6 March 1960
My dear Len and Margaret
Sunday evening. Just a little start on this letter. Margaret and Charles will soon be here, but until then I will do a bit of office work. My Canadian letters are just finished. Dad is passing them over to find the mistakes and he finds a few, not surprising at my age, but then I think I do very well considering, don’t you?
It’s been a lovely day. It’s kind of frosty this evening. Today about 200 people are walking round the island, they have to take the coast road all round. They left the Weighbridge at 8 o’clock and they must be back at 10 pm. After that they will be disqualified. I quite believe that quite a number of them have backed out before half the day. The youngest in this crowd is 10 years old. I doubt whether this one will go round. If he has backed out I don’t know how he will find his way back to his home. I think some of the older ones are over 60 years old, this is a new craze, they are doing it in England, so Jersey must have a shot at it too. Roy Fauvel is one of the walking crowd.
Many thanks for Len’s nice letter received a few days ago. Len, what a nerve you had to write to ‘Russ Conway’ asking for his photo to be sent to me. You know I may be queer but I really don’t believe you sent this letter to Russ. You might have written a note just to tell me you had done so, but I can’t take upon myself that you mailed it to him. I hope you didn’t, we had Russ on Friday. He was very good when playing the piano, but I don’t care so much when he’s among the crowd. That is, playing in an orchestra, he loses his lovely smile then.
All the talk has been about Princess M. this means the new prince has been forgotten. I am getting impatient of waiting to know his name, so long as it’s not Albert I don’t mind waiting a little longer then it might be Nicholas which would please me very much. Tony Jones is being trained into the Royal family, he has already learned to put his hands behind his back the same as the Duke of Edinburgh does when he goes to special functions with the Queen. Tony seems to be getting in trim very well. When he is with Margaret at some special affair he has to walk a few paces behind her and as I say, hands behind his back. The poor man has a lot to learn. I notice the Queen Mother follows them almost everywhere they go. She wants to be noticed as much (if not more) than the young couple.
February month was quite a good business month, £45,000 sounds very good, doesn’t it? You didn’t go to Brighton[1]after all, Mr Cohen doesn’t seem to be getting better very quickly does he? He’s pretty old isn’t he? So is Mr Ruthven, your new man giving satisfaction? I must put tools down M&C are on their way, the bus has just passed with them in.
Monday evening. Here I am again resuming my office work. First of all I want to thank Len for the lovely postcard received from him this AM from Brighton. This card was undamaged (which is unusual). It’s certainly a worthy one to have a place in my album. So Len is in Brighton these days. I guess it’s just for a couple of days or so. I hope you are not feeling too lonely Margaret while Len is away. The children are company for you although it takes your time to look after them. Susan can help you quite a bit now in many things.
About the Jersey French, well although I am Jersey to the core I cannot read it, but then I must say I don’t even try. It’s useless of course, Margaret would not understand a word of it and I should say neither do the children. Do they learn French at school at all? If they do it wouldn’t be the same kind of French. Father says he can read most of it, he amuses himself trying to read it
I notice that the children had a holiday for the birth of the royal baby. As far as I know they did not have one here. I hope the children pass their tests so they can have their trip to the Isle of Skye. It’s a pity of they had to be disappointed.
Len says his throat is better, but that it gets sore again when he smokes. Well Len, you should leave off smoking and look after your health which comes first. Have you ever found out what is really the cause of your bad throat? It should not be neglected, that shows it’s still not quite right if it gets sore when smoking. Be wise Len and smoke as little as possible if you have to smoke at all. You say you have to smoke when you go on business. Well I feel this is not at all necessary if it’s against your health. You can’t keep a packet of cigarettes in your pocket in case you want to pass them round? I know you will think – oh, for goodness sake, there’s mother giving her sermons again. It’s not so, it’s good advice that I try to give.
On Thursday 10th Stan Sharp will be coming here for the evening meal. We are having the family to come with him, this means we will be 10 at table, a little bit crushed, still they will have to put up with it for once.
Last Thursday on Stan’s invitation Father, Arthur, Charles and Nick went to inspect the sewage farm in Bellozanne Valley where the destructor used to be, it took them all afternoon to see everything the way it was worked and the way it is all disposed of. They all found it most interesting. Of course Stand had to ask permission from some of the officials for them to go. Stan was meeting them at the gate. They were all very tired when they came back, especially Father. They saw how everything was sorted out, tins, paper and other rubbish. They were pleased with their afternoon.
I think is had told you that we were having supper at Kays on Wednesday last, along with Stan. It was nearly 11:30 when we got back.
The walking race of yesterday is over. It was a Canadian who finished first. He was back at the Weighbridge at 4:23pm. Roy Fauvel came 10th. About 50 backed out. I can’t tell you more, I have not read it yet, you will read about it on the Weekly (Post).
Roselle has a bad throat these days, she must have caught cold. I want her to gargle. I can’t make her do so, she is taking some special tablets which she says are very good. I hope her throat will be better very soon, a sore throat is nasty. This will do for today when we hope all the family are well. Again many thanks for the lovely card.
Is your weather improving? Is there a sign of Spring in the air?
Love from we 3
Lovingly
Mother
