Fifth series, episode 18
All five series are available here on the HebWeb.
In this episode, George Murphy is feeling down at heel, but tells Rachel Reeves to cheer up. He describes a shopping expedition with a granddaughter, shares a cheerful party tribute and a sad song.
Sole brothers
Recently, my first few steps in the morning have been agonising, due to pain in my right heel. My feet tilt in an outward direction, wearing down a telltale corner of my shoe heels. I've got a condition called plantar fasciitis. For almost three quarters of a century I haven't walked properly. The discomfort eases during the day, but it kicks in again if I walk further than to town and back.
Tottering along Bridge Gate one morning, I bumped into Ukulele Kevin from Old Town. We got into the hot topic of podiatry. His chiropodist cured his 'plantar fasciitis' by using a special insole. My friend John joined us. John's interested in politics and I thought his ears pricked up when I mentioned my pronation fasciitis tendency.
Turns out, John hadn't joined in with the recent fashion of wearing soft soled, slip on shoes. He's stuck with his life-long habit of wearing proper, laced up shoes with a proper arch. I wondered if that explains why his feet are in good nick? But It turned out he was more interested in Kevin's beekeeping hobby and his walk on role in Riot Women! I tottered home as they got into an animated discussion about Kitty.
Stop Apologising!
The newly elected Mayor of New York enthusiastically espouses social democracy. When asked where socialism has worked, he points to the success of Scandinavian countries.
In the late sixties, Denmark embraced a Universal Welfare State. Education, including university courses are free. So are childcare, welfare benefits and healthcare. The Danish pay a consumption tax (VAT) at 25%, and their income tax is over 50%, the highest burden in the OECD.
Denmark is one of the richest countries in the world, with the 2nd highest levels of happiness – just below Finland! In a recent poll, Danes showed satisfaction with their high taxes. So Rachel Reeves, stop looking so glum!
It's about time we had a grown up conversation about tax.
Long necked Zebra skinned one armed chair
One day, when I was just about to settle into my siesta, Twelveteen granddaughter galumphed upstairs to my lowly writer's garret and asked me to take her to the Kindness Shop to collect a long necked, zebra-skinned, one armed chair. I thought I'd better run this unusual request past a higher authority.
I found PW outside. She was foot pumping a tyre on a neighbour's car. Between pumps she panted that she'd left a few notes on the table to pay for Twelveteen's chair.
So, I drove Twelveteen to the Kindness Shop and handed over the dosh to the friendly Ukrainian assistant. The zebra torso fitted in our vehicle, but the zebra's famously long neck, even minus its head, stuck out through the boot.
A passing white vanman pulled over, to provide roadside assistance. He wrestled with the zebra for a while then called it quits, but he helped me take the chair back into the shop.
I texted Twelveteen's mum to say I'd paid for the zebra skinned chair but could she arrange for it to be picked up?
She texted back: "What chair??!"
A few days later, Vanman 2 delivered the chair, but Twelveteen's parents couldn't get it through the backdoor. They wondered if the chair might have to make its home in the backyard, next to the bins. Fortunately, Twelveteen's dad took a banister down and took a door off and the long necked, zebra skinned, one armed chair was able to take its rightful place by the dressing table in Twelveteen's bedroom.
Dusty Miller Poetry night
I went along to hear readings from our distinguished friend and neighbour, Peter Riley, who has Parkinson's. In his programmes notes Peter included a list of his interests, including Peak District lead mining, bronze age burial mounds, Transylvanian village bands and late 20th
century improvised music. The selection of Peter's poems was deftly and vibrantly read, at the suggestion of Beryl Riley, by Hebden's well known and much feted poet Clare Shaw. To find out more about Peter, and his half century plus writing career, read The HebWeb Interview.
There were readings by two other poets. I bought Navigations by Nancy Campbell, which features her time as the Canal Laureate for the Poetry Society. Michael Conley is a Mancunian poet who has recently settled in Calderdale. I enjoyed listening to his surreal poems and hoped to hear other examples of his work, in the Todmorden Book Festival, at which I was given a slot, but I was struck down by a winter virus.
BBC bias?
BBC News. The national broadcaster should lead with news items affecting many people's lives.
So, when legislation supporting tenants' rights was passed, why was it demoted below two villains being wrongly released from our broken prison system?
There's been fourteen months of headlines based on right wing media headlines. The upgrading of workers' rights, the support for young mothers, increases in public sector pay, the crucial diplomatic role the UK played in Ukraine, have often been downgraded in favour of headlines chosen by news proprietors living in tax havens. Trump's got a cheek if he thinks a badly edited Panorama item missed the truth that he blatantly encouraged the mob to overthrow a democratically elected President.
Party time at the Town Hall!
One Friday, in torrential rain, I braved the elements to join a celebration party for the esteemed Editor of HebWeb. For which I had prepared a monologue as part of the celebrations.
Chris Ratcliffe at 80 – a Tribute
To start at the beginning …
His Mum helped Chris to find delight in reading and in writing.
Whilst Dad, a onetime Cock o't School, gave him tips on fighting!
One day at school, grabbed from behind, Chris acted like a fool …
He tried out a Half Nelson and headlocked t' Cock o't school!
In later years, Chris wor often willing, through writing and demos to take on a villain.
At Essex, Paris and Grosvenor Square, more often than not, Chris would be there!
He read Melody Maker and NME, as rock took on The Powers that Be.
In French vineyards he liked chilling, to protest songs sung by Bob Dylan.
When Cycling in Search of the Cathars, sometimes spending too long in bars,
Their schedule would needed rearranging, for Their Tyres they wor a-Changing!
At campsites, Elaine would lament, how long Chris took choosing where to pitch t' tent!
But with Gnostics, Visigoths and Troubadours, their cycling journal worra Tour de Force.
In t' Seventies, wi' decline o't mills, Hippies swarmed up to t' Pennine hills.
Exuding Patchouli and cannabis fumes and wild swimming without their costumes.
They repopulated a place on t' skids, buying up houses and having kids.
Locals said each freewheeling child, in t' hills and valleys, wor Born to be Wild!
But hippies and locals soon formed a bond, in a famous battle to save a millpond!
When HebWeb appeared, both t' first and t' best, our local paper weren't up to t' test.
John Morrison let battle commence, with a mock headline: MAN CREOSOTES FENCE!
When Jill Liddington decoded Anne Lister, revealing t' true meaning of, "I kissed her,"
Bernard Ingham seethed with indignation, but lesbians loved each revelation.
A War of Words went to and forth, but Hebden became, T' LESBIAN CAPITAL O'T NORTH !
HebWeb's archive of asbestos losses is a lasting indictment of Acre Mill bosses.
HebWeb wor first wit' local news, and for folks who wanted to share their views,
There worra discussion forum for 'em, ruled by Chris with due decorum.
Floods and Gaza gave discussions a jolt, but I've sped through 8 decades like Usain Bolt!
Tributes are a bit like sprinting, so I'm sorry if your special memory Int in!
Age creeps up on us by stealth. I wish Chris and Jane Continued Good Health!
And for Chris, a Rebel with a Cause, a Contrarian, Vegetarian, Octogenarian! Let's give him a well-earned, Round of Applause
Readers write
In response to the And Finally item in the last episode and the new euphemisms for death and dead:
I'm with your present wife on people "passing" – passing what? I'm always tempted, but too polite, to say.
And when did animals become 'euthanised' – which I frequently read on the BBC website. Although on reflection perhaps that is the correct adjective in the veterinary world?
Regards,
Stella Henderson
Epigenesis
Professor Brian Cox has remarked that we inherit stress from our ancestors. This is known as epigenesis. I think of myself as a glass half full person these days, but my dad suffered from PTSD after the war and I think this affected me in my early years and into early adulthood. I asked my FaceBook friends how they were on the glass half full measure.
I got a large number of responses and I will share some contrasting responses in my next episode.
And finally
Have you been watching Trigger Point? I've been surprised by ITV's rough handling of a tragic story about corporate murder involving asbestos. How could they let themselves contrive a plot where sympathy is switched to those who are guilty and turned against those who sought justice by making one of the complainants a serial murderer?!
As each episode arrived, I thought of local heroes, such as Fay Robinson in Mytholmroyd and John Pickering, and wondered if they used the archive compiled with Chris Ratcliffe on HebWeb (Asbestos and the legacy of Acre Mill), and the Acre Mill disaster, as a model for their plot?
Acapella Feller
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