Meeting Report

We had a low turnout last night (Tuesday 20th) but it definitely did not detract from the content.

There were a few apologies; From Les, Lyndsay, Carolyn and Sally.

Those present were; Dave Dick Liliane Beryl Cathy Sandy Martin and Yours truly.

We also were paid a brief visit by a keen member to be, Susan French, who came to meet the members present and to declare an interest in becoming a Scribbler. Welcome Susan.

The homework was of a historical nature with most of us receiving a time period to base our story on.

We began for a change with my story.

THE TUDORS, entitled 'In the beginning'. My thousand words tried to show how fate plays a hand in everything and from the Welshman Owen Maredudd moving to London in the 1400's and choosing to change his son's name to Tudor how the Tudor dynasty was eventually created from a half brother of the young Henry VI. The Tudors could easily have been known as the Merediths.

Dave was next with
THE REGENCY PERIOD Dave thought the period to be a dull one at first but gave us 'Molly's Story' concerning a young girl who longed for the trappings that money could provide and finding that merely belonging to a house of wealth with a benefactor who turns out to be a man of little charm. She eventually marries a man of her choosing who, when told of her employers misdeeds proceeds to steal much livestock from him.

Dick gave us a story of THE VIKINGS AND SAXONS
Entitled 'They come, they come!' this was a tale of a young shepherd boy who learned he had a great skill, that of running quickly.He spied a lone Dragon boat from lands afar, loaded with armoured men meaning them nothing but harm. He ran to the village to warn his people and was sent back to the coast while fire arrows were constructed and which finally destroyed the boat, enabling the Saxons to gain the upper hand for once.

Liliane gave us the story of the well known 'spy' Mata Hari entitled 'IT'S MOST UNFAIR'. This was from the period of WW1 and told of how the Dutch exotic dancer was tried and eventually executed by firing squad for spying for the Germans. There were several tales of how the woman travelled between countries and was therefore able to pass secrets. She was executed with no definite evidence against her but later German documents supposedly pointed that she was indeed spying for them.

Beryl regaled us with a story from THE EGYPTIAN PERIOD telling of how the humble cat was at one time a revered animal and how this sacrosanct animal could invoke punishment up to and including death for doing a cat any harm.

Next we had Cathy who had not finished her historical piece so gave us instead a heartwarming short piece from her own history entitled 'TEA AND UNDERSTANDING'. This was a short piece showing how two dear friends seek a slice of solitude in a tea shop where they mange against all odds to squeeze onto their special table and sit for tea, where, as Clara moves her white stick, Anna asks 'should I pour?'

Sandy delved into the PREHISTORIC PERIOD with 'NEW BEDDING' giving us a frightening story of how prehistoric man was casually chipping flint for weapons and accidentally discovered fire calling it a monster which prompted him to throw everything he could find on the flames to quell the conflagration. In the process he threw on his raw meat dinner and later discovered how to barbeque meat.

Martin was the final reader and gave us his contribution from WW2 entitled 'HARRY BELAFONTE'S ARM', a true story from the 60's when Chrysler wanted to wipe out the image of a black man's arm holding onto Petula Clarke in pictures of their duet. Chrysler was dropped as sponsor after this request and all advertising showed the couple holding arms even in the South showing that discrimination was finally being frowned upon.

It was a shorter but pleasant meeting with each of us being able to expand upon our stories and end the meeting with a general chat.

The next meeting will be on the 3rd of April and the homework subject is The monster or monsters.

See you all then

Barry