"Blue Beck" Original watercolour by Glenn Marshall
Warning - this blog contains passages of explicit nostalgia probably unintelligible to anyone under fifty!
Over the last couple of days I've had the great pleasure of spending time with some old friends. Inevitably our conversation turned to the 'Good Old Days' when we were younger. Stan comes originally from the US of A but he married a lass from Hull and his wife remembers the days when Hull was a thriving fishing port. While the men were at sea, the women would congregate together and help each other. Jo said it was a not uncommon sight in those days to see a house emptied of all its contents while the women got stuck in and gave the house a real good clean! Another time it would be the turn of someone else to receive the help with their home.While this was in progress all the furniture was just left in the street but as Stan ruefully stated "You couldn't do that now - it would all be nicked!". Of course there was a darker side to Hull too. Ozzy is an ex policeman and he remembers that as a young bobby he had to very careful when searching houses for stolen goods. Razor blades were embedded in airing cupboards to slice the fingers of an unwary bobby! But in general we all agreed that none of us had any particular desire to be young again in these times. In our generation nobody had to lock their doors and us, as kids, had a degree of freedom unimaginable to young ones today. For instance did you have a 'Blue Beck'? Of course you did. Everybody had a blue beck or somewhere similiar - the place where we jumped the streams or fell in, where we splashed in the water or climbed trees.Looking back - weren't some of the leaps dangerous? We had names for the different jumps - 'two stream crossing', 'iron water', and the most fearsome of all - 'Devil's End'! I bet you had one like that too. So my painting is not a real place. It's a distillation of childhood joy and pleasure, of jam sandwiches and whole days spent in the great outdoors without fear - happy days. Stan left me a parting gift - the second 'coolest' hat in England! He has the 'coolest' of course but I can live with being second. This hat came from Minneapolis or Minnesota - I can't remember which (Stan- if you read this, please let me know.) - and is definitely cool. Do you want to see it?
Over the last couple of days I've had the great pleasure of spending time with some old friends. Inevitably our conversation turned to the 'Good Old Days' when we were younger. Stan comes originally from the US of A but he married a lass from Hull and his wife remembers the days when Hull was a thriving fishing port. While the men were at sea, the women would congregate together and help each other. Jo said it was a not uncommon sight in those days to see a house emptied of all its contents while the women got stuck in and gave the house a real good clean! Another time it would be the turn of someone else to receive the help with their home.While this was in progress all the furniture was just left in the street but as Stan ruefully stated "You couldn't do that now - it would all be nicked!". Of course there was a darker side to Hull too. Ozzy is an ex policeman and he remembers that as a young bobby he had to very careful when searching houses for stolen goods. Razor blades were embedded in airing cupboards to slice the fingers of an unwary bobby! But in general we all agreed that none of us had any particular desire to be young again in these times. In our generation nobody had to lock their doors and us, as kids, had a degree of freedom unimaginable to young ones today. For instance did you have a 'Blue Beck'? Of course you did. Everybody had a blue beck or somewhere similiar - the place where we jumped the streams or fell in, where we splashed in the water or climbed trees.Looking back - weren't some of the leaps dangerous? We had names for the different jumps - 'two stream crossing', 'iron water', and the most fearsome of all - 'Devil's End'! I bet you had one like that too. So my painting is not a real place. It's a distillation of childhood joy and pleasure, of jam sandwiches and whole days spent in the great outdoors without fear - happy days. Stan left me a parting gift - the second 'coolest' hat in England! He has the 'coolest' of course but I can live with being second. This hat came from Minneapolis or Minnesota - I can't remember which (Stan- if you read this, please let me know.) - and is definitely cool. Do you want to see it?
Now how 'cool' is that? Have a great visit to your 'Blue Beck'.
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