Meeting report 16th October 2012

This was a well attended and a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

We had apologies from Carolyn, Janet and Angela.

Those present were Dave, Dick,  Beryl, Caz, Liliane, Angie, Cathy, Sandy, Martin, Les, Mai, Tony and yours truly.

This was a meeting devoted to the different genres we had picked from last meeting.

Dave had the genre of a Western Story and in 'There won't be many coming home' he gave us the moving story of a mother who had already lost her husband and was now afraid she had lost her son in the American Civil war. This story was cleverly interspersed with the words from a Roy Orbison song.

Caz's genre was A child's story and gave 'Barney's tale' which told us her memories of a dog named Barney and the way it was given to her and her son in a farmhouse and her son's delight at this new friend.

Beryl and her Spy genre gave us 'Spy' which was a tale of a young girl and her friendship with Liz and the way she was manipulated into disclosing industrial secrets to her so called friend who subsequently lost touch with her.

Tony had Science Fiction,  not really a strange genre for him. He gave us 'Following wind/take off' strangely , a tale we could somehow follow about the members of a spaceship and their attempts to colonise the last planet on their visiting list.

Dick had Romance as his theme and we were given 'Just a letter' a poignant tale which turned out to be true, of his father's attempts to pair him up with the assistant matron at his nursing home and the way in the first instance Dick, being very proper, wrote a simple letter to discover her feelings.

Liliane told, through her Disaster genre a tale of 'Ascension day' the 2nd of May 1902 when the town of Pierre on the  Windward Island of Martinique was destroyed by a volcano . This was cleverly told through the guise of a letter, telling of the disaster on the Island of flowers.

Sandy had as her genre Sport and through 'Gone fishing' we were told of the frustration felt by a fishing girl friend while the season went on and how, although buying her a pink rod to accompany him to the river she could raise no enthusiasm for the sport or the rod, other than to wrap it round his neck.

Angie had Thriller as her genre and called her story 'The date' which told of a blind date organised through the internet and after a failed meeting in a pub the girl left to walk home and then was molested by a man but while in the process of defending herself she grabbed a rather sensitive part of his anatomy and gave it a wrench which made him fire his gun which alerted the police.

Cathy's genre Ghost story gave us 'No going back' a story of a young girl's dilemma in which after caring greatly for children and young people she took a young boy home for one night and was made to pay the price for her friendship. She now sought peace and quiet outside the town where she felt no longer able to wear her Salvation Army uniform.

Mai had Adventure as her genre and gave us 'Asu and the magic well'. This was a tale of a timid boy in a war torn country and how his father thought him a coward for his fears of many things but of how a lock of his mother's hair gave him the courage to believe he was now Prince Asu. He left the house and through much peril retrieved water for the family and the adventure gave him courage to do more brave things.

Les had An Historic Tale and entitled his poem 'From the horses mouth'. In his inimitable style he gave us chapter and verse about the battle of Hastings in 1066 and then of Robin Hood telling us the man was not really the romantic we are led to believe and then the story of the Armada and how Drake played bowls to the brink. In all the poem could quite likely be a source for alternative teaching.

Martin had Horror story and gave us 'Pressed for King George' a grisly tale of how a woman loses her sons to the press gangs into the Navy and how she made a pact with the devil only to find her sons returning as the living dead.

I was last with my Funny tale which I called 'The junction" a was some memories from the 60's when I was in Australia and how an enforced parking problem turned into a parking in the middle of a junction problem while we were working in the bush.

The next meetings Homework set is 'November' and will be the first meeting of the new fees which are £25 for the year or £3 per session. Hope to see you all then

Barry.