news that sells newspapers. A man called Arthur Mee (1875 to 1943) was in his day a famous journalist and educator writing such works as The Children’s Encyclopaedia for the Harmsworth Press. At one point he tried to found a daily publication dedicated to nothing but good news, I’m sorry to say it was a total failure proving my point I think.
So I shall have a think and try to find even more forgotten corners for you to mull over each week. I have this old fashioned idea that no matter how obscure the knowledge, the more we know about local history the better it is for us and the town. We are so lucky to live in a place like Barlick which has such an ancient history, every time I hear someone cite the fact that their town was mentioned in Domesday I smile and think that’s nowt! We can go back much further than that.
One last thing I heard only this morning that tickled me because it would make such a good Pub Quiz question. The NSW Rural Fire Service is the largest volunteer organisation in the world. 70,000 firefighters and they are busy at the moment!
Stanley at three months old on his Grandma Challenger’s knee with his Mother and Great Grandma Shaw.