After my zoom Italian conversation class yesterday we went out for a late afternoon/early evening stroll again, just like last week but avoiding any mishaps with secateurs! It’s very pleasant to be able to stroll out and maybe, if you’re lucky, catch a bit of late sunshine.
When we came back I went outside into the garden to fetch the washing in. That’s another nice thing about this time of year: being able to hang your washing outside to dry. As I folded towels and such into the washing basket, I heard laughter and singing from the next door neighbours house: Oh Beautiful America and other such patriotic American songs - it was the 4th of July and the lady of the house hails from Florida. Her husband is from around here. I have no idea what nationality the son and daughter claim but both speak with an American accent, although the son occasionally throws in some Oldham vowel sounds. Anyway, there it was, a bit of a celebration going on!
Then I went indoors and listened to the news and heard that the Fourth of July parade in Chicago had been disrupted by a gunman. Six people died and up to thirty were injured. Oh! Beautiful America!
“Illinois governor JB Pritzker called the shooting “evil” in a news conference in Highland Park on Monday evening. “If you are angry today, I’m here to tell you to be angry. I’m furious. I’m furious that yet more innocent lives were taken by gun violence,” he added.
“While we celebrate the Fourth of July just once a year, mass shootings have become our weekly – yes, weekly – American tradition.
“There are going to be people who say that today is not the day, that now is not the time to talk about guns. I’m telling you, there is no better day and no better time,” Pritzker said.”
Reinforcing what the governor said is this report of a police chase in Ohio. About 8 officers were involved. 90 shots were fired. The man who died had 60 bullet wounds. 60!! It made me think of shoot-outs we have seen between rival gangs in TV series about drug runners! No matter what this fleeing man might have done and whether or not he had a gun in his car, surely 8 officers pursuing him as he ran away and then firing madly at him was just a bit excessive. Heaven help any innocent passers-by in such a situation!
Our own home-grown bit of 4th of July news was not so violent but still depressing. Keir Starmer told us: “So let me be very clear: with Labour, Britain will not go back into the EU. We will not be joining the Single Market. We will not be joining a customs union.”
Well, that’s that then. We have been told. Apart from having less scandal the current Labour party is not terribly different from the Conservative party. Hey! Ho! They’ll all be breaking up for summer before we know it!
As the school year comes to an end and GCSE exams are over and done with it seems that students have been burning their school books. The fire brigade has had to go and put out fires caused by this new “tradition”. Alongside a photo of a firefighter putting out a blaze, Preston firemen posted: “Each time found GCSE subject books burning in different locations. Celebrate the end of school by all means but what about earning a few bob by selling them on instead?”
I also read a report recently of year 11 students being banned from attending their end of school prom because of the annual nonsense of throwing eggs and flour all over the place. This year it wasn’t confined to the school but much of the surrounding residential area was also messed up. The culprits, once discovered, were made to go on a clean-up operation.
It’s odd how these “traditions” develop. At my school we collected autographs of staff and classmates. Our daughter’s year restricted themselves to signing their names in felt tip pen on each other’s school shirts. The shirt hung in her wardrobe for some time before she agreed to get rid of it! Now we have egg and flour and burning textbooks. I had never come across such activities until I came to work in Oldham. At that time it was still possible for youngsters to leave school at age 15 and the comprehensive school where I worked had a regular cohort of such school leavers, including “Easter leavers”, those whose birthdate allowed them to leave school at the end of the second term. I was astounded in my first year there to hear the announcement that “egging and flouring” was not allowed. Nor was adorning the leavers’ school uniform with multicoloured ribbons. What was that all about? i wondered.
This is a textile industry area and apparently there was a long tradition that when a woman worker left to get married or to have a baby, her workmates adorned her with long strips of multicoloured material. If she had an umbrella it would be stuffed with coloured strands so that they would tumble put when the umbrella was opened. The women took it as a thing of pride and left the mill proudly displaying her new status.
My school was in a spanking new building and wanted to set new standards, including dissuading the pupils from copying such “common” habits! But it seems that they have not been eradicated!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.
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