The New Year will mark the tenth anniversary of my retirement and the launch of my new life as a fund-raiser for Cancer Research UK. Through my local nostalgia limited edition books and, latterly, my paintings, I have so far raised around £25,000 for the charity.
To celebrate, during 2024 I will be reproducing extracts on my blog from Reflections, the book that began it all. This was a collection of my namesake columns in the Falmouth Packet accompanied by original cartoons created by my lifelong buddy BRIAN THOMAS.
Brian originally worked at Falmouth Library and the Packet before emigrating to Devon to further his journalistic career.
For Reflections, bless his cotton socks, he readily agreed to come up with nearly 50 bespoke cartoons.
Keep an eye out for all of them at regular intervals on this blog. As a taster, here’s one of my all-time favourites, with the original Packet column following below.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Oy! You could at least be trying to put it OUT!
BEATING THE FIREMEN TO THE FIRE
I see there’s a plan for North Yorkshire and Cornwall’s fire services to share control rooms at busy times.
This bizarre move throws up intriguing possibilities. “Yer wot, luv? Yer ‘ouse is burnin’ down where – Perranar-wotyersay?”
But it also makes me recall a time when life was so much simpler – when local knowledge was just about everything, and when Penryn’s firefighters had a little fan club.
I’m talking late 1950s, when this boy was already displaying promising news hound tendencies. He discovered the Penryn fire siren, wailing away as it used to do up by Penryn train station.
Yours Truly assembled a gang of fellow eight- and nine-year-olds who would swing into action whenever the town’s retained firemen were summoned to duty.
The gang would hurtle down St Gluvias Street. The first to reach the fire station (sadly no more) on Commercial Road would climb onto the window ledge, peer inside and read the words being chalked onto the blackboard beside the permanent prefix “Fire At . . . “
I can still see Fireman Les Burge writing the location of the fire, as he took the details phoned through from Truro headquarters.
Les and most of his colleagues put up with us happily enough, but I can vividly recall a thunderous look of disapproval on the face of the local fire chief, the late Roy Curgenven, as he bemoaned our presence yet again.
Such dissuasion notwithstanding, there then followed another hectic sprint to the scene of the fire – with, just occasionally, the little blighters even arriving there first and waiting patiently for the fire engine to follow.
Ah well, at least we were getting exercise and witnessing drama for real. Computer games belonged to the future.
That’s the end of that Packet column. So, in closing for now, here’s wishing you a very Happy New Year, along with special thanks to all of you who have bought my books or helped in any way with their creation.
And extra-special thanks to:--
Nicky Garvin, who, as manageress of Cancer Research’s Falmouth shop, was hugely encouraging and supportive, and highly professional, in the promotion and sales of the books.
Jeanni Grant-Nelson – https://www.visual-awareness.com – the expert behind my paintings, a fantastic teacher and friend who has taught me so much about art.
And the Book Printing Company of Peterborough - https://www.bookprintinguk.com – printers of all my books, for their superb service throughout, every step of the way.
