Family Folklore

Hello, thank you for calling in.  I hope you are all keeping safe, warm and dry enough - especially those of you affected by the extraordinary storms we are having on both sides of the Atlantic.  I am well aware that although the endless rain is getting me down, I have a great deal to be thankful for.

 

First of all, THANK YOU for your very kind comments on my last post, my own tribute to Alan Rickman - and Rosie, I am very jealous!    Even The Mathematician rang me to let me know that she understood why I had written it, although for her he will always be Severus Snape. 

 

This was supposed to be my January family history post but I'm afraid other things got in the way so as an alternative, I offer you a piece of what my cousin calls "family folklore" which I heard for the first time today.  We have been to Cardiff Bay to surprise my father by joining him for his birthday lunch and as fifteen of us sat around a table, relaxed and chatting, my mother told us this story.  She was born in London during the Second World War and grew up there.  Occasional visits to the theatre in the West End were part of that growing up (tickets were much cheaper then) and her parents liked to take their daughters to the Savoy Theatre to see the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company perform the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.  One evening, when she was about fourteen years old, they went to see The Gondoliers and the interval went on for rather longer than was usual.  Sitting at the back of the stalls, Ma and her sister became aware that a buzz of excitement was spreading through the theatre: a special guest was in the house.  They waited and eventually, a door opened at the front of the auditorium, beside the stage, and in walked...Winston Churchill AND Field Marshal Montgomery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now then, gentle reader, remember that this was only about eleven years after the end of the war and these men were national heroes.  The audience rose to its feet and applauded them before reluctantly settling down for the second half of the performance. 

 

Fancy that, my mother seeing Winston Churchill and Monty in the flesh!  And fancy her not having told us this story before!!  Winston Churchill, Hello!!!  I am almost giddy with excitement at learning that my Ma was in the same room as our great twentieth century leader.  (Mind you, Aunty Pat going to school with Marc Bolan is pretty good...)  I just had to share the story with you lovely lot.

 

  See you soon.

 

Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x

Edit: my mother rang me after she read this.  Apparently, I got the date wrong - this incident didn't happen in 1956, as I had thought, but in the winter of 1958/9, almost fourteen years after the end of the war.  All other details have the maternal seal of approval.