Page 136 - Through a glass brightly

and raining, which is the usual pattern here - a few hot days and back to normal - the earlier patch of hot weather was an exception. We’ve been expanding things a bit here socially, but I am aware that a lot of people are being more careful than me. It’s easy to be complacent here as the rates have been low and no one knows anyone who had it so it doesn’t feel very real and then we hit a birthday season in the family and have done some socialising in a cautious way. But as I have been body surfing from the beach at Bigbury and swimming in the swimming hole on the little river on my son’s land up on Dartmoor, it has felt like a huge opening up of life again. My ex husband had his 77th birthday yesterday and drove down from London and stayed overnight, (bringing the new girl friend with him - big sigh of relief all round that someone is looking after him and keeping him company) and we both went swimming in the icy water under the trees with our grandchildren cavorting around us in inflatable tubes, and our children cheering us on. It makes you appreciate all those things you took for granted - the biggest bonus of the lockdown for me. The boat company running coastal trips has just opened for bookings from July and I’ve booked a couple of those - now it’s a metre distancing even that is possible. I expect we will get a second wave, maybe in the autumn, and get shut down again, so I intend to live now. Cautiously.
Pauline Duffy became Pauline Cade. In the 70s she lived in Welwyn Garden City, as did Ann David (once Strauss). Ann and she met through their children and we socialised a bit together then. When she moved away she did not stay in touch.
Sandra Parker went to Exeter where I did. She did indeed become a forensic scientist and often comes to reunions.
So, Cary, it’s you I cycled to school with - I think I remember now. I think we were perhaps upper fifth or sixth form when we did it. And often coming home we would cycle down Vale Drive to avoid the hill. The very idea of coming down Barnet hill with all those lorries and no crash helmet - it’s unbelievable any of us would think of doing it. And I know your walk home from school well, Janet. I often went that way in the evenings on my bike - I loved a long solitary bike ride down Barnet Lane and back along Mays Lane or up to Totteridge and along the Dollis Brook path. That path which goes all the way through Finchley and is still a really popular walk for all the locals there too. When I was a baby we lived in Sherrards Way and my mum told me that when my dad came home from work (he worked in the post office then somewhere in North London) they would put me to bed in my pram, with a hot water bottle if it was cold, and walk to Totteridge and back.
Ruth, I can’t believe I never read your dad’s book - and maybe I did and have forgotten. If I lived in Wheathampstead still I would pop round and borrow it! Too true that we should be recording those early memories of a life disappeared for ever.
Glenda, what a ghastly mishap to lose the version - thanks for all the hard work.
From Jenny at 16.35
Thank you for making me laugh Val - on this unbearably hot day in suburban London - even the shade is too hot, so I am inside with all the windows open and the curtains closed. As I read about your recent exploits, I was trying to think what 'people' in the future would make of all the things we have been reminiscing about.
The account of you and Fred - and family - swimming in the river on Robin's 'Land' conjured up a picture that was a cross between Swallows and Amazons and Brideshead Revisited. Last night I had to make do with a washing up bowl full of cold water to sit with my feet in for an hour while I watched a programme about Margaret Thatcher! Obviously, folks in Devon are
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