An AFS Badge



In our house Sunday morning is a time for pottering and jobs. The Professor , In between his academic chores, has planted out buddleia in the garden, whereas I have splashed bleach around the cottage with gay abandon and have run amok with the mop. It's been the usual Joan Crawford " I'm not mad at you...I'm mad a the dirt" moment......... Come on we all have them...don't we?
Anyhow, as I was shifting some papers, this old badge slipped into view.
It was my grandfather's old uniform badge from his wartime Auxiliary Fire Service days in Liverpool, and I had long forgotten that I had kept it
He used to fascinate and frighten his grand children with stories of the Liverpool Blitz during the 1970s which, if you think about it was only 30 years after the true horrific events. Bloody hell it was only recently that I blogged about my own experiences as a student psychiatric nurse... And they were recalled from 30 years ago as well........Historical memories are only a stones throw away when you think about it , and after my generation has gone, there will be no one around to remember things like my Grandfather's heroic experiences down the bombed docks of Liverpool's waterfront or indeed  my own, more minor experiences nursing the lunatics of Chester.....
The Professor has his own thoughts on legacy and epitaphs.
" what would mine be?" I asked him
" Your blog" he said....
And that's perhaps why I felt the urge to document, albeit briefly, what my grandfather had done.....
Nothing EVER is forgotten on the Internet is it not?
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Anyhow after dog walks and jobs, come a most welcomed early Sunday afternoon sit in front of the fire......today, as the Prof jumps into his research papers , and the dogs make themselves comfortable in the arm chairs.....I am going to watch a re run of Sherlock


And finally....a quick photo for Pam, the lady who suffered the fox attack yesterday morning. Your hens are doing just fine and have perked up after their ordeal. I am keeping them in a small secure run until Tuesday, after which they will have free reign over the field.

45 comments:

  1. your doggies are just soooooooo cute!

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  2. Anonymous12:55 pm

    What nice looking girls. Hope they haven't been shocked out of laying.

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    1. One looks a bit bald but all four seem ok.......thanks for asking

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  3. The hens appear to be doing just fine! And you will be remembered not only for your blog but also for being the good caring person we all know you are.

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    1. Well I have to make up for killing Bogbrush!

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  4. Isn't there supposed to be a new series of Sherlock? I know one has been filmed, but there is no sign of it.

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  5. Bloody foxes!!! I'm going crazy trying to keep my ducks safe. A few of them keep going over the wall. We're having a wire roof put over the entire duck/chicken run very soon, but there's a hungry mama fox out there and one of my ducks disappeared a week ago. So frustrating.

    I like your grandfather's badge. Both of my parents were in London as children during the Blitz. My Dad never talked about it. My Mum never stopped talking about it, so much so that I feel like I lived through it myself!!

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    1. Nat.
      I think the blitz was the most frightening and most exciting part of my grandfathers life..... His stories were amazing.......

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  6. Have the badge framed up, John, and write the story on the back. Nieces and nephews will be so pleased.

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  7. We have three fox dens in our garden...but fortunately no hens for them to traumatise...

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    1. Don't they stink your home out?
      They scent terribly sometimes?

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  8. Didn't they push back the filming of series 3 of 'Sherlock' to March 2013? When my mobile rings you will notitice that I'm a fan of 'Sherlock'. (Though I thought Jeremy Brett as S.H was also great).

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    1. They are two very different Holmes' Brigitta are they not?
      I do love Cummerbatch's characterisation.

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    2. Me too! Glad to hear more are being filmed as I was not satiated by the few that exist.....they are brilliant.

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  9. I don't think the Liverpool Blitz happened in the 1970's - unless you were referring to the usual spate of house burglaries around Toxteth and Anfield!

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    1. Jet lag has not blunted your wit YP
      That's for sure

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  10. Recently I made a book of my grandfather's letters to my grandmother while he was deployed overseas in World War One. So many of his letters were 'remember when we did this' and 'I heard such and such about this friend'. While I transcribed them I remember thinking history is being made here! why isn't he writing about the significance of the history being made?!? And then I calculated his age - he was only 21. Two years younger than my youngest son.

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    1. These sort of things become best sellers
      Would you publish them?

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    2. Never thought about that! :-)
      I started out thinking about photocopying them for my two nephews in San Francisco and finally decided on one of those wonderful bookmaking online sites - bookemon.com

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  11. One of my dogs is behind my chair, snoring and making little grunting noises as he dreams.

    Love,
    Janie

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  12. What better epitaph than this? A celebration of a much lived and enjoyed life.

    LLX

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  13. Strange thing - I only recently found out my grandfather on my dad's side was a fireman in London during the war. He never talked about it at all, and it was only when my newly contacted cousin mentioned it that I found out. My other grandfather (the little Welsh one) was a Desert Rat, though under Auchinlech rather than Montgomery, so it may be he felt overshadowed by that.

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    1. Interesting... My grandfather talked a lot about his work... But I do know he saw some very awful things during the bombing.... As a boy, his stories taught me so much about the horror of war

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  15. You splash it all around backed by hits from the shows tom!

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  16. "I have splashed bleach around the cottage with gay abandon"

    Pray, tell me what is the difference between splashing bleach around with gay abandon to splashing it around with heterosexual abandon? I mean does one sparingly moisten a cloth and caress kitchen work surfaces while the other sloshes it out the bottle shouting 'Have some of that in yer faces yer germy bastids!'

    I am sorry, I cannot tolerate discrimination in any of its forms. I am known as a bit of a hard bastard and I have never touched another bloke's bum but I bet my kitchen is just as clean as yours.

    My father carried his younger half brother to safety through the burning streets of Liverpool after they were bombed out. His mother was killed. Afterwards, his father took him to some distant relatives in York who owned a pub. There he stayed, earning his keep and sleeping under the bar until he was finally accepted, underage, into the Army.

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    1. And I don't murder chickens either!

      I'm sorry. It's my birthday, I'm in a really giggly mood but I have to go now. I think Marcia has called some tailors in to measure me up for a new jacket as a birthday present. The sleeves are far too long but I haven't the heart to tell her...

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    2. Oh tom." Gay abandon" is just an old saying...... It has nothing to do with us poofs.....my grandmother used to say it all the time...
      The word reference forum describes it thus

      "Gay abandon" is a slightly old-fashioned phrase that simply means "to be free, to be happy, to do something enthusiastically, .....

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    3. Anonymous9:29 pm

      Have you seen the cartoon, The Flinstones? The theme song ends with, "We'll have a gay old time."

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  17. Anonymous6:39 pm

    and so I doodle my doodles with gay abandon...you're right the word doodle is pretty funny :D I used to try to get Don to write down his WWII memories (he was in the 42nd Rainbow Division) through France into Germany and Austria (I think most of the memories were just too painful...but some he told me were down right hilarious). Joanne's idea of framing up the Badge and telling about it on the back is a great idea. happy the fox surviving hens are doing well...enjoy Sherlock (in most of its versions it's a favorite)!!!

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    1. Any word said over and over again sounds weird and funny....
      ( shit I need to get out more)

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  18. My Dad was in the home guard I have his badges etc he was often on fire watch. He worked in Chatham dockyard so at risk day and night!

    My Granddad was on the Atlantic convoys so my Mum lived in Liverpool for I time during the raids.

    There things are going from memory even the 2nd hand ones like mine and yours I hope we don't truly forget what those people were fighting for freedom.

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    1. I guess losing family stories is just the sad way of the world eh?

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  19. Nice chicken tending for the traumatized hens John ... you are always a "bleeding heart" for an animal in need ...surprised you don't like the plant. Was it something tramatic or just its look ...curious now.

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  20. Anonymous11:48 pm

    Yours, mine and many blogs are in the cloud though, as I recently wrote about risk of cloud storage. The record of our lives is dependant on Google surviving or at least archiving our blogs. Bit of a worry.

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  21. My mother spent forty-eight hours under the wreckage of her home after it was hit by a bomb. To her dying day the sound of an amulance siren made her go grey. I suspect my father's memories (he was a german jew) were worse. Both spoke of the war very, very rarely.

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  22. The badge is impressive!
    So glad to hear there will be more Sherlocks. I thought that maybe now that the stars are in movies, they wouldn't want to do more episodes.

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  23. Great story about your grandfather, John. I know what you mean. They even change the history books. Sad. Someone needs to remember.
    I'm sure the hens will flourish under your care.
    Hope you all have a wonderful week. ♥

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  24. Just back and trying to catch up on everyone's blogs... but I had to say I am crazy for the sweets baboos on the chair. And of course my favorite George.
    Happy to hear the chickens have calmed down.

    cheers, parsnip

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