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Hi Sharon it's great to read your stories of your young life. It' so refreshing to hear the story from someone who lived it. Although times were hard a feeling of love and family comes through in your writings. The making of soap is a great story and reminds me of how we in England used to save all the ends of bars and boil them up to make a sort of liquid soap for hand washing. I knew that soap was made from ashes and fat but not how. Is the soap very harsh on the skin?
Keep writing. Have a lovely Christmas. Richard.
Hi Richard,
Your comment is a nice surprise, coming as it does from across the water.
In answer to your question, surprisingly, the soap is not harsh at all, and was especially good for treatment of insect bites and other things that happen to little girls who climb mountains, like skinned knees and briar scratches.
I too have saved the ends of soap bars and melted them down. One of the things that growing up during that time did for me, it taught me to be frugal.
Thanks for the picture, it is great to be able to put a face with a name. Oh my, do you live on the coast? One of the things I have always wanted was to live along a coast. Harsh as it might be I have always wanted to be able to walk along a coast. Lucky you.
Thanks also for writing, I enjoyed your note. My article that will run tomorrow contains another recipe, something you might enjoy as well. And yes, I'll keep writing.
Hi again Sharran yes I do live along the coast now at a village called Capel-Le-Ferne in Kent and I previously lived at Harwich in Essex. Unfortunately I have MS and Capel is on a cliff and the only ways to the sea are down steep roads that I can't negotiate on my mobility scooter. My wife Sue is the vicar of Capel and two surrounding villages so I get to a number of social events. Prior to becoming ill I was a househusband doing all the housekeeping and gardening, minor jobs for neighbors etc. Editing the Church magazine and the local Fuchsia fellowship newsletter. I still do the posters and tickets for Sue. Happy New Year.
Nice to hear from you again. I am very sorry to hear about your health issues, and hope you continue to enjoy the activities you are involved in.
Your description of your area sounds like the very old English novelists that I like so much. The Bronte's in particular come to mind. George Eliot...same scenario.
Take care and stay warm, and I hope you keep very busy, so that winter and cold and health issues don't get you down.
Thanks for your note. It will be nice to hear from you again.
Sharon
Hi Sharran you may have heard about the heavy snow, by English standards, that have brought the country to a standstill a couple of times this winter.
Well I'm pleased to say that here in Capel we have had very little much to the disappointment of the local school children who have not had a day off like most of the rest of the country. The teachers did take them out on a field study trip to the local countryside to study snow its structure and uses. You know snowmen, snowballs, the effects of snow down your back etc its slipperiness when compressed (slides). I believe its a study in snow science and social interaction. The children thought they would like to repeat the study as they may have missed some of the finer aspects.
We have a small rescue dog called Rolo. He has a pedigree but is a little short in the masculine department, had the snip. He loves to come with me when I go out on my trolley, happily trotting alongside on the lead, or better still in his opinion, riding on the footplate like a little Mutley . I have sent a recent picture of him taken on a rare, very rare, occasion when he was clean.
My main hobbies are my computer and growing Haworthia indoors on the windowsills.
Will write again soon. Richard.
Hi Richard!
What a great Mutley dog!!!! He sure looks happy, bet he loves having been rescued.
We had an ice storm, major damage, and no electricity for 2 weeks. I have enough logs down all over my yards to build a smalll cabin!! Slowly we are coming out from under all the mess, but it was horrendous. That was the first time I had seen an ice storm or ever snow in years. We don't usually get that much bad stuff!
But then it was in the 70 degree range for the past 4 days, so who knows what it will be tomorrow.
Nice to hear from you again. You take care, and take care of the puppy!
Sharon
Hi Sharon,
Just been reading the Bee story. You say you miss the mountains. I'm sure you must although in some respects it must have been a hard life.
I've been reading about life in Capel in the earlier years and am struck by the similarities to life here and that you describe of your childhood in Kentucky.
Water from wells, unmade roads, primitive one and two room schools and long walks. Outside toilets and the fight to get on main water services. Charabanc rides, (coaches today), to the seaside. The milkmen delivering from handcarts, bread and groceries delivered by horse drawn carts. The pubs at each end of the village would provide fresh horses after the pull up the hills from either Dover or Folkestone. telegraph boys on small motorbikes. I begin to wish I had been raised in such a village as Capel.
I was born (December 1939), in a suburb of London, Southfields South West London County. Southfields was more advanced than Capel and had running water, mains sewage and electricity etc, although some buildings even in central London still had gas lighting in 1960 and communal water supplies and toilets.
I still remember the refuse collection was by horse drawn dustcart. The cart was drawn by a horse until it was full then the horse would be uncoupled along with the dustman's box seat. A lorry with ramps would arrive, off load an empty dust cart and haul the full dustcart onto the back to the dump. As a small boy this was considered great fun to watch. Another great game was when the lorry came to deliver ice to the local fish shop after begging for pieces to suck my sister and I would sometimes hang onto the tail board of the lorry as it started up. On only one occasion June held on too long and a man in in a car had to chase after the lorry and get it to stop.
You have probably heard of the "Wombles of Wimbledon Common" children's programme. Well Wimbledon Common was very close to where I lived so I spent much of my childhood there, tree climbing, tiddlering, (pond dipping) chasing grasshoppers and butterflies etc. All things forbidden these days either in the name of Health and Safety or Conservation.
Best wishes Richard.
I had not heard from you in such a long time, I was beginning to get a little concerned. So glad you are still there, Richard.
I love reading about those days, but we can never go back, can we? And I guess in the name of Health and Safety and/or conservation, that is best. Population explosion comes to mind, and easier travel, longer reaches...all these growths make precautions necessary.
I like your stories, yes, there are similarities to my youth. Important, though, that we take what we learned and let it underscore our existence today.
New growth has sprouted from all the trees that were damaged in our late winter ice storm, and those young trees that were bent and frozen to the ground are alive and well. Nice to know that nature renews herself. All is green here, and lots of blooms that I thought I might never to see again.
I hope you are well, thank you for sharing your memories, lots of parallels to mine. Our memories are a great way to preserve history for those who came after us.
Be well, Richard. Best wishes to you and your family.
Sharon
