19 January
Our brains are so complex and amazing aren’t they?
They do so much we never actually think about, or even realise. My worked it’s
magic again last night as I was getting into bed by reminding me of the death
of my Aunty Eva in 1966. She actually got me a job in a factory making car
seats, it was good job too, well paid for a young lad at that and not too
strenuous. It was also a clean job, not one where I had to keep cleaning my
hands every few minutes. Anyway …
Aunty Eva made me think that some people know when
they are going to die. You see, she had borrowed a load of cloths from her mum.
One day she got it all washed, dried and pressed. She then packed them up, got
a bus from Bed’th to Dorktown and then a second one out to Arley where we lived
at the time. Arriving at gran’s house, she sat down in the armchair beside gran
and said, ‘Mam, I’m buggered,’ put her head back and died right there where she
sat. Did she know she was about to die? Or did she just have a feeling that she
needed to get all the borrowed items back to gran? And now I’m wondering if
some people do know they are going to die.
Of course I made a note of that thought just in case
it slipped back into mind again. I’m glad that I did because for once I can now
remember it and have a record of it. So here I am looking at my PC screen and
right in front of it is another note book; like most writers I have loads of
them. The last thought I noted in that book reads, ‘Social change and Crimble’.
Now what the heck did I mean by that? I think it was along the lines of how
social changes have impacted on Christmas as a whole.
In Arley where we used to live, there was a coal mine.
Dorktown and the surrounding areas were a one massive coal field. In most cases
the men walked out of the door and down the road and into work. In town’s the
same happened where factories employed workers from the local area. Again it
was out the door and into work. It’s not quite so easy now is it? Workers live
miles away from where they work. I remember Dave saying that a job centre
advisor (in the loosest of terms methinks,) offered him an interview in
Manchester and claimed that it well within commuting distance now. Needless to
say Dave didn’t accept it.
With the way that transport has changed and work patterns
are these days, more and it is more or less certain that somewhere some people
will be working over the Christmas period, and not just health care and
security personnel. I worked for a company called Surridge Dawson some years
ago and one while on night shift I had to turn in for work at just before midnight
on the 25th. That meant that we didn’t have all that good a
Christmas that year simply because of me having to go to work that later that
day.
It happens in more and more places now of course. As
our society changes year on year, the real religious meaning of Christmas gets
pushed back every year, I can see a time coming when the Birth of Jesus will be
forgotten. Sad I calls it.
Now what shall I offer for today’s photo …
Manor Court
Baptist Church Where I was once a member and once wrote a history for its 150
year anniversary.
And today’s funny …
Mrs.
Green lived in two story house together with an elderly widow. After not
hearing from her for a few days, she got a bit nervous. “John”, she called to
her son “do me a favor and go find out how old Mrs. Robinson is.” So six year
old John went down the stairs and knocked on Mrs. Robinson’s door. “So how is
she?” asked Mrs. Green when John came back up. “How is she?” repeated John
“I’ve never seen her so mad in my life, she said it’s none of your business how
old she is.”
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