Eye - 03 February 2012

From football finances to parental apologies

Quaker face final whistle

Darlington Football Club, known as ‘The Quakers’, are on the brink of closing after one hundred and twenty-eight years.

The current financial situation for the club is bleak. It was founded in 1883 (forty years after the first publication of the Friend).

The club has just gone into administration and is currently looking for a new buyer. Unless one can be found, the situation looks grim.

Some of the headlines in the local press have attracted the attention of Friends in the north-east and Jan Fowler, from Cotherestone Meeting, tells Eye that ‘Teesdale Friends were especially amused by two recent posters’.

The club badge includes an image of a stylized Quaker hat. This was included because of the major role played members of the Religious Society of Friends in the history of the town. Across the bottom of the shield is a ribbon bearing the nickname of the club, The Quakers, and this rests on a bed of oak leaves, symbolic of strength and endurance.

Eye hopes that the football club can endure the present crisis.

Are you really sorry?

Jamie Wrench, a Friend with a keen ear for the unusual and engaging, has passed on to Eye an amusing encounter between a friend of his and her three-year- old son. Jamie writes that ‘Mum had just hurled her boots into the wardrobe in a rather cavalier manner!’

Boy: Why did you throw those mummy?
Mum: Er, um, I don’t know…
Boy: You shouldn’t throw things you know, are you sorry?
Mum: You are right, that was a naughty thing to do, I’m sorry.
Boy: So why did you do it?
Mum: I don’t know.
Boy: You are a grown up and a big girl. No throwing. Footballs are for throwing, not other things.
Mum: OK, I’m sorry.
Boy: You could have hurt someone. There might have been a little boy in there. Or even a baby.
Mum: You’re right, I’m sorry.
Boy: But ARE you sorry?
Mum: Yes, I really am.
Boy: Hmm; I’m not sure, you might need some time to think about it.
Mum: I really am sorry.
Boy: OK, but that means don’t do it again. Would you like to be friends again?
Mum: Yes please.
Boy: OK, you can come and give me a kiss.

Phew!

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