Of Hardy Histories November 26, 2007
Posted by Jen in : Bits and Pieces, Journal , 8 commentsYou know, I never used to be interested in history. It was just stuff, old fashioned nonsense that didn’t matter anymore. But I’m beginning to be intrigued by change, now that I’m becoming something of a relic myself.
Yesterday, I stood shivering in the porch of a village church, waiting to go and play some Bach. Yes, I know, some would say I’m Bach-ing every day. Anyway. In this church porch was a man we’ll call ‘Lance’, for that is indeed his name. Now Lance is proper old, with snowy hair, stooped shoulders and a Sunday-best suit. As a boy, he used to attend the service in that chilly church every week.
He smiled and whispered to us:
‘My mother entertained us during sermons by making rabbits out of her handkerchief. And my grandmother’s hat, bearing in mind this was Edwardian times, was too big to fit through the doors but she always refused to take it off.’
I wonder how it must feel to go back to a place that I’d visited in Edwardian times, a place that looks and smells and feels the same. It has made me feel sort of insignificant, an inconsequential speck in the story of time. Perhaps I’ll start carrying a handkerchief and being a little more dignified. Or perhaps not. Times have, sadly, changed.
I seem to have spent the first half of my life not really understanding what’s important but quite glad that I’ve discovered the bits that are. Just need to figure out how to put the missing bits into action now before my history is all wrong.
