Back in March, we paused all of our school visits to retirement homes due to Covid-19. We’ve been running InCommon Buddies since then – our new programme connecting families and older neighbours remotely to spend time together online and over the phone.
Brian and Jody are one of the pairs who have been speaking to each other on a weekly basis during lockdown. Here they write to one another about their experiences of taking part in InCommon Buddies.
To Jody,
In days long long ago, before there was television; before there were computers with Google, Wikipedia, and all the gizmos of modern electronics, when I was a boy of about your age, if I wanted to know anything, I could read the newspapers, but these were too grown up for me. It was the same with news that came from our radio, and all the books in the local library. But for us kids, there were comic books.
I remember one comic book character called Jimmy and his magic patch. It was about a boy who had a magic patch on his trousers, and when he rubbed it, he was taken to a different time in history. (I suppose it’s like an old fashioned Horrible Histories). Reading about Jimmy was a bit like people from history stepping out of the book, and telling me what it was like in his (or her) day.
I now feel as if I am the same as that man stepping out of history telling you things about my life as a boy, but just as important, learning from you what it is like to be a child in 2020.
There are so many things which you take as normal (I've already mentioned T.V. and computers), so I will think about small things, like the ball point pen (Biro). I remember one boy whose father had just come back from America, and he had one. What was amazing to us kids was that it could write on blotting paper. Sadly, they were too modern and we were forbidden to use them; we had to stick with our dip into inkwell pens, and of course, our blotting paper. Another small thing was glue sticks. If we wanted to stick things together we didn't have the convenience of glue sticks; we had to use a brush with liquid paste, which in the hands of little kids, must have got everywhere.
When I was 8, I had to go to a school carrying a gas mask (mickey mouse for us kids). We frequently had times when we had to practice to put them on. I remember once I had been in a playground fight, and I had a black eye. Because it hurt, I thought it a good reason not to put it on, but the teacher thought otherwise, and I cried when she forced the mask on me. I didn't like that teacher for a long time.
I remember Anderson air raid shelters, sometimes we would have to go into them in the middle of the night. Adults would come running up the stairs, and grab me and my sister (2 years younger than me) and dash outside to the shelter, sometimes at 2 or 3 in the middle of the night. I also remember our house getting bomb damage.
Why I think you are so lucky living today is this. A lot of what I told you is from my memory, but when you get older, and start talking about your past life, you have things like digital cameras and computers, where you can record what happens to you. You are also lucky because you can understand them. When you get as old as me, learning new things gets harder and harder.
I’ve said a lot, there is so much I could tell you. In this, I have made some words thicker, I thought instead of me telling you everything, you can google them and learn a bit more.
Look forward to seeing you again on the screen, but it will be much better when you can come to Queen Elizabeth House.
From Brian
To Brian,
I’ve really enjoyed speaking to you on Zoom and I’m so happy that we could carry on speaking in Lockdown and I loved hearing about your times in the past. I have especially enjoyed learning about what it was like being 8 for you during and after the war (as some history books don’t tell us). It’s also been great speaking to people outside of my age group and family as I haven’t been able to see my friends.
My favourite games were:
Inventions: True or false?
One word story
Creating Characters
Morse code (Thanks Robin for giving me my name written in Morse code!)
Thank you for giving me some highlighted words to look up on Google. Here are some highlighted words for you: BBC Microbit, Really Rad Robots, BBC Bitesize, Tik Tok, Flip Out.
I am sad that our sessions are ending but I hope one day soon mum and me can meet you in person (or at the Band Stand on Clapham Common!)
True Or False?
Was there once a golf club on Clapham Common?
Did they ever graze sheep on Clapham Common?
Find out the answers by clicking here.
Speak to you soon,
Jody