After
our expedition to Crantock Church to see the wonderful Flower Festival last
month, for our first cafe of September we were back in the familiar
surroundings of the Village Hall.
Visitors were greeted by a ‘word-search’ based on apples and sausages, and
the room was soon buzzing with friendly chatter as the tables filled up – but
what was the theme for the afternoon?
All
was revealed when we were introduced to our guest speaker, Robert Bond from
Perranporth, whose topic was ‘Anecdotes from a Working Life’. Robert was looking very dapper with his white
shirt and bow tie, and he was soon amusing us with the story of how he acquired
his distinctive jacket. Moving on we learned that he was brought up on his
family’s farm in Somerset, where dairy farming was supplemented by
cider-making, and he had many stories to tell about the strange powers over
those who visited his father’s cider shed! On leaving home, Robert worked in
the offices of a well-known sausage and pork pie maker before moving on to the
motor trade , and then into the media where he worked for the BBC in radio and
television. Currently Robert is a speech-writer for an MP at Westminster and a
popular after-dinner speaker. He was a most entertaining and amusing speaker, and
with tea-time fast approaching he still had many more tales to tell on what
will hopefully be a return visit.
At
teatime it was back to those sausages and apples, with time to sample some
apple juice and test our taste buds with five different flavoured sausages
which our faithful catering team had been busy cooking in the kitchen! There was also, of course, a cup of tea and
the usual delicious selection of refreshments – this time, of course, including
sausage rolls, Jane’s apple cake and some bite-sized apple pies – what a feast!
There was also the opportunity to look at a display based around sausages and
sausage making, and apples and cider making. A range of very tempting apples
were on show thanks to a selection kindly donated by Morrisons and there was a
chance to have a taste and compare different varieties.
After
tea, there was time to do a crossword based on ‘occupations’ and ‘conversation
boards’ were distributed around the tables. These displayed a fascinating
selection of photographs illustrating occupations and questions to stimulate
thoughts about our own working lives: Did you have a ‘dream job’ to which you
aspired as a child? What was your first
experience of the world of work? Did you
have a holiday or Saturday job?
There
were also boards showing photographs of job-related TV shows to identify from
across the decades, ranging from ‘Dr Finlay’s Casebook’ to the ‘Are You Being
Served’ – not as easy as it seems!
It
was a busy and interesting afternoon and thanks were given to Robert for his
most interesting talk which stimulated a most entertaining Memory Cafe for us
all!
Thanks
to the generous sponsorship from ‘The Bowgie’ at West Pentire, copies of
‘Sparkle’ magazine were distributed to give everyone something to read, and
puzzles to do at home, before our next meeting on Monday 18th
September from 2pm at Crantock Village Hall.
