Halloween the worst import
“Best Day Ever” proclaimed the banner that filled the largest window in a Barwell shop and with the items in the other windows it clearly had to refer to Hallowe’en. An occasion which celebrates evil the best ever? Really?
What about the day Christ rose from the dead after sacrificing himself so that our confessed sins are eternally forgiven? That, to my mind, is unbeatable!
Then there is a wedding day, rated by many as a “best ever” in life or the birth of a much wanted child to parents who have been trying for years, that has to be more than a bit special too.
I’m sure you could come up with others but to claim a night when children can go against all they are told the rest of the year is “best ever” has to be wrong, pure and simple.
Don’t tell me it’s just a bit of fun. It’s an unoriginal thought but one I agree with that when you’ve told youngsters 364 days not to talk to strangers and not ask for anything, it’s suddenly OK to indulge in a juvenile version of demanding money with menaces! Trick or treating is no different.
What’s more the biggest fright caused is the fear or panic of elderly people who are advised not to answer the door but dread what might happen if they don’t.
The whole thing has to be the worst import ever made from America and the saddest part is it has replaced “penny for the guy” when children could get crafty using old clothes and the invitation to give was made without a threat and was voluntary.
Guy Fawkes - the only man to enter Parliament with the right intentions (another unoriginal thought). How we could have done with someone like him during the whole Brexit debacle which had reached another crucial stage when this column was written but could still be unresolved when you read this.
If it did turn out to be a no deal, Michael Gove has said there will be bumps in the road but what’s hated more than potholes or so called “sleeping policemen” traffic humps?
Remember rodeo?
Does anyone remember a Wild West show with rodeo on Hinckley Athletic’s Middlefield Lane?
One of my contacts has vague memories of it in the early 1960s and thinks Buffalo Bill was mentioned in the billing. Let me know if you can add any more details about it.
What my contact does remember about it is the aftermath, the condition the pitch was left in and took ages to recover from.
Local lingo
News that the Oxford dictionary has made just over 200 new entries including regional variations of familiar words made me think something (or summink.sunfin, sumthin or sumptin in the latest edition) ought to be done to preserve local lingo in this area.
How many people outside a dying generation in Barwell or Earl Shilton would know that a corsey is the pavement and then are those that could be incorporated in a phrase book for those needing a translation.
“Gorreny suck?” means “Have you got any sweets?”, “Gooin numb safto” “I shall be returning home this afternoon” and “Guz and gis him hizzen” “He gave that man what belonged to him”.
I’m sure longstanding residents of the two places and their families who grew up with such talk could add others and it would be a pity if it died out when they pass on.
Let me know please if you can remember any other sayings.
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