I know the 75th anniversary of what was essentially the end of the Second World War had particular meaning for a number of Hethersett residents who had fathers or grandfathers fighting in the Far East and some of whom were prisoners-of-war forced to build the Burma Railway. I will be featuring some of their comments in the next Hethersett Herald.
Incidentally in the UK, we commemorate VJ Day on a different date to our American cousins. We chose 15th August which is the day the Japanese surrender was announced. Americans commemorate on 2nd September which is the day the surrender was actually officially signed on USS Missouri.
After a run of steamingly hot days, today was very cool and it was back to wearing a fleece. At least the rain held off to allow us to have a good old chinwag with the neighbours.
Steve Smith (keyboards) and Derek Cubitt (this time on clarinet rather than saxophone) entertained with some Beatles classics and other material. It seems strange to think that all four of the Beatles were born during the war.
Ringo Starr was born on 7th July, 1940, John Lennon on 9th October, 1940, Paul McCartney on 18th June, 1942, and George Harrison on 25th February, 1943. Lennon used to tell the tale that he was born during an air raid on Liverpool, but this has been proved to be untrue. Liverpool suffered extensive bombing during 1940 but not specifically on October 9th. I was born on the same day as Lennon but 12 years later.
I don't remember anything happening to celebrate Ringo Starr's 80th birthday just over a month ago. Perhaps I missed it on the news or perhaps we were still too pre-occupied with coronavirus to notice. It's difficult to conceptualise time to realise that on VJ Day Starr would have been five years old.
Of course all that is only of interest if, like me, you have an obsession for all things Beatles and, in particular, their early years growing up in Liverpool. We had to cancel a trip to Merseyside earlier in the year due to the virus but are hoping to go within the next couple of weeks. I always look upon it as more of a pilgrimage than a visit. I am desperate to go to Strawberry Fields which is now a memorial garden to Lennon with a café and museum.
Our last visit to Scouseland was almost exactly a year ago to see Norwich beaten 4-1 by Liverpool at Anfield. It was a particularly uncomfortable game for us as our seats were in the top of a stand behind a goal and we had severely restricted views of the game. Then we had to queue up for a considerable time to cram onto a bus to get us back into the city centre. Not one of our best memories of Liverpool.