Our August meeting

Enormous sunhats, family photos and impossible rock – our Summer childhood show and tell

Our President, Heather, writes:

"With plenty of Pimms (which comes with at least one of our 5-a-day portions of fruit and veg!), strawberries, meringues and cake, we had an evening of summer recollections.  Although the WI fi did not support the full blast needed to hear our summer song favourites, we did at least share a list of them and even sang a few scattered lines!

The Show and Tell produced some of the odd items that we used to collect as the obligatory souvenirs: curious shells with links to faraway and nearby places – Hayling Island for example; sticks of impossible to eat (or enjoy?) rock with the name all the way through. Even when they came in small pieces, I doubt that many were actually consumed. Huge sun hats were part of the created memory of sunny summers, and how we differently experienced the season. Some just got through it. Others seem to have had the best of it with access to beach huts - quite a luxury then and even more so now.

The photos of us as children raised some interesting conversations about how we have kept - or lost track of - those old photos.  Who in the family gets to keep the old albums?  It took some guesswork to match them to our current  selves. With a lovely range of shots we had to make use of the clues – from beautifully posed studio classics to atmospheric holiday snaps at stately homes and our gardens; places as far apart as Wales, France, Hong Kong and Egypt; and props such as camels, a teddy bear fancy dress costume, capacious and stylish jodhpurs; the period knitwear and dainty frocks with puff sleeves; the black and white compared to the introduction of colour.

Our small lives must have included hazards, as memories of TCP, Germolene and such like crept in, and not everyone's childhood was a sunny fairy tale, but we could leave our friendly, sociable evening with a piece of comforting cake and I trust everyone arrived home safely!

There was time to share family tales - enjoying blackberrying and the unforgettable blackberry and apple crumbles that followed.  Also, does every family have a story of unorthodox and unauthorised home haircuts? I am sure there will be continuing conversations.

Plus...

A very enthusiastic recommendation for a female artist came up – Alice Kettle. Textile Artist. Free exhibition, 'To Boldly Sew' at 99 Bishopsgate and 30 Fenchurch Street. 5th July - 29th September. Very highly recommended."

Our August Coffee Morning: Friday 25 August, 10.30am – Blu Ivy Cafe

Block C, 24 Stoneway Walk, Globe Town, London E3 5SH, off the Old Ford Road within Bow Wharf where the Hertford Union Canal meets the Regent’s Canal. 277 bus nearby; nearest tube Mile End.