Investing in Memories Му uncle had a moustache, a good job in the Civil Service and used to smoke forty cigarettes a day. But when he organized day trips for our family he used to behave like a boy. Today, seventy years later, we still talk about the wonderful trips to the sea our uncle used to organize when we were children.
He organized the trips very carefully. He used to buy the railway tickets and write special programmes long before the day arrived so we began to look forward to the trip. On the cover of the programme was the name of the place we were visiting and a humorous drawing of everyone in the family. There was even a lucky number on each programme and the winner didn’t have to carry the bags on the way home.
All through the day he organized games and competitions. In his view, all the games had to be slightly anti-social. So if the programme said ‘4p.m.: Annual Ladies and Gentlemen match’, the match would always take place, even if the beach was very crowded. He organised treasure hunts, modelling competitions with seaweed, shells and bits of wood from the beach, and other events. There would be a special prize for the winner of every competition, usually an old sporting cup from a local junk shop.
Не made sure that there were as many people on the top as possible, and invited neighbours and their children as well to join the family for the day. The fun started as soon as we left home. Even the walk down to the station in the morning used to involve a game (‘the first person to see a policeman gets a point’).
One game we used to play in the car was called ‘I know that lady’. One of us would choose someone walking along the street, and as we approached, the driver sounded the car horn, and everybody waved. The woman wouldn’t understand why we were waving at her and would look puzzled.
He never thought money spent on a well-organized outing was wasted. When his wife complained about the cost of a family day out, he said, ‘Look, it’s not wasting money, it’s investing in memories.’ |