Jubilee

For the Jubilee celebration, Monica Allpress made a Union Jack cake. The toppings were strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream.

Heather Davey had her hair styled in swatches of red and white, offset by a royal blue dress.

Janet Jarvis, chosen as our own village queen, wore a pale green hat, coat and skirt, and waved regally to the crowd.

She stooped to look at all the childrens’ jubilee crowns and top hats carefully before awarding the prizes.

Sue showed the little girls how to curtsey when they came up for their prizes.

Graham organised the cricket match. One team wore wigs and women’s clothes.

The nurses from the retirement home brought in their patients in wheelchairs and placed them under an awning. Each patient wore a plastic Union Jack bowler.

The church was full of flowers. Each window sill had an array of objects representing a village activity, like the Gardening Club or the Parish Council.

The children from the infants’ school had made little plasticine models and placed them on name cards with red, white and blue borders.

After the service all the teddybear parachutes were dropped from the church tower. The last one to reach the ground was the winner.

Dennis, that’s Dr Brainstorm, was in his element. He devised all the games.

There was one game where you had to assemble a line of pipes, place them on brick piles and roll a ping pong ball all the way down them.

In another game you were given two planks and you had to get your team across five concrete blocks without touching the ground.

There were lots of trestle tables. Large parties put many tables together.

Maureen and I got together with Dennis and Sue and Norman and Melanie and Derek and Jess and Jess’s brother who was over from Australia. Graham and Georgie and their children were at a nearby table.

Derek bought six bottles of very good champagne in a great big coolbox. Maureen made cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches.

Barbecues smouldered through the afternoon.

Later there was a disco for the kids.

We didn’t pack up till after six. “That was such fun”, said Maureen.