We waited for half an hour in the wrong part of the park, then had the phone call asking us where we were. When we got to the Victorian wooden chalet (which, even after all these years I had never really noticed) there were three generations waiting for us with mince pies and real Champagne.
That squirrel had quite a lot of mince pie, and here you see me offering him some Champagne to wash it down with.
The event was so enjoyable and the weather was so good that we wondered if this party in the park will become a tradition after - fingers crossed - everything is under control again. If things stay the same for the next 12 months, then the survivors can still do it again anyway. The only thing which would have topped the sunshine which lasted all day would have been the addition of a few inches of snow. Maybe next time.
Up until the last few months, I have always disliked public parks, and I wondered why. I have had plenty of time to wonder why during those months.
When I was about 14 and too young to go into pubs, I arranged to meet a few girls in parks (one at a time) and none of them ever turned up. I would wait there for a couple of hours until the park cleared of people and the sun began to set before I gave up all hope of ever getting a girlfriend in the Summer of 1965 - if ever, so it seemed to me at the time. I had never been so lonely or dejected. Being a gawky teenage male can be a silent hell.
Having finally got over this negative association with municipal parks, I am forecasting that I will be avoiding them again in the (hopefully) near future, when I will associate them with the dreadful period when they were the only safe places to meet in public with seats and trees, and when Christmas indoors was banned.
It could be worse: we could be 16 now and only allowed to go to the park to meet girls who turned up but insisted on staying six feet away from us. :)
ReplyDeleteTrue. For me it makes no difference now.
DeleteThat made me laugh!
ReplyDeleteGood-O.
DeleteHas somebody had a baby?
ReplyDeleteNot anyone in my family circle in the last 28 years. Why do you ask?
DeleteI was struggling with three generations waiting for you.
DeleteGrandparents, parents and grandchildren. The youngest is 26 and the oldest is 86.
DeleteI am somewhere in the upper middle.
DeleteI hadn't factored in an 86 year old.
DeleteWhy would you? You just needed to take my word for it.
DeleteI factored in a baby instead. Wrong end.
DeleteJust think, that squirrel might be telling his great-great-grandsquirrels about the epic Christmas Day when he feasted on mince pies and champagne! I'll bet it felt like the best holiday ever to HIM. :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't really give him Champagne. It was a set-up for the photo. He will be telling how he was hoodwinked.
DeleteNice to see the tweed coat of sartorial fame. The park does look a little run down. I do hope that in twelve months time all of you (all of you) meet again, within snug walls and without a squirrel. Sláinte.
ReplyDeleteThe park's ok. Yes, that tweed coat needs a dry-clean but I still love it.
DeleteAll those girls not showing up... It's their loss.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I screamed into the darkness of the park at the time.
DeleteWe have a squirrel that sets the security system off every morning at any time between 06:00 and 07:00. Our Roxy then goes dashing off the bed running through the house barking like a mad dog.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was the racoon's job?
DeleteGood idea for a meeting!
ReplyDeleteI cannot detect the champagne on your photo. "My" squirrel that comes up to the second floor balcony only gets nuts.
Even in 1965 as a very young girl to meet someone for the very first time in a park - I would have asked you to meet in a more peopled place :-)
They were safer in 1965. You need to look closely. The glass is transparent.
DeleteNow I see it - a grey squirrel (ours are red) - and the glass and its shadow. And your hand.
DeleteThe only time I have seen red squirrels is in Germany.
DeleteThis period is really so strange. I wonder how it will all end and what will be left of it.
ReplyDeleteLots will be gone.
DeleteIt's no consolation to hear this now but teenaged girls are horrible. It would have still ended in tears even if any did show up. A happy time with your tribe & Cyril this Xmas sounds like a much better use of park amenity to me.
ReplyDeleteI knew that but I was willing to risk it.
DeleteI have seen a squirrel squiffy on overripe apples..not a pretty sight, good that Cyril stuck to the pies!!
ReplyDeleteI remember the gawky teenager stage...it happens to girls too, and you were warned away from meeting in parks...and two of my son's that girls just loved to have them as good friends..
Now they enjoy park walks with partners and family.
All the best to you and yours
Parks are usually ok in daylight. Teenage girls have a different kind of gawk.
DeleteMy sentiments too
ReplyDeleteWe need a helicopter Weave.
DeleteI've got a mate who is gay and she reckons the public parks are the safe spaces for people to meet and walk. I'm not talking about gay beats, but those public spaces where unsafe love affairs could be publicly acceptable or, at the very least, ignored.
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas Tom xxx
Up until a few years ago, gay men used to haunt the toilets in the parks here. I really resented that and I'm glad it has stopped. Now there are hardly any public toilets in towns and cottaging seems to be a thing of the past.
DeleteI’m sure there were plenty of 14 year old girls who would have loved to have met a 14 year old boy in the park .... you were just asking the wrong girls !!!
ReplyDeleteLovely that you could meet your family for mince pies and Champagne. XXXX
I'm absolutely agree with you, Jackie: boys had to be two or three years older to be considered. (A fact our class mates still complained about when we had a class reunion a few years ago. :-)
DeleteI had an older girlfriend at school.
DeleteWe would occasionally rendezvous in the municipal golf course after hours. Oh, my!
ReplyDeleteThe 19th hole...
Delete