10 Things found in a drawer (9, 10)

Two final contrasting items. First, my dad's Boy's Brigade handbook. My dad enjoyed his time in the youth movement. He played the bugle. Founded in 1884 it was one of several uniformed organisations for young people that flourished in more jingoistic times and still survivie to this day. The other item is an oddity. It is a signed publicity postcard for Roger de Courcey. De Courcey was a ventriloquist best known best known for performing with Nookie Bear. He was the winner of the 1976 New Faces tv talent competition grand final. My parents would have sene him somewhere locally. He has lattelry become an agent for musician Rick Wakeman.

10 Things found in a drawer (7, 8)

 

On the right is a Bibel that belonged to my dad oresented to him when he was 11. My grandfather was a Roman Catholic but my grandmother was something of a Baptist and so my dad was sent to the nearby Sunday School. This was the first Bible I used when I was converted at the age of 12 in mys own nearby Baptist Church. On the left is an abandoned box containing various cards that I have used in the past in order to try to memorise Scripture.

10 Things found in a drawer (5, 6)

Next we have a couple of matching ornaments that were my mother's. She loved glass things and had a Swarowski collection. Perhaps these were designed as paperweights. The second item is a clothes brush. If the story is correct, when I was in my early teens my friend, Stephen Price, found an ad offering a mystery parcel for £1. We put in 50p each and received a parcel of plastic fruit, etc, which we then needed to divide between us. I later added a Jesus sticker to this item in my early enthusiasm for Christ.

10 Things found in a drawer (3, 4)

On the left we have a pair of scissors, which were apparently my great grandfather's. William Burke Hazelton (1883-1965) was a barber and had a shop at 454 Corporation Road in Newport until at least 1946 (see here). It is currently a beauty salon, it seems. The other item is an 1824 edition of A Key to Lennie's Grammar. It is an answer book to a popular text book of the time by a Scotsman called William Lennie (1779-1852). Not sure where it came from but it has hung about the house a while. Such books can fetcch up to £60 but this one is not in great condition.

10 Things found in a drawer (1, 2)

 

Sorting through a drawer I found a number of things that may be of interest. I may have shown the "I like Ringo" badge here before. It came in a lucky bag or Jamboree bag (3d a shot). I just saw one on sale in ebay for £16. The other item is an unused blazer badge that belonged to my dad. The choir has since amalhgamated with the Cwmbran to form the Torfaen Male Choir.

Day Off Week 5 2025

Proper day off today. Dressed for it in t shirt and trainers, I headed off for a walk on the Heath quite early and had an early cuppa too, reading David Copperfield. Read quite a bit of that through the day (it's brilliant, of course) but also found time to watch the latest University Challenge, do some blogging and write a letter for someone, etc. Got some cheese in Waitrose to write up on my cheese blog. Near the end of the day I had bottle of pear cider that I bought from Marks and Spencer. Very nice.Reading Dickens description of Copperfield and the waiter brought back a memory of school days and acting out the scene in class (Year 8?). I was the waiter and sought to extract as much comedy from it as I could.

10 Popular Soap Bars

1. Pear's amber
2. Lux
3. Dove
4. Wright's coal tar
5. Imperial leather
6. Palmolive
7. Knight's Castle
8. Camay
9. Shield
10. Lifebuoy

10 People who would come to our front door when I was a child

People tend not to communicate by knocking people's doors these days but when I was a boy all sorts of people would call, including

1. Milkman
2. Baker (ours was called Ken)
3. Insurance man (we were with the Pru')
4. Rentman (although we began paying it in town early on)
5. Betterware man (they sold brushes, etc)
6. Pools coupon man (my dad was a keen participant)
7. Avon lady (selling perfumes, cosmetis, etc)
8. Newspaper boy (Sunday papers were paid for through him)
9. Pop man (ie fizzy drinks from a lorry)
10. JWs (we took the WatchTower and Awake regulalry, the latter is not bad in some ways)

(Evangelists would occassionally call, Gypsies selling heather and giving curses if they thought it appropriate, Bob a job from time to time from the Scouts, Penny for the Guy on occasion - no trick or treat though, Provident cheque lady (a job my mum did), Rag and bone man - he didnt actually call at the door but would shour from the street, etc)

Blue Mink Banned 50 years on

I bought very few 45 rpm singles in my life time but one of them has just been banned. It is Melting Pot by Blue Mink, first released in 1969.

Global the company who run the Radio Station Gold has taken the decision to remove the song from its playlist after a complaint was made to Ofcom.

One person complained about offensive language in the music track Melting Pot by Blue Mink. No introduction to the track was broadcast, or any other content discussing it.

Global said the lyrics – which include references to yellow “Chinkies”, “Red Indian boy”, “curly Latin kinkies” and “coffee-coloured people” – would not be acceptable on a mainstream radio station.

However, it said that Gold’s position as a “station well-known and loved for its playlist of hits from the 60s and 70s” meant that the track was unlikely to cause offence to its audience.

Ofcom agreed, acknowledging that the track had been permanently deleted from Gold’s playlist, and resolved the complaint.

The song was played during The Music Marathon on the 27th of May 2019 at 12:45pm.

Ironically, the song is intended to promote racial harmony. I must asmit that I strained to understand the lyrics asa child but what I did understand even then seemed a little close to the knuckle. I remmeber the single I bought had an instrumental on the B-side.
Perhaps the most offensive line in the song is "It really doesn't matter what religion you choose"

10 Scots Football Teams

The beginning of a new football season has set my mind back on getting a new poster or whatever at the strt of the season with all those Scottish teams on it. Most of the names mean nothing to me but I haave onderful feelings of nostalgia for them.

1. Alloa Athletic
2. Berwick Rangers
3. Cowdenbeath
4. Dunfermline Athletic
5. East Stirlingshire
6. Forfar Athletic
7. Hamilton Academicals
8. Montrose
9. Raith Rovers
10. St Mirren

The Old Rising Sun

Recently placed on one of my other blogs

There was a pub in Newport town

They called the Rising Sun

They changed it to the Harlequin;

It's now a restaurant.

My mother was a Thomas

She sewed my old blue jeans,

My father came from Corpor Road

They lived up in Cwmbran.

I once met gransha in that pub,

Into that haunt he'd slunk.

He looked so very satisfied,

He was a little drunk.

Oh mother tell your children

Why the name of Harlequin

Is still found on the roundabout

And how it was The Rising Sun

I have one foot on the platform

The other on a train

And I'm goin' back to Newport town,

It looks like it might rain.

Yeah, there was a pub in Newport town

They called The Rising Sun,

I remember it from when a boy

And I'm not the only one.

Childhood Anecdote 1

https://www.historics.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-223---1961-ford--mk-ii-zephyr-6-convertible/?lot=8606&sd=1

Somewhere around 1965 I went as a six year old with my family on our usual summer caravan holiday to Porthcawl. At some point my dad's younger brother Peter (still alive and well and living in Canada) turned up with a new car he had bought secondhand, perhaps his first car. It was some sort of Ford Zephyr, a convertible if I remember correctly. Anyway, the think about this car was the registration, GAR 12. My uncle told me (as uncles do) he'd got it with me in my mind (we had just moved into our new home, number 12). I remember thinking at the time that he might have been better to have had GARY B and dropped the 12. GAR would make it a Hertfordshire registration I think.

All Aboard For Christmas by Thomas Kinkade

This is an old video (2012) but I love the close ups its gves of my current screen saver. TK died at the age of 54 in 2012 and was a professing believer.

Would have been 89

Had he lived, my dad would have been 89 today. Still remembered with great fondness.

My niece did this very good likeness years back.

Recent Activities Mostly in Wales

In recent weeks it has been quite busy. I am working on a big project for May and besides the regular work in the church I have been speaking elsewhere. A week back from last Friday I was down in Sussex. Firstly, I was in Halland where I had been invited to eat with a ministerial friend and his wife and then I spoke in Hailsham Baptist on the missionary David Brainerd. It was gratifying to see such a large number gathered and I think I was able to get across something of that great man.

Then over this last weekend it has been a great weekend of blessing. It began last Thursday night with the journey to Aberystwyth (Eleri, my youngest, the dog and me). There we stayed with my oldest son and his family. We arrived late but we had much of the day with them Friday. Another son, currently studying in the university, also came over.
Around 4 pm Eleri and I headed east again, this time to Bala where Eleri was taking part in a ministers' wives conference organised by EMW. My daughter-in-law and an old friend up from Pembrokeshire came with us. There was a good turn out at the conference with something like thirty or so by the Saturday.

At that point I left Bala and went further east to Pentre Halkyn near Holywell in north east Wales. North Wales can look pretty amazing in the Spring sunshine. It was a lovely trip. I was heading for a friend's house but it's a while since I last went there so it took me a few tries to find the right door. Chris and Carol, who are members in the church in Denbigh, treated me very kindly to a lovely Chinese meal. Carol disappeared at some point but Chris and I carried on chatting away and listening to music. Suddenly it was 2 am and past time for bed.

In the morning we went for a MacDonald's breakfast and then I was away back west to Bala, over the hills and past the rocks and sheep. That morning Eleri was speaking in the conference - not something she has really done before. She spoke on how we use our tongues and got on well, I'm sure, despite a cold that with unhelpful timing had begun to come on back in London.

I arrived around twelve and had a brief cuppa and then lunch with Eleri's cousin. He and his wife have been running the conference centre Bryn-Y- Groes in Bala for some time now, and very well. A big building project begins in September.

Having had a little break after lunch the ladies reconvened and it was my turn to be introduced and to speak. I managed to convince them that Eleri and I know one another quite well, despite some slip ups. I spoke on the second half of Proverbs 31 seeing the woman there not as an impossible challenge for women but a description of wisdom, wisdom found only in Jesus Christ.

After a cup of tea and cake the conference slowly dispersed until only our hosts and Eleri and I were left. We had a lovely evening with them talking.

On the Lord's Day I preached in the local church in Bala. I decided to go for texts - Hebrews 2:3a and Romans 8:28. The Word was much appreciated.

Eleri and I then headed back to Aber where Rhodri was busy with the students, including his younger brother. Also with them was a girl I knew is the daughter of an old friend from my youth. It was nice to chat with her. Earlier on I got the change to read a bed time story to my grandsons. I used the two books I wrote for them a few years ago (The boy with four uncles and The boy with a Z in his name).

This morning we (Eleri, Owain, the dog and me) left at a not too early hour. We drove to Watford Gap services where I joined my father-in-law, Geoff Thomas, for the drive to the Banner Conference in Yarnfield.

Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is in the news again. I step towards the subject gingerly as I would guess it is the easiest thing in the world to fall into. (I find myself in danger of falling into it regularly on the roads near here. There are many rude drivers about in this part of London. Some of them are Jews, which is sometimes obvious, but the moment I start thinking rude Jewish driver I think I am in danger).

All I wanted to share was an anecdote from my youth that I go back to from time to time. Where I grew up, as far as I am aware, there were no Jewish people (people of colour were an utter novelty, one or two in a school of 1700 was the norm; the boy from Yorkshire and the boy from London stood out like sore thumbs, even the girl from Neath did).

In the sixth form, Friday afternoon was rounded off with a thing called symposium (none of us had any idea it meant drinking party!). A visiting speaker would be invited to address the sixth form and although I remember very little of it (apart from a man who appeared to be saying Aber-ustwyth rather than Aberistwith and the time our music teacher briefly mentioned Jan Akkerman) I think they were informative and interesting times.

Anyway, one afternoon a Jewish lady came and spoke to us. Again, I remember little she said but I do recall that she managed to turn the whole room (most of whom, if not all, had never met anyone Jewish) against her.

It was during the question time when one of the girls asked about what Jews call marrying out. This lady must have been quite orthodox and quite sensibly argued it was best for marriage to take place within the faith. This did not phase me because by then I had long held the view that Christians should marry Christians and this view was little different. Besides, as a good evangelical I had picked up that Jews are special and we are to love them as well as everyone else. (I was such a bad case that when a man came to our church and said he was Welsh and Jewish and so twice blessed I took him quite seriously!).

The rest of the sixth form did not tend to this view. That had picked up the Austenesque idea that marriage is for love and no other question needs to be considered. And so first the girls and then practically the whole room turned against this poor woman who, I think, had begun to alienate people by her sheer enthusiasm and commitment to a way of life we knew little about.

If kids from South Wales with no previous can become antisemitic in the course of an afternoon no wonder there is so much of it about. Not that there is any excuse, just simply a need to take care.

My dad December 2007

Stumbled across this shot of my dad, 78, speaking to Rhodri and Sibyl in December 2007. I miss him.

Childhood Memories

This video alludes to four childhood memories growing up in the sixties - the revolving ashtray (my dad smoked and we had one - great fun unless full of ash) the toy woodpecker (we didn't have one but my friend did and it endlessly fascinated me) Betta Bilda (made by Airfix - the inferior version of Lego) Minibrix an even earlier building kit from the thirties passed on to me by an uncle.

Daniel Rowland's Nose

Being in Llangeitho recently and seeing the statue of Daniel Rowland reminded me of an incident from the year 1981. That summer I worked in the Christian Bookshop in Aberystwyth, then located near the station. That summer the Banner of Truth had reproduced a memoir of Rowland by a vicar called John Owen. We put the magazine with a line drawing of Rowland on the cover in the window. One day two elderly farm women, in from the countryside, came in. They wanted a copy of the magazine they said. The talkative one revealed that the other one was a descendant of Rowland. "You can tell" she said "by the nose. She's got the same nose." When I looked, there it was - Daniel Rowland's nose right in the middle of this poor woman's face!

Another cassette

Another cassette I found is Volume 1 of a two volume collection of 28 classic rock numbers. I don't think I ever owned Volume 2. I bought it in a sale and Volume 2 was missing then.

Volume 2 contained T Rex/Ride a white swan, The Who/My generation, Peter Frampton/Show me the way. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel/Make Me Smile, Canned Heat/Let's Work Together, Fleetwood Mac/Albatross – which I would have loved (the rest are okay - Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity/This Wheel's On Fire, Pink Floyd/Money, Dire Straits/Lady Writer, Lou Reed/ Walk On The Wild Side, Lynyrd Skynyrd/Freebird. Meatloaf/Dead Ringer For Love, Far Corporation/Stairway To Heaven, Deep Purple/Smoke On The Water).

If I remember rightly I bought the cassette for Free/My Brother Jake plus Derek And The Dominos/Layla, Thin Lizzy/Waiting For An Alibi, Status Quo/Caroline, Santana She's Not There, Electric Light Orchestra/Roll Over Beethoven, Jethro Tull/Living In The Past, Rod Stewart/Maggie May, Black Sabbath/Paranoid. I'm alsop happy enough with Mott The Hoople/All The Young Dudes, The Jimi Hendrix Experience/Voodoo Chile, Cream/Strange Brew , Rainbow/Since You Been Gone/Traffic/Paper Sun.

In some ways this is a broad range of rock and shows what good stuff was going down back in the late sixties and early seventies. I currently have on my ipod and listen to exactly half (ie 14) of these tracks.