I come from a swimming family. My parents were members of West Ham swimming club (Which no longer exists) in fact my Dad used to teach young children to swim. A lot of my Saturdays, up till the age of about 11, were spent at swimming Gala's where we swam competetively against other clubs in the area (And that Sharon, is why I HATE Bovril).
Anyway, once a year, we would have the West Ham swimming club annual dinner and dance. They were really posh affairs held at a place called the Angel in Ilford (That too has gone) Everone would be dressed up in their finest and all the old members would show up for a very formal 3 course dinner followed by dancing to a live band, along the lines of Glen Miller.
One particular dinner I went to at the age of about 6, I was sitting 'nicely' waiting for the silver service waitress to pour me a cup of tea, and as soon as she had gone, I got the cup and tipped the tea into my saucer (As seen being done by my child minder at the time!!) I was very thirsty and I knew this would cool the tea. I picked up the saucer and was about to slurp it when I saw my sister looking at me and slowly shaking her head, she is 8 years older than me so she knew better. I tipped the tea back in the cup and don't really remember what happened next. I do smile when I think about that though.
Sadly those dinner dances stopped in the late 70's as members died and the swimmers dwindled off. But they were the hi-light of the West Ham swimming club calendar. About 6 years ago my Dad gathered together the last of the money in the swimming club bank account and bought a trophey which he asked Newham swimming club to award to it's best new joiner, so in that respect, West Ham swimming club lives on
6 comments:
I swear I came to one of those dos with you only it was upstairs either at the swimming baths or somewhere else in Romford Road. Or am I totally off track here?
Do you know, in all my 46 years I've never once seen anybody pour their tea into their saucer. I know what my dad would have said: "We're not gypos, y'know!". No... because they don't paper around their furniture!!
Yeah you probably did. It was at the Atherton suite. By then the Angel no longer existed or didn't do private functions anymore' Those dinners weren't as posh as the Angel dinners. Certainly wasn't the height of my social calendar by then.
Not going into my childminders too much.....................
I can't remember whether it was posh or not. All I have is a vague memory of rows of tables with flowers on and that's it.
I would have been very surprised if it had been the height of your social calendar at that point!
The less said the better, eh?
Carol
You're not alone - I used to do exactly the same with my cup of tea 'cause that's what my grandad did, and if it was good enough for him it was good enough for me too (was only six)!!
Well it's nice to know then Knowley, that Sharon J has been raised to consider us 'gypo's' LOL
Nor Clank, do you carpet around your furniture!
My counter thingy doesn't seem to be working. I had a report this morning and it reckons I had no hits at all yesterday. What am I doing wrong? I am getting it to look at blog virgin, should it look at my name instead?
If my upbringing had had any degree of influence on me, I would be the biggest bigot this side of the equator! Thank God I managed to figure things out for myself!
I can't see your counter, Carol. Did you use the one I linked you to? If so, where on the page have you put it? It should be looking at the blog's URL. Email me, eh?
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