High Ham and Somerset – Page 12 – For the fainthearted . . .

Before the days of social media

If it happened now, the story might appear in many places in many forms; on news websites, on forums, on blogs, on SnapChat and WhatsApp and Twitter and Facebook, and on the plethora of other online platforms. Twenty years ago, the options were not so plentiful, the story might have been shared through Hotmail or posted on My Space or perhaps a handful of other places (though, with dial-up modem connections, pictures often presented a problem).

In the mid-1950s, what way might a story have been shared? Perhaps the local …

Hearing voices

“Where are you from, sir?”

”I’m from here.”

”I know you are now, but what about before?”

”I was born in Taunton, I grew up in Langport, I did my A Levels at Strode College in Street. I’m from here.”

”But you’re not really from here, sir.”

”Where am I from, then?”

”Are you American?”

”No, I’m definitely not American. I lived in Ireland.”

”My friend said he thought you were Irish. I thought you were American.”

The bell went and the class moved to their next lesson. The teacher …

A reassuring tread

It was once said to me that as one grows older one becomes more and more concerned about less and less, perhaps it was an attempt at a explanation of the propensity of some older people to seem inordinately concerned with matters that seem trivial to most, but have the capacity to cause alarm and upset for the person affected. Perhaps it is a sign of advancing years that things that never caused concern in the past can now become a preoccupation, for my greatest fear is the weather!

I …

Every brick tells a story

Surrounded by undergrowth, shrouded in ivy, the buildings become less and less visible as the years pass. Perhaps the ownership of the land is unclear, perhaps the deeds lie gathering dust in a distant office, perhaps no-one wants to claim responsibility for the pockets of rough land and the ruinous structures.

Once they were the property of the War Office, or the Royal Air Force, or whichever branch of government that was responsible for airfields and their associated installations. The purpose of the short, squat tower-like buildings never seemed entirely …

Libraries week is a week worth keeping

It is Libraries Week from today until Saturday. There are days and weeks and even months for numerous things now, most of them instantly forgotten. However, libraries have changed the lives of many of us, they certainly made a great difference to me.

In childhood days, our library in Langport was a single room upstairs in the town hall. Working through its entire stock of Captain W.E. Johns did not take long; they were followed by all sorts of pony stories, Herge’s Adventures of Tintin, and anything else that …

Going to work

The mornings have been breathtakingly beautiful. The sky in the east before dawn has been filled with deep shades of yellow and pink and orange. The mist blanketing the fields beyond the hedgerows has created a mood of magic and mystery. To imagine the Roman soldiers who are said to walk the roads around Low Ham would not be difficult; a dark shape moving in the greyness might easily be a legionnaire.

People rise early in the village. Cars pass along the road before six o’clock. Commuters bound for Bristol …