Welcome to the July meeting, which is my first as President.
Many thanks to Terry for his Presidential year, which he carried out in a calm and efficient manner.
Thanks to all the members who agreed to fill various roles for another year, without these the club would cease to function. Also, thanks to Dave Tipper and Frank Timmis, who have agreed to be auditors of the club accounts for the year to 31-3-2019. We welcome two new members onto the Council – John Lowe and Peter Lloyd.
At the time of writing this report, England have just qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup. Very well done to the team and even if they do not progress to the final they have exceeded our expectations.
I have just been informed that Adrian Ford has had a pacemaker fitted and is now back home. Barrie Knapper is due to go into hospital for a pacemaker on Monday 23rd July. We wish both of them well. Norman Hankey President
Todays Speaker is Mr Les Mason – The History & Development of Apedale
Birthdays in August 2018
Dennis Fletcher, Jeff Parker and Cliff Triner.
Social Report for July
Unfortunately numbers were insufficient to warrant the outing to Llangollen and Bala and the arrangements had to be cancelled.
The visit to Middleport Pottery is still to be arranged but again is subject to sufficient interest.
A questionnaire will be circulated at the July meeting to establish whether holidays and days out can be arranged and will receive sufficient support to make them viable.
Unfortunately coaches require 50 seats and it is necessary to obtain this number to ensure it will be an economical proposition. Ken Williamson.
Club Walk. Wednesday 4th July
The July walk was a 5 mile circular walk around Tittesworth Reservoir and was centred on The Car Park to the Lazy Trout.
The August Walk will continue on the watery theme and will include Greenway Bank Country Park and the Serpentine. We will also visit Golom’s Rock and the Mystical area around it. In fact the walk was the subject of a programme broadcast only a couple of weeks ago by BBC Radio Stoke. Lunch will be taken at the nearby Top Pub.
Meet on Wednesday 1st August on the tiered car parks in Kidsgrove at 0930.
Graham Tunnicliff.
Churnet Valley Railway Outing Wednesday 8th August
Probus will be in coach “Diana”, seen below, when 36 members visit the Churnet Valley Railway on Wednesday 8 August 2018.
Members can expect a traditional cream tea, which includes fresh scones, cream and jam complimented by pots of tea or coffee. The train starts from Kingley and Froghall Station, ST10 2HA and departs at 13.30pm.
The balance of payment of £10.25 needs to be paid in cash to Michael Nield at the meeting today. We will be using our own cars, so members are reminded to allow plenty of time for the journey. There is ample car parking at the station.
Mike Nield
‘The Green Thing’
Checking out at the supermarket, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologised and explained, “We didn’t have this ‘green thing’ back in my earlier days.” The young cashier responded, “That’s our problem today – your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations”. She was right — our generation didn’t have the ‘green thing’ in those days.
But back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over again. So they really were recycled.
But we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.
Grocery shops bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we re- used numerous times. Most memorable besides household bags for rubbish, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school), was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were able to personalise our books. But too bad we didn’t do the “green thing” back then.
We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have a moving staircase to every floor in these new shopping complexes and office building. We walked to the local shop and didn’t climb into a 300 horsepower machine every time we had to travel half a mile. But she was right. We didn’t have the “green thing” in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby’s Terry Towel nappies because we didn’t have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 3 kilowatts – wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Children had hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.
Back then, we had one radio or TV in the house – not a TV in every room and the TV had a small screen the size of a big handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Scotland In the kitchen. We blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send it via the Post, we used screwed up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We pushed the mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
We drank from a tap or fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
Back then, people took the bus and children rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their Mums into a 24-hour taxi service in the
family’s £20,000 ‘People Carrier’ which cost forty times as much as a whole house did before the “green thing.”
We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances and we didn’t need a computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest Pub!
But isn’t it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the “green thing” back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart arse young person.
We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to really upset us especially a tattooed, multipierced smart bugger who can’t work out the change without the cash register telling them how much it is!
Supplied by John Crutchley
The Amateur Philosopher
My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters only
opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.
Boris Johnson
Newsletter Editor
Chris Brough compiles and publishes the Probus Newsletter.
Articles of interest to members should be sent by Email to Chris at chrisjbrough@talktalk.net Or phone 01782 784075 in the first instance. For an inclusion in the next newsletter, articles should be delivered to the editor at least
7 days before the monthly meeting.
Our next Probus meeting is on Wednesday 29th of August at
Kidsgrove Cricket Club, 9.30 for 10am.