Senior Geekgirl
I heard a wonderful piece on Home Truths this morning about Anthea Hanscombe who is in her eighties and is passionately interested in steam engines of all kinds. Quite apart from anything else, she had the most wonderful, infectious laugh, and she had me chuckling along just because it was such a pleasure to hear her laugh.
It seems that Anthea has been interested in steam engines since she was a girl, and used to run out into the street when she heard a steam roller and breathe in the tarry fumes. Her interest developed during the war when she was a Land Girl, and she now has a very technical understanding of steam engines in all their forms, but is particularly fond of locomotives.
Anthea has obviously been doing the geekgirl thing for very long time, in times when it was even rarer for women to express an interest in machinery and other technical things. So, Sister, I salute you. May you ride the footplate with an oily rag in your hand for the rest of your days.
1
I heard that, it was great.
I'm a bit sad that it was the last Home Truths though...
by Steve @ 24/06/2006 11:07 am • Permalink •
2
Not one of mine this time, but your post brought it to mind; this is the first verse:
Warning
When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells And run my stick along the public railings And make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain And pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens And learn to spit.
Jenny Joseph (1932-)
by Jonathan Briggs @ 24/06/2006 7:06 pm • Permalink •
3
Jonathan - have you heard that as read by Pam Ayres? Classic!
by Ian Wood @ 25/06/2006 11:07 am • Permalink •
4
Steve: Yes, me too, though inevitably it hasn't been quite the same since John Peel died. David Stafford did a good job, but it was a bit of an impossible task.
Jonathan Briggs: I love that poem, but one of the nice things about Anthea seems to be that she didn't wait until she was an old woman to behave just as she liked, which is very laudable in my view.
Ian Wood: I love Pam Ayres, unfashionable though she is.
by bsag @ 25/06/2006 4:07 pm • Permalink •
Page 1 of 1 pages