Eye - 10 February 2023
From Name spotting to Free notepaper with the Friend!
Name spotting
Eye got a thrill when a message appeared in the mailbag from someone who appeared in January’s ‘On this day’ article, which dipped into the Friend’s 1950 archive.
What caught Eye’s attention was this entry: ‘Four young members of the First-Day School at Blackburn, Peter and David Leather, Beryl Strack and Elizabeth Murray, have sent £2 15s to the F.S.C. [Friends Service Council], the result of carolling at Christmas.’
David Leather was handed the magazine after a friend spied his name! He writes: ‘I’m pleased to say that I (and my wife Midge in Ilkley) and my younger brother Peter Leather (with wife Joyce in Somerset) are still very much alive and also Elizabeth Murray, now Liz Simblet in Shrewsbury.
‘I have only hazy memories of the carol singing seventy-two years ago, which was no doubt conducted by an adult, but £2 15s was a considerable amount in those days and there were obviously some generous contributions. I hope Blackburn Meeting is still thriving.’
Quaker tales
Eye has dipped into some tales from Beth Allen, of Bromley Meeting, and pulled out one that offers a child’s-eye view of attending Meeting for Worship for the first time.
She begins: ‘I wasn’t present at this Bristol Meeting but the story was told by a reliable witness.
‘One Sunday, one of the regular Meeting families took along a friend of their ten-year-old son, but forgot to explain what usually happened.
‘He went in and sat quietly with everyone else. After fifteen minutes the adult Friend who was taking the Children’s Meeting stood up and beckoned to the children to come out as usual.
‘The father of the family whispered to the visiting boy, “You go out now.”
‘He stood up and replied in a normal voice, “What does everyone else do?”
‘The father whispered, “They stay here.” “Poor buggers,” said the boy loudly and left the room.’
Eye wonders if any Friends had what they might feel were ‘unQuakerly’ reactions to their first Meeting? Or had any other surprises as they got to know Quaker ways?
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