Memories of a six year old and a little later

 Dear Reader,

 

I remember so well in the long dark winter evenings sitting with Nanny having our tea, listening to tales of Uncle Remus.

Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales complied and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris.  Uncle Remus is a compilation of Br'er Rabbit storytellers whom Harris encountered during his time at the Turnwold Plantation. 

Harris said that the use of Black dialect was an effort to add to the effect of the stories and to allow the stories to retain their authenticity.  

The character of Uncle Remus serves as a storyteller using animal fables to impart moral lessons while also reflecting the lived experience of African Americans during and after slavery.

The Uncle Remus tales are African American trickster stories about the exploits of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and other 'creeturs' that were created in Black regional dialect by Harris.

Uncle Remus is portrayed as a wise and dignified figure, often using humor and moral lessons to convey the complexities of human behaviour, particularly the folly of pride and self importance.

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From Gerard Manley Hopkins    August 5th   1873  Isle of Man

'Up Snae Fell......You can see from it three kingdoms.   The day was bright; pied skies.  On the way back we saw eight or perhaps ten hawks together.'

From John Ruskin  August 7th 1847  in Warwickshire

'It rained hard while I staid in the cottage, but had ceased when I went over and out, and presently appeared such a bright far off streaky sky in the west seen over glistening hedges as made my heart leap again....And the sun came out presently and every shake of the trees shoke down more light upon the grass; and so I came to the village, and stood leaning on the churchyard gate, looking at the sheep, nibbling and resting among the graves (newly watered they lay, like a field of precious seed)....

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Memories of a six year old and a little later

 

A pale blue dress with pretty lace collar

threading conkers with green string

Mrs. Mason making sponge cakes

eating the filling with a wooden spoon

 

silver dance slippers with gold bows

Daddy's girlfriend pulling my hair

Mr. Holt forgetting to pick

me up from school, again

 

yellow lino in the nursery

listening to Uncle Remus on

the radio at teatime when

Nanny made me eat the crusts.

 

I remember stroking a black -nosed

cow called Bushka,

my friend Catherine and I

playing hopscotch.

 

Having impetigo and not being able

to breathe in the winter,

going down to the drawing room

filled with grown ups

 

where I was teased.

I cried and Nanny took me back

to the nursery and gave me a chocolate bear.

I remember making a raffeta mat

 

which took me ages.  My mother put it in a draw,

once I remember her getting drunk

stumbling upstairs

falling in the bathroom.

 

I remember Daddy borrowing

ten shillings from me and then

asking for it back the next day.

Grizzie came to stay with her two guinea pigs.

 

I remember my sister writing

a ghostly story about the ancient

manor house, hearing footsteps

on the path at midnight.

 

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My mother was largely absent

from all these memories.

Nanny lived with us

she was 'my mother'.

 

She wrote to me at boarding school.

She was knitting a woolly hat

for my wedding day but she

died three weeks before it took place.

 

Nanny was my childhood security,

safety and friend and I loved her

absolutely with all my small heart.

And still do.

 

                                                                    *

 

With very best wishes, Patricia