Eye - 5 August 2016

From a fine vintage to Confounding commuters

A fine vintage

‘What were you wearing in 1971?’ This unusual query came from Volker Heine, of Cambridge Jesus Lane Meeting, just before he struck a pose for a picture of exactly what he wore himself… a pair of eye-popping suede leather hot-pants!

He told Eye: ‘After losing a stone in weight with a drawn-out flu last year, I find I can get into them again after some decades. I had never had the heart to throw them out… I shall never forget the first time I wore them. It was to an outdoor party at some dear friends’ house (drinks and buffet on the lawn). As our hostess saw me coming round the corner of the house she let out a loud gasp, then giggled!!… after a decade of family holidays, including sliding down a mountain, they no longer looked quite so pristine. But they are still “hot”.’

The Meeting house mouse

An unexpected attender at Blue Idol Meeting, Coolham, West Sussex, inspired Lily Wright, aged nine, to put pen to paper:

‘This is the story of me, Macy, the Meeting house mouse. I’m furry with sharp claws, a bald tail and ebony black eyes. I have a nose that twitches, especially when I’m trying to find food.

‘I live in a building with a blue plaque on the outside, which says it’s a Meeting house. I’ve lived in a hole in the wood at the bottom of the wall for two years. Usually I’m on my own in the Meeting house, but on Sundays people come into the building for a Meeting. Most of the time they sit in silence, but then someone might stand up and speak.

‘Sunday is my favourite day of the week, because there’s always something to eat. I normally wait until everyone has gone home before coming out of my hole and eating the biscuit crumbs.

‘One day, people brought broccoli quiche, cakes and figs and ate their lunch together. I love all those things, especially the figs, and I was so hungry I couldn’t wait for people to go home. I came out of my hole whilst people were still eating. The children all said “aaah” but some of the grown ups screamed. One of the little girls picked me up and held me in her hand. She told me her name is Lily, and she gave me my name, Macy.’

Seeking George Fox

George Fox is being urgently sought… a be-petalled, rather than a be-hatted, version.

Claire Cookson, of Ealing Meeting, is on the hunt for a George Fox rose bush to replace one ‘which has died eleven years after being transplanted from [my] first home’.

Claire quizzed the Royal National Rose Society and discovered that the rose was developed in 1939 by a firm that is no longer in business.

Eye wonders if any readers know more about the origins of this intriguingly-named bloom, where its blossoms can be beheld or where one might be bought?

Confounding commuters

Could Quaker outbursts be causing mutterings among the commuters of a Staffordshire city?

Alan Russell, of East Cheshire Area Meeting, reflects: ‘Many years ago I met up with three or four other Young Friends at Euston to travel to Young Friends General Meeting in Manchester. We shared our compartment with a few other people. Our train stopped at one station. Somebody looked out and said: “Lichfield.”

‘The Young Friends were all, as it turned out, familiar with the passage in George Fox’s journal where, walking through Lichfield, he recalls how the emperor Diocletian slaughtered a thousand Christians there – and Fox is moved to take off his boots and go through the streets crying out: “Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!”

‘So, our reaction now was to cry out these words in unison.

‘It strikes me that, over the years, this scenario must surely have been re-run on innumerable railway journeys. I picture local commuters muttering: “Oh, it’s those Quakers again.”’

Eye wonders what locals make of ‘those Quakers’… how do they explain Friends’ exclamations?

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