ISOLATION NUMBER 10

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.

And let’s hope that we all get to see each other sometime this year. Hopefully all of us have had our first jabs by now, apologies to those who haven’t, and many will know when their second jab is due. At least Spring is on its way and the nights are getting lighter. My garden is beginning to show signs of life with snowdrops and crocus flowering and other bulbs beginning to come up through the ground. From my kitchen window I can see catkins on the railway embankment. The latest news from the Government with the plan to gradually open up the country makes it important to keep checking the website because this will tell you when we are able to meet again and the plans for the groups later on in the year. www.u3asites.org.uk/stockport Also, I am quite happy to keep producing these newsletters until we are able to meet again, so please keep your contributions coming.

Ruth Faulkner, 14 Silverdale Road, Stockport, SK4 2RN [email protected] 0161-442-4370 Finally, EVERYBODY TAKE CARE AND STAY SAFE

Stockport u3a Calendar

In 2005 Beryl and I had a holiday in America visiting our son. The oldest of his daughters had just started primary school and each day we took her and collected her. Each year the pupils were asked to make drawings of their friends, teachers, Mum and Dad etc. The best of these were copied then sent to a firm which made up calendars from these pictures.

I thought that this was a super idea, and I could use it. My son pointed out that it was easy enough to do the whole job yourself rather than pay someone else. At this time, I was helping Brian Jones with the computer group and we thought it would be a good subject for the class, so we taught how to adjust photos and make a grid which is how a calendar is made up. From this starting point I made the first calendar for sale and then for use in 2006. There were just over 200 members in the u3a at that time so, being optimistic, I made 100 selling at £3.50. Only 58 were sold so there was a lot of wastage. Geoff Goodwin made up the grid, as he has every year since, and I did the rest. This first effort took me a month to print and assemble and I was beginning to wonder whether such effort was worthwhile.

I persevered for the next few years before finding a printer who would print the pages, but I had to use a combing machine to insert a plastic comb as a backing and I also had to make the hole for hanging the calendars up. Neither of these exercises were difficult but time consuming. I then found Prontoprint who would do the whole job for the same price as it was costing me to do myself, so the price stayed at £3.50 and the slight profit that was made was passed on to the treasurer, Cecil Brooks, who ran a separate fund for purchasing items that needed replacing from time to time such as lamps and batteries.

Prontoprint prefer to use a wire spring for holding the calendar together instead of a plastic comb so those of you who have kept the calendars through the years can tell when the change was made.

Instead of being a one-man-band we now have a calendar group.

Vivian Bath – sorts photos and passes them to me to be made into pages. Those who buy the calendar will appreciate her skill and the way montages are made up to convey the intended message.

Geoff Goodwin – who makes up the grids and passes them to me as pages.

Beryl – who has taken on the job of marketing since giving up the foodies.

I assemble the calendar and make up a prototype to pass to Prontoprint. Once the calendars are printed, I pay the bill, put the calendars in envelopes and then help with distribution.

Traditionally the photos are of our groups and the more members we can include the better. I was once told ‘people are vain, if they know they feature in the calendar they will buy one’. I am not sure that is totally true!

The current calendar is rather different because of the circumstances we find ourselves in. All the comments I have received have been positive but where do we go next year? Ideas by email or telephone please.

The cost of printing has increased so I need to charge £4.00 to break even. This year £5.00 was charged to cover postage to people who were difficult to get to. The cost to post was £1.83 second class. With the aid of volunteers, the majority were delivered by hand.

I have mentioned that I sold 58 in 2005 and only 60 in 2020. The membership has increased considerably in that time; is a calendar still wanted or needed? Beryl had to make 32 telephone calls to determine if a calendar was being ordered, this should not be necessary if the interest is there.

Ron Emerson [email protected] 0161 449 9259

A BALLAD OF THE BATH

Blistering Shingles is an itchy thing – You lose a lot of sleep – The fifth night in I ran a bath Of water, warm and deep.

The luxury of lying there, Sheer bliss without a doubt, I soaked and soaked; then, mortified, Found I could not get out!

Impossible for David too But he knew who to ‘phone. “Help is on the way”, he said ….. (Had I time to cover bone?)

In gold pyjamas, bath now dry, I greeted them (no longer bare), The men in green with gloves of blue When they bounded up the stair.

Youngsters too they seemed to me But sturdy both and strong. “Can I get into the bath with you?” Said one, “It won’t take long.”

“Feel free”, said I (for ne’er before Had I a chance like this), Chucked something in behind me, He climbed in – nought amiss.

He lifted, passed me to his mate Who sat me on the toilet lid To take blood pressure and more Which very soon he did.

So, all was well and off they went Much too polite for snickers. I grabbed the black thing from the bath – He’d been standing on my knickers!

I’m aching from the struggle, Like having lost a fight. I’ll fix a grab rail on the wall. Next time I’ll be all right. Author unknown

Poem sent in by Judith Sumner. She said in her e-mail “I don’t know if you’ll find a suitable Google photograph, though!” Its amazing what you can find when you look, although the ambulance man has no blue gloves.

STOCKPORT MARKET Andy Dugdale sent me these photographs of Stockprt Market. Do you recognise any body? See how the views have changed. Look at the prices. Have you any memories of Stockport market you would like to share in a later edition, I’ve other pictures to use?

Check out the trousers on the gentleman on the left.

STOCKPORT WITHOUT ABUSE

Barbara Marriott contacted me with this letter which she thought could go in the newsletter. Kathleen Thompson and her daughter had very kindly made the most beautiful, knitted baby clothes and blankets. They also collected a lot of toiletries for the Mums. Barbara took them to Stockport Without Abuse at Christmastime and Rachel and her team were thrilled. Barbara is going to give the letter to Kathleen. Congratulations to Kathleen and her daughter. (I’ve re- written the letter so that you can all read it.)

Dear Barbara, I am writing on behalf of all the staff, trustees, service users and children at Stockport Without Abuse to thank you for your extremely generous donation of hand knitted baby jumpers, toiletries and blankets for the children and women we support. As a local Charity we are incredibly grateful for your ongoing support. We’ve faced unprecedented challenges and demands for our services in the past year but have received astonishing support from our community every step of the way. I hope you have a safe and peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year. Thank you again for your support. Yours sincerely, Steph Mallas CEO Stockport Without Abuse.

TALES FROM CHESTER ZOO

Charlton and Pansy could be seen at the top of their tree, The best place for two smart chimpanzees to be. Charlton was an actor and Pansy was a potter, They read the Jungle Telegraph and drank designer water. They spent their summers in Waikiki And winter you’ll find them après ski. They mix with the stars of stage and screen In fact they are definitely on the scene.

On Sunday morning they were having brunch That’s posh for breakfast when its nearly lunch. Pansy reads the glossy mags like Jungle Life and Queen That’s when she startles Charlton with a scream. She’d seen an ad, entitled “Lose your blues, Choose the zoos.” Have a look at this Charlie, Chester Zoo does class dos. For weddings and such like They even have a human trained to wait on table on a bike.

We could have a Palm Court Orchestra And a tent out on the grass With humans in the background Now that’s what I call class. Cancel Crakow, Cork and Crewe Let’s have a do Charlie Send a chimpanzee mail to the zoo.

Dorothy Martin

ISOLATION NUMBER 10 Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this edition. Please everyone keep your contributions coming, I am quite happy to put them together in a magazine. Most of the illustrations are courtesy of Google, one thing I have learnt over the last eleven months I can find illustrations for just about anything. The first edition of these Isolation newsletters was produced on the 4th of April last year, it would lovely to see if we could reach edition Number 12 before we all meet again. Keep your contributions coming. COCKLESHELL HEROES OR OPERATION FRANKTON

In December 2017 a new statue was unveiled in Stockport at Mount Tabor opposite to Stockport Town Hall and the Art Gallery. It was the statue of a man’s head and torso complete with a double ended paddle. Full of curiosity I checked it out to find it was to commemorate James Conway, a milk man from Stockport, who was a Royal Marine during World War 2 and a “Cockleshell Hero”.

Operation Frankton was a daring raid, undertaken by twelve men in six canoes whose mission was to paddle 80miles up the Gironde River to plant limpet mines on shipping in the German occupied city of . The plan was then for these men to escape over the Pyrenees to neutral Spain. James Conway was one of these men. Louis Mountbatten deemed the raid “the most courageous and imaginative of all raids ever carried out by the men of Combined Operations.”

Bordeaux was important as a target because it was the destination for goods needed to support the German war effort.

The Boom Attachment (RMBPD) was formed in July 1942 and was based at Southsea, . (The RMBPD would later form the .) A detachment of 34 trained for this mission initially exercising in Portsmouth harbour and patrolling the booms there. Later they were to practise for the raid with a simulated attack against Deptford up the Swale although, understandably, at this point they knew nothing of the final target. The canoes, Codename Cockle, were 15 feet long, semi-rigid with canvas sides, flat bottoms and capable of being collapsed to enable them to be loaded and unloaded from a .

Finally, on 30th November 1942 the Royal Navy submarine HMS Tuna left Holy Loch with six canoes and the thirteen selected marines on board including James Conway. Then, on 7th December five canoes started on the mission, one had been damaged as it was taken from the interior of the submarine. The condition was bad with cross winds and high waves and one of the canoes capsized and the two crew were towed in the water until they were close enough to swim to the shore. James Conway and J. McKinnon in the canoe codenamed “Cuttlefish”, got separated from the remaining three canoes and they had to abandon the mission and attempt to reach Spain. Of the remaining six men two were captured after they had come ashore to wait to start the attack on 11/12th December. The remaining four men attached limpet mines resulting in six ships being damaged. Only two marines survived to escape to Spain over the Pyrenees, Major Hasler and Marine Sparks.

Conway and McKinnon managed to evade capture for four days but were caught near the town of La Reole, they were betrayed to the authorities when they tried to get treatment for McKinnon’s injured knee. They were handed over to the Gestapo but gave no information of either their mission or their companions. They were executed under Hitler’s infamous “. Of the remaining six men, the two who had had to swim to shore died of hypothermia and four were caught by the Germans and executed again under the Commando Order. Hasler was awarded the DSO and Sparks a DSM for their part in the raid. The other two who reached Bordeaux were also recommended for DSM but as these could not be awarded posthumously were mentioned in dispatches.

The statue of James Conway, a milkman from Stockport, was unveiled on 10th December 2017, 75 years after the raid took place. Luke Perry the artist who produced the work, investigated the clothing which would have been worn and met the family so that his depiction was as close as possible. Kenneth Brotherhood who had long campaigned for recognition of James attended the unveiling ceremony alongside members of James’ family and members of the armed forces. A fitting memorial to a brave lad from Stockport.

(A recent programme on the television has pointed out that this raid could have been more successful had there been more communication by the SOE with other departments in Whitehall. An additional, land- based, and simultaneous raid on Bordeaux was planned by the SOE under the leadership of Claude de Baissac. Indeed, he was about to take explosives onto the ships when he heard the limpet mines explode. This led to the setting up of a Controlling Officer at Whitehall responsible for avoiding inter-departmental rivalry, duplication or even conflict.) Anyone interested in learning more amongst others I used: Military.wikia.org/Operation_Frankton Ruth Faulkner

Message from a tote bag given at Christmas

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

VALENTINE BLUES

I didn’t get a Valentine No one wrote “Will you be mine?” The postman didn’t even call, There were no letters in the hall, No sign of any cards at all.

I waitedfor the second post, I thought of all my friends who boast Of piles of cards upon their mat. Perhaps I can convice them that Mine were eaten by the cat.

I won’t tell them there weren’t any, I’ll just say there were so many My letterbox had overflowed And loads of cards lay in the road. (Oh Dear, I’m such a lying toad.)

OK, I’ll admit I’m jealous Of my friends with lots of fellas, But I don’t want sympathy. I’m of to make a pot of tea. A small one cos’ there’s only me.

This poem was sent to me by Bernadette Wiltshire, leader of our poetry group, who collected this anonymous poem from a newspaper a good while ago when we still had second post. (Second post was scrapped in the New Year 2003, these deliveries only existed in towns and cities anyway, accounted for 1% of the mail but 20% of the delivery costs.)

FLOWER FAIRY BOOKS

As a child I loved this and its companion books not so much for the poems but for the pictures. So, imagine my pleasure when a friend gave me a crosswork kit for the

Geranium Fairy. A side effect of Covid someone had had a grand clear out resulting in a car boot sale and my friend managed to get some bargains. I’m just waiting now to buy a suitable frame.

Ruth Faulkner