For me there was a sadness about the event. Usually it's an uplifting service with a full church and all the uniformed organisations parading and the village coming together to remember our war dead.
But this year I guess we were lucky to have anything. Only five wreaths were laid and there were just a handful of people. the Rector Derek McClean led the short service around the war memorial and I believe he will be posting a video of the event on the All Things Hethersett Facebook page.
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Yesterday, I submitted another two village stories to the Eastern Daily Press newspaper - one was on another delay in the re-opening of the King's Head and one was a plea for the village to get lit up for Christmas. I have mentioned both in previous blogs and hopefully they will appear in the local press shortly.
On Saturday night, I enjoyed another two hours of what I refer to as a You Tube Ramble. They are rather like Steward Strolls but don't involve walking.
I just log into You Tube and then have random looks at random things. Last night I started with a series of dramas put together by a friend and all-round Wymondham nut Tony Vale. Tony is a playwright of some note. He has written tens if not hundreds of plays from comedies to more serious dramas. He has now got together with playwrights from the USA to produce a lockdown series of plays - all filmed and recorded before lockdown. The group showcased some of these on You Tube.
From there, I viewed a film about Norwich in the 1950s which has been enhanced with colour. Then it was onto speedway at the Firs Stadium and I tarried there awhile. I have written about my love of Norwich Stars on a number of occasions as I was a regular visitor to the Firs as a boy.
Various films showed some grainy action at the Firs but there were interesting interviews with Norwich riders Terry Betts and Trevor Hedge and their views on the legendary Ove Fundin - arguably the greatest speedway rider of all time and still remembered so fondly in Norwich that, a few years ago, they presented him with the freedom of the city and the right to drive sheep across bridges - an honour I believe he has never taken up.
Anyway Hedge and Betts obviously had mixed views about Fundin making it quite obvious that the Swede expected to be number one in all things and to have the best starting positions. He didn't do failure and he didn't do second.
Then, in an interview, Fundin admitted that he didn't treat some of the younger riders with the respect they deserved. He was particularly apologetic about his treatment of Hedge.
An interesting aside was about the demise of the Firs which shut to be replaced by housing. On the last match a number of riders came to grief and crashed into one of the fences which left the announcer Bill Smith declaring that most of the stadium was rotten and falling apart.
That name Bill Smith rang a bell with me and there is a tenuous Hethersett link here. Bill died in 2011 at the age of 89. The following is taken from the EDP report of his passing.
"He was chairman of the Norwich Speedway Supporters’ Club in early 1960s and presided at the last meeting on November 5, 1964 at the Firs.
He knew many of the stars including world champions Ove Fundin, who was a great friend. Later he became a speedway referee, travelling the country on official duties for about three years. He also became an announcer at King’s Lynn Speedway.
Although speedway was his lifelong passion, the art and skill of driving was his life. He became the country’s chief driving examiner at the Department of Transport before retiring in 1985 and moving to Norwich."
Bill was awarded an OBE and I remember him fondly. His son Steve lived two doors from me in our previous house in Hethersett. We got on very well - enjoying the same taste in music and both being season ticket holders at Carrow Road. Steve was a professor and lecturer and an authority on Middle East politics. He subsequently became vice-chancellor of Exeter University and was knighted a couple of years ago. If you are interested in finding out more about Steve, there is plenty about him on the internet.
After some You Tube speedway I came across some old editions of What's My Line and got hooked for the rest of the evening. Who remembers What's My Line? If you do you will probably remember the British version. I was watching the American and it was hugely entertaining.
The idea behind the programme is a panel has to guess the occupation of a random person. The only thing is the random person always has an off the wall occupation. In the editions I watched they had a man who operated the skirt blowing mechanism at a theme park (can you imagine that being allowed today). He was asked whether his occupation was enjoyable "oh yes" he replied with a strange smirk on his face. Another very demure woman who looked like everyone's favourite grandmother turned out to be a dynamiter. "Do you improve things" was one of her questions. "Oh yes" she said as a mental picture came into my head of her pressing a plunger and blowing a building up.
Then there was the very demure lady who spoke with a very posh British accent and said she came from Oxfordshire in England and was currently working in Canada. Her occupation turned out to be identifying areas for worms and collecting them for fishermen. The kind of employment that no longer exists.
The most interesting aspect of the show was the special guest - someone well known turns up and the panel, all of whom are wearing masks, have to guess who they are. It's not actually difficult as those taking part were so well known. It really was like a history of entertainment.
Guests included John Wayne (they guessed by the ovation he got from the audience), a very young James Bond (sorry Sean Connery), Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, Mohammad Ali (a very young Ali), James Stewart (one of my all-time heroes), Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock and even Colonel Saunders (yes he of KFC).
All the guests speak in strange accents to hide their real voices which would give them away.
My favourite was Ronald Reagan who really hammed up the voice. This edition was from 1953. He was described as a heartthrob and it was easy to see why. Reagan was 42 at the time but looked much younger. Who could ever have envisaged that 28 years later he would become President of the USA?
Being an inquisitive person I was as intrigued by the celebrities on the panel as much as the contestants. Some of the panellists remained unchanged for decades - the most notable being Arlene Francis who was an actress and TV host and Dorothy Kilgallen, a journalist who was on the show from its start in 1950 until her untimely death in 1965. She died in slightly mysterious circumstances from a mix of drugs and alcohol.
Sadly time has taken its toll and virtually everyone I watched last night, captured on camera in a moment in time, is no longer with us.
Which reminds me that I haven't mentioned the American election. This has been deliberate. I have family and friends in the USA and some of them are Democrats and some are Republicans. So I really don't want to upset anyone. Let's just say I feel the world is a slightly safer place today than it was last week and leave it at that.
Irrelevant fact number one - Had he still been alive my father would have been 100 today. My aunt (his sister) is still alive at 104.
Irrelevant fact number two - After four days I have knocked off just over 19 miles of my aim to walk 100 miles during this lockdown.
More ramblings tomorrow.