'My brother Martin’s voice was heard loud and clear outside: “Ten seconds to the end of Finchley Meeting, nine seconds to the end of Finchley Meeting…"' Photo: by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Eye - 27 January 2023
From Getting to know you (and us) to Ticklish compositions
Getting to know you (and us)
Eye wants to provide a space to enable Friends to find fellowship with each other, and give each other glimpses into the rich tapestry of our community. Could part of this be posing light-hearted questions for you, our trusty readers, to send in answers? Are there questions you would like to ask of the Friend team? What questions would you like us to ask to get the ball rolling?
Quaker tales
Beth Allen, from Bromley Meeting, has some stories to share! She tells Eye: ‘I am a great believer in the importance of the Quaker oral tradition – and it’s so important that it’s not all deadly serious!’
Are you sitting comfortably? Let us begin… ‘My sisters and brothers and I grew up in Finchley Meeting in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time the children would sit in Meeting for the first fifteen minutes, then go out for their Children’s Meeting, and gather in the lobby at the end of worship to come in for the notices.
‘In the Meeting room we were rising to the surface towards the end. My brother Martin’s voice was heard loud and clear outside: “Ten seconds to the end of Finchley Meeting, nine seconds to the end of Finchley Meeting…” And so on! Just as he said “No seconds to the end of Finchley Meeting” the elders duly shook hands.’
Do you have any memories to share?
A winter warmer
A chilly vignette greeted Eye last week, showing how it’s not always a problem when things don’t go according to plan.
Diana Brockbank, of Forres Meeting in the north of Scotland, set the scene: ‘A winter Sunday, and it was cold with a chilly wind. Sleet was falling on us as we stood outside the village hall where we have our Meeting. “I can’t open the door,” he said. “Oh not again!” “Could you try?” They tried.
‘I looked at the sheet ice between me and the door and stayed where I was. “Ah here is A. He will be able to do it.” No; nor the next person.
‘We were few that morning. The journey for some is up to an hour even in good conditions, and that it certainly was not. By this time we were laughing, and chaffing each other. We stood around asking each other what to do next, and a home was offered, just a quarter of an hour away.
‘So our Meeting took place in a cosy home (we were few remember), with cups of tea to warm us up. It was very special.’
Ticklish compositions
Are you a Friend who is tickled by a limerick but not sure where to start in penning your own?
Roy Payne, of Polegate Meeting, is a prolific penner of these lyrical giggle-inducers and has given the subject careful consideration.
For beginners, he offers a reminder: ‘To be effective a limerick must scan…
de dumerdy dumerdy dum,
de dumerdy dumerdy dum
de dumerdy dum
de dumerdy dum
de dumerdy dumerdy dum’
And he shares: ‘The limerick maker enjoys the challenge of finding a word for the end of the first line which, at first sight, appears to be impossible to be rhymed with twice, like, say Aberystwyth.
‘Now, there is already a scurrilous Aberystwyth limerick which should only be shared “by consenting adults in private”. So, why should the devil have all the good rhymes:
A sober young Friend from Aberystwyth
Became very hard to exist with.
When Friends said, “Please let go
and relax.” He said, “No!
My concerns I am bound to persist with.”’
