Some years, Christmas for my family back in the 1950’s weren’t always entirely in Loughborough.
My aunt on my mother’s side lived in Melton Mowbray.
Some years we would all go over to Melton on a Barton’s bus, to join her and
her husband Fred for Boxing Day.
Aunt Kathy (as we knew her) and Fred had no
children of their own, so were in the habit of making a lot of visiting nephew
and nieces from Loughborough.
Traditional Christmas lunch was always first
class and the afternoon always passed with games and presents. Fred would play
something humorous on the piano, frequently pieces from Gilbert and Sullivan.
Kath put a lot of work into the nature of the
gifts, and we knew that we would all either get a laugh or be laughed at during
the openings.
One year mine came in a huge box, wrapped in
layers and layers of paper. Box after box, one inside another, each with its
own multiple paper layers, revealed in the end a very small box marked ‘to whoever
it may concern.’ On opening it I found a small piece of paper on which was
written:-
‘A WORD OF WARNING TO THE GUEST THAT BIG THINGS
ARE NOT ALWAYS BEST.’
As ever, suitable compensation followed later.
Although they have both now sadly passed away, Christmas never goes by without fond reflections of those days.
David Taylor
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