The fruit and veg man stood in splendid isolation at Uppermill market this wet morning. The slipper-selling man is still away on holiday. I’ve no idea what happened to the fish-man - maybe he’s gone on holiday too. And Jenny, the cheese and biscuits lady, almost never sets her stall up when it’s wet and windy. So there are no gingerbread dinosaurs for the smallest members of the family tomorrow and no gluten-free oatie biscuits for when my gluten-intolerant brother-in-law comes round next week. So it goes.
I said the fruit and veg man stood in splendid isolation but in fact he sat rather than stood as he is recovering from a hip replacement operation. His son (“my lad” he says of the son who looks to be in his fifties) drives him to market and does the heavy lifting until the fruit and veg man gets the all clear from his doctor. He’s being cautious and following all the medical advice - sensible chap! A friend of mine has been waiting for some time for a similar operation. First she went through the waiting list in the usual way, finding that even if she went private it only advanced her possible operation date by a couple of weeks. Then she turned up at the hospital only to be told that because she had had Covid two weeks previously they would not go ahead and would send her a new date. Last week she tried again. They found the remains of a gardening-injury scratch for which she had had antibiotics in August! There was a risk of possible continued infection and so they sent her home again! She now has a date for early in November. Third time lucky perhaps but in the meantime her mobility is reducing and so is her morale.
These things are sent to try us!
Country singer, coal-miner’s daughter, Loretta Lynn has died at the age of 90 - a good age! Another one gone!
Daniel Barenboim at the age of 79 has announced that he is slowing down:
“I am taking a step back from some of my performing activities, especially conducting engagements, for the coming months,” he wrote. “My health has deteriorated over the last months, and I have been diagnosed with a serious neurological condition. I must now focus on my physical wellbeing as much as possible.”
“Music has always been and continues to be an essential and lasting part of my life. I have lived all my life in and through music and I will continue to do so as long as my health allows me to. Looking back and ahead, I am not only content but deeply fulfilled.”
I note he says “some of my performing activities”. Maybe he envisages making a comeback. It’s hard to step back from a busy life you really enjoy and musicians seem to go on forever.
Over in Gainesville, Florida, they plan to honour one of their sons, Tom Petty who died in 2017, not long after I saw him perform in Hyde Park, London. The University of Florida Athletic Association will celebrate the inaugural 'Tom Petty Day' on Saturday, Oct. 15, in conjunction with the Gators' football game against LSU. The university has also announced it will award the legendary icon an honorary Doctor of Music in May 2023.
The Tom Petty Estate plans to give all the proceeds from the sale of merchandise at the Tom Petty Day to underserved communities in Gainesville. Good for them. Since his death in 2017, his song “I won’t back down” has become a kind of anthem for Gators fans.
"It is so incredible for everyone in the family that UF is honoring our dad in his hometown this way. He loved the Gators and he loved Gainesville, he always talked jokingly about a doctorate from UF and he would have been totally blown away by all this. It is an added gift that we can give something back and provide much-needed resources to underserved communities in Gainesville. It is near and dear to our entire Petty family. Annakim and I have a mother, father, grandparents and an uncle and aunt who have lived here a long time. It's unbelievable that now 90+ thousand people sing our dad's song here at home games." said Adria Petty, Tom Petty's daughter.
Here’s a last bit of music related stuff, courtesy of a friend of mine who sometimes sends me odd facts:
In the 1940s, black jazz musicians started calling each other “man” because they were usually called “boy” by everybody else.
And so an expression entered the vocabulary of the world.
Maybe not quite the last music-related thing because over in Birmingham the PM has gone onto the stage at the Conservative Party conference to the sound of “Moving on up” by M People, who are a bit cross that she used their song! Did nobody tell her about copyright!
And a certain Richard Adams (but not the writer of Watership Down) says she was mistaken to think she is the first PM to have attended a comprehensive school.
“Liz Truss was wrong when she claimed in her conference speech that she was the first prime minister to have gone to a comprehensive school. Gordon Brown went to a comprehensive secondary school (Kirkcaldy high school), while Theresa May’s school was converted into a comprehensive while she was a pupil there: Holton Park girls’ grammar school, in Oxfordshire, became Wheatley Park comprehensive school in 1971, two years after May enrolled. The education secretary at the time was Margaret Thatcher.”
There you go!
And Kwasi Kwartend has apparently blamed the “pressure” of the Queen’s death for mistakes in the mini-budget which has plunged the Tory party into crisis. “We had a nation in mourning and then, literally, four days after the funeral we had the mini-budget,” he said.
There you go again!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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