Our Forget Me Not cafe meets twice a month at the Methodist Church and then there's a third meeting at Hethersett Hall. That meeting co-incides with the art group that meets there every week and it was nice to see some of their work. I took some pictures which made a nice addition to Hethersett Herald.
And talking of Herald. I put the April edition online a few days early. I always aim for the last day of the month but the March edition was late and so I wanted to get the April online before going off today. So if you read Herald it's online at www.hethersettherald.weebly.com
And if you've never read it before, where have you been? This is edition 102. I might have a week's rest before starting on edition 103.
But back to our chat in Hethersett Hall. Somehow the song Bungay Roger came up. It might be because we had a discussion about whether Earsham is in Norfolk or Suffolk. We do talk about important issues as you can see.
Bungay Roger turns out to be a pretty ribald folk song and I noticed it was performed by Pete Bellamy, a traditional folk singer who lived in Norwich. I interviewed him once for the Norwich Evening News. He wasn't greatly forthcoming I seem to remember.
Bungay Roger is ever so slightly rude. Just Google the lyrics if you want to find out why.
Which takes me onto another of my pet subjects - the demise of newspapers. I have no idea how many journalists Newsquest employs. Not many I would guess.
I tried to hazard a guess at how many were employed when I started work for what was Eastern Counties Newspapers and which subsequently became Archant and then Newsquest.
At Lowestoft we had at least nine reporters, an editor and a sub editor. At Cromer it was four reporters and a photographer and a similar number at Beccles when I went there. In Norwich there must have been 20 journalists and the same number of sub editors.
There were lots of other branch offices and so there had to be well over 100 members of the editorial staff and I do mean well over 100.
I might have mentioned that I've been doing some research into the history of Hethersett Cricket Club. I have all the words but now need to source some photographs from I know not where.
Whilst putting Hethersett Herald online I had television on, occasionally giving it a cursory glance. I get hooked on these programmes where couples search for a place in the sun or an escape to the country. Very often the end of these shows is hugely disappointing.
Take yesterday's. The couple were shown numerous properties in Spain. They decided to make an offer on one. The offer was turned down and eventually after much piddling around an offer was accepted.
Cue wild celebrations.
But as the closing credits were about to roll we were told that a few days later the seller changed their minds and took the property off the market, thus making the whole programme a waste of time.
But there was always the adverts. We were bombarded with adverts for funerals, leaving money in wills to any number of causes, any number of appeals to help any number of charities and my favourite - a woman concerned about her bulky pee pants. Yes urine leaks rule. Oh I forgot about the couple earnestly discussing holiday insurance whilst sitting on an aircraft where there didn't appear to be any other passengers which is probably because there weren't any and the whole thing was a set up (surely not I hear you say).
*. *. *
Shocked and saddened to hear about the collapse of the Key Bridge at Baltimore. Baltimore is the first city we visited in the USA way back around 1978 which is shortly after the bridge was built. I do remember driving round what was called the Baltimore Beltway which is another word for a ringroad. The bridge crossed the beltway and so it is quite likely that we did cross it although that's the kind of thing you remember but I don't which rather suggests we didn't see it.
It's the Francis Scott Key Bridge to give it it's full name. Francis Scott Keys wrote the words of the American National Anthem The Star Spangled Banner. I seem to remember standing on the spot where he wrote those memorable words:
Oh, say, can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hail'd
At the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd
Were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?
Interestingly it wasn't adopted as the national anthem until 1931.
We have also stood on the spot where the words to America The Beautiful were conceived by Katharine Lee Bates. That was at the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. The words were written in a hotel room in Colorado Springs. We stayed in Colorado Springs and I firmly remember a national park called The Garden of the Gods.
Incidentally Katharine was English and was reaching at Colorado College. It was 1893 that she wrote the lyrics.
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
One of my favourite music albums is by Matthew's Southern Comfort and includes a song entitled Colorado Springs Eternal. You can check the lyrics to that out on the Internet if you are interested.
To finish today just a mention of two other celebratory American songs that I love.
This Land is Your Land was written by Woody Guthrie and a slightly more unusual one by Phil Ochs who wasn't what you might call a patriot but came up with the glorious Power and the Glory with the words
Here's a land full of power and glory
Beauty that words cannot recall
Oh her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom
Her glory shall rest on us all.
The song was released as a single and as if to redress the balance, the B side was entitled "Here's to the State of Richard Nixon." Mr Ochs was somewhat politically motivated in many of his songs.