A small stack of mince pies against a red background, with a bite taken out of the one on top. Photo: By Marina Hannah on Unsplash.
Eye - 17 January 2025
Eye finds Friends popping up in a podcast about Puritans, hears merry memories, and indulges in some original Quaker Blues
Merriment, memories and mince pies
Trusty Eye reader Julie Stobbs was prompted by the 13 December sunshine page to share a trip down memory lane.
She sets the scene: ‘In the late 1960s I was a student but when I was at home for the vacations I used to attend Birmingham Young Friends where we had some fun times.
‘One evening a group of us went carol singing in Harborne, in a road where the occupants were known to be well-heeled so could hopefully donate generously. We sang outside the houses and at one of them we were invited inside.’
A warm welcome greeted the group: ‘There, there was a grand piano with a clergyman (I remember the dog collar) happy to play while we stood round and sang (possibly about ten of us). After singing a few carols the lady of the house came round with glasses of sherry and mince pies, which we enjoyed.
But a glut of singers tickled the ribs of Young Friends: ‘Then the doorbell rang and when our hosts answered it there was a similar number of other carol singers who were the Young Conservatives who had, we quickly realised, arranged to call to sing carols!!
‘Our hosts suggested that we sang a carol all together and then said: “Perhaps the first lot would like to leave.”
‘It was only when we got round the corner that we laughed about it all. Being young and left-wing made it all the funnier for us. Obviously our hosts had imagined that we were the Young Conservatives but we had scoffed all their mince pies!’
Not a good look
Friends popped up in an episode of the Stuff You Should Know podcast focussed on the Puritans (which can be found at https://bit.ly/PuritansSYSK).
Around thirty-six minutes in, the hosts discuss how unpopular our peculiar people were in Massachusetts.
‘The Puritans didn’t like them because the Quakers were just… a little too hippy dippy for them. They were all about following your inner light… They thought the Quakers were weird. So the Massachusetts colonies were like, “we don’t want you around here”.
‘Sometimes it would get violent and ugly. I believe over the course of a couple of years, four Quakers were hanged…
‘Things got so bad… King Charles II in 1661 finally said, “you guys gotta stop killing Quakers. This is not a good look”…
‘The thing that they hated about Quakers though is… [the belief] that every single person alive has a little bit of the divine spirit in them. Which means every single person alive is worthy of respect from every other single person alive… that really flies in the face of that saved elitism that the Puritans based their entire jam on.’
Quaker blues
Bill McMellon, from Chichester, has been inspired to pen some bluesy lyrics. He told Eye that the lyrics are ‘the internal monologue of a weighty Friend (familiar with Robert Johnson’s “Kind Hearted Woman Blues”), undecided whether to speak, or wake up come to that. Really you need someone prepared to play a blues in G’.
I got the Quaker Blues, I ain’t got nothing to say (x 2)
It’s no good asking me no questions, probably not gonna speak at all today.
I’m quakin’, I’m quakin’, maybe I’m gonna speak (x 2)
Lord the quakins easing off now, maybe I’ll leave it till next week.
Now people if you’re wondering, what makes this poor boy Quake,
it’s baby when I’m Quakin’ sometimes I’m awake!
Oh babe oh babe, it feels good all of the time.
Sometimes I feel so gathered,
I’m nearly in the same room as the rest of you.
Repeat second verse (with dramatic high G chords for effect).
Bill suggests: ‘If people wanted a performance I would consider visiting their Meeting, depending on distance and other commitments, at the cost of a charity collection.
‘Fiddle tunes, including “Merrily danced the Quaker’s wife”, could also be supplied and sundry songs both comic and tragic. Old ones, that’s the main thing.’
