In the morning, I’d caught a train to Birmingham to meet up for lunch with my lovely brother Alan and cousin Barry (at the Old Joint Stock ‘Ale and Pie’ pub). We had a very lovely time catching up on stuff, putting the world to rights(!), comparing ‘old age moans+groans’ and reflecting on all the memories and experiences we’d shared together over the years. Our families were very close during our childhoods and we regularly got together at weekends – for Sunday ‘teas’ (which frequently included a projector and holiday slides!), picnics and games (Sutton Park, Cannock Chase etc) and various sporting encounters (Albion, Villa and keeping quiet when our grandfather Fred was listening to the football results on the wireless and filling in his pools coupon!).
We reflected on how lucky we’d been to have lived in what seems to have been something of a golden age… we hadn’t been asked to fight in any wars; the NHS came into being; university education was free (and, in my case, also came with a full grant); housing had been ‘almost affordable’. It seemed to be the case that every subsequent generation would ‘have it better’ than the last one… but, sadly, that was no longer the case.
It really was a rather wonderful lunchtime (over several beers, of course!) and we laughed an awful lot remembering lots of the silly, embarrassing things we did together.
In the late afternoon, I trained home to Bristol (feeling somewhat relieved that the train was relatively empty, despite the imminent holiday weekend, and that I hadn’t drunk too many beers!) and managed to arrive home by 7pm.
Alice and Dan were down from Lancashire for three days and Ru, Stu, Iris and Rosa were round for supper… and it was a very lovely, relaxed evening (again lots of laughter, playing catch-up etc etc)… and, afterwards, Moira and I reflecting just how ‘grown up’ our grandchildren had become (Dan is now over 6ft tall and Iris+Rosa were both looking rather beautiful!).
It was really great to get together again (Han+Fee+Ursa were away on holiday in Scotland, so weren’t able to join us) and lovely to hear more about the various things they’re all up to. It almost felt like Christmas!
Over the past few days, I’ve subsequently found myself reflecting on all that happened last Thursday… a morning spent with people ‘my age’ - looking back - recalling tales from our younger days and reflecting on all that’s happened in our lives… followed by an evening with people of the next two generations (apologies to Moira!) - looking forward - talking about their hopes and dreams (but also about all the challenges that they face – both now and over the coming years).
The sort of very special, privileged day that doesn’t happen very often… and one that I need to cherish and ‘drink from’ over the coming days, months and years.
Photo: Sadly, I don’t have any photographs from our evening gathering (understandably, our grandchildren, in particular, are very protective of their public images!)… so you’ll just have to put up with this one from our morning ‘session’ (featuring Barry, Alan and me in the pub!).
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