Meeting report for 6th November

We had a well attended meeting last light with eleven members present.  They were:
Dave, Tony, Dick, Liliane, Les, Cathy, Angela, Martin, Sandy, Ray and myself.

Apologies from Beryl, Carolyn, Angela Ashby and Caz

The subject from the last meeting was "November"

Tony was first and gave us a whimsical story of his boyhood which he assured us was mostly true called
NOVEMBER FIELD.

Dick was next with two poems, AUTUMN DAYS and THE TERRIBLE BLOW. Autumn days was a journey through the changes to the flora and fauna during November and the second was an interesting history lesson concerning Guy Fawkes and his band of plotters at the Houses of Parliament.

Liliane gave us ALL THE SAINTS AND ALL THE SPOOKS another of her interesting and well written family stories about how All Saints day was celebrated on the continent and how the children were sometimes scared by the trip to the cemetery and having to stand in the howling wind and cold looking at gravestones.

Les gave a short poem called POOR NOVEMBER and his feeling that November was for him one of sombre moods and dark nights.

Cathy gave us a touching tale of film extras and the trials of 4.30 am starts, standing in freezing weather waiting for costumes and then to the film of the tribulations and sacrifice of the war in the trenches.

Martin's story was called WICKED and was a sad tale of two best friends and how they enjoyed the Wizard of Oz and were frightened when dad took them to see by the Halloween story of the green witch. The two inseparables were finally separated when Kerry got very sick.

Angela gave us THE DRIVER a story of Santa in November going to Lakeside with a trailer ready to pick up toys for the children and getting pulled over and by a traffic policeman.

Sandy's story GROWING UP was another whimsical tale of her growing up with slightly eccentric parents.

Ray gave us BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG, a tale from his youth and a trip in the sixties to the Odeon to see Duane Eddy on the day that President Kennedy was assassinated. He told of the fears of the young people during that time and the time of the Cuban crisis when another war could so easily have been started.

My story was called THE BRIDGE AT BLOIS and told of a group of French resistance fighters and their explosive attacks on the Germans.

Dave was last to read and gave us IT BEGAN ON THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER. This told of a group of teenagers trying their skills at summoning ghosts with their seance using a Ouija board and finding the word 'heathens' spelled out to them with mysterious crashing and banging following, frightening them. One of the children later found himself the owner of the house with all its memories.

The next meeting will be on the 20th November with the subject matter for your stories being

"New Zealand"

Hope to see you all then.

Barry