23 Last Memories of Loudon's Father

Loudon's father was a major in the British Army. Around 1957 before he died, when he was terminally ill at Bexhill, he confided in his daughter-in-law Alice, who had been a nurse: "I have been told I have three to six months to live. I can't have cream or whisky. What would you do?"

Alice replied: "I'd do what you are doing now."

He said, "Thank you, my dear."

Alice says, "He drove a car, ate food, and enjoyed himself. He lived about four months longer and died at the 9th (last) hole of the golf course.

"He was walking up the slope to the last green. He put his bag down, sat down beside it, and fell asleep."

Loudon adds, "I still have his golf bag - I gave it to our son Robert. Golfers don't like schoolboys. Golfers are very anti-social."

Angela thinks: This was news to me. I'd always thought that golfing was social because you walk around in groups, unlike card playing, with poker faces. Even bridge is notorious for bad tempered bridge players, sitting in silence, stuck in wheelchairs, staring at their hand of cards, playing for money. Angel opens eyes wide in surprise. "What do golfers do that's anti-social?"

Loudon: 'Don't trespass, on my patch."

Angela: "What about bridge players?"

Loudon: "Bridge players are worse."

Alice: "My mother would not play cards.

22 Angela's Party Turn

Angela’s Party Turn

The Parkins’ garden pond has had fish and toads. For a party Angela was invited to give a five minute turn. This consisted of challenging the audience to guess whether she had three self-playing pianos inside a large tote bag. She did.

She could not play happy anniversary (the smallest piano had six self-playing tunes. So she played Happy birthday to you. Somebody in the audience had a birthday.

Angela followed this by a chat with a hand puppet frog. It nodded and agreed that the Parkins were excellent neighbours, who provided good food and drink. The family had had plenty to drink so they were in a good mood and were a good audience and laughed a lot.

Alice and Loudon also came to watch Angela perform at the talent show organised by the Moon & Sixpence pub, on the high street, where comedian Barry Cryor regularly goes to drink and socialise. Barry was going to introduce the evening and Angela was confident that the audience would be attentive and appreciative. Unfortunately, the pub discovered at the last minute that they needed a music license because two or three of the acts were singers.

The event was postponed until the following week and to a change of venue, the Lawn Tennis Club in Clonard Way. This was down a suburban street, with a hidden entrance. Torrential rain was not encouraging for the performers, supporters, audience, or parking. Parking was on the muddy field. We parked near the venue, then hemmed in by other cars. A walk across an unlit field to the clubhouse which was not open when we arrived so we sat outside until somebody with a key turned up.

Barry Cryor did not appear as originally advertised. We did not know whether he had taken umbrage or was not available because of the change of date. Angela’s first act which took place sitting down could not be seen or heard by those at the back of the audience. The organiser suggested that a volunteer needed for the act should be a child contestant, who was tongue tied so there was no jolly repartee. A final reading of a comic poem could not be heard because people were shouting drinks orders at the bar.

Angela then appreciated how important it is to have a ‘good’ audience like Alice and Loudon’s family.

Blurb About Alice and Loudon. A Summary.

Blurb About Alice and Loudon.  A Summary.

Alice and Loudon have lived in Hatch End fifty years, since March 1965. Their house is number 8, which is a lucky number in Chinese.Their gabled detached house has wisteria draped across the doorway, a front garden and a long back garden.

Their back garden has apple trees, a pond and, hidden at the far end, a fox's lair. The Parkins used to have two cats. Now they put out food for the foxes.

Loudon is keen on gardening. And DIY. He enthusiastically makes coffee.

Alice cooks in the kitchen designed by her daughter. She serves coffee and biscuits at a table in the window overlooking the garden, with the fig tree on the left and the garage on the right.

We moved next door to them in 1980 or 1981. From neighbouring houses we can often hear Loudon playing the upright piano and Alice's peels of laughter. Alice used to be busy in amateur dramatics. Loudon used to be a keen player of squash. They are still enthusiastic supporters of the local Conservative party.

Now Loudon likes to sit in the sunny Conservatory. He reads The Telegraph newspaper which he collects every morning, with the American international herald newspaper. 

He strokes his little beard and tells long stories about people they know and places they have visited, sometimes interrupted by Alice.

They are great neighbours. They do all the things good neighbours should do. In the old days they would help you jump start your car. In later times the job of a neighbour was to lend a ladder, take in a parcel or look after keys. Plus of course taking you in when you were locked out.

We are always invited in, never left standing on the doorstep. I only stand on the doorstep when they are out. In their covered porch you used to be able to stand looking at the singing frog. (Not a real English frog. Probably made in China.The real wildlife is at the back on the pond.)

They used to have a flat in Malta on timeshare, which they eventually sold after some difficulty. They love to go to America to visit the family, whose photos decorate the side tables in the living room. 

Angela Lansbury 2015

Introduction to Alice and Loudon

Alice and Loudon live in Hatch End. Their house is number 8, which is a lucky number in Chinese.

Their gabled detached house has wisteria draped across the doorway, a front garden and a long back garden.
Their back garden has apple trees, a pond and, hidden at the far end, a fox's lair. The Parkins used to have two cats. Now they put out food for the foxes.

Loudon is keen on gardening. And DIY. He enthusiastically makes coffee.

Alice cooks in the kitchen designed by her daughter. She serves coffee and biscuits at a table in the window overlooking the garden.

From neighbouring houses we can often hear Loudon playing the upright piano and Alice's peels of laughter. Alice used to be busy in amateur dramatics. Loudon used to be an enthusiastic player of squash. They are still enthusiastic supporters of the local Conservative party.

Now Loudon likes to sit in the sunny Conservatory. He reads the newspaper he collects every morning. He strokes his little beard and tells long stories about people they know and places they have visited, sometimes interrupted by Alice.

They do all the things good neighbours should do. In the old days they would help you jump start your car. In later times the job of a neighbour was to lend a ladder, take in a parcel or look after keys. Plus of course taking you in when you were locked out.

We are always invited in, never left standing on the doorstep, which we do when they are out. In their covered porch you can stand looking at the singing frog. (Not a real English frog. Probably made in China.The real wildlife is at the back on the pond.)

They used to have a flat in Malta on timeshare, which they eventually sold after some difficulty. They love to go to America to visit the family, whose photos decorate the side tables in the living room. 

20 Alice's Schooldays

Alice's Schooldays

Alice says:
"I loved my schooldays. I went to a boarding school in Wales from 1942 to 1946. My cousins were there. And I made lifelong friends."

“I travelled home six hours on a choo-choo train. 

"I stood waiting on Leeds station. I'd been at a private school, a girls' public school, and I had become accustomed to hearing people speaking very posh at school. My father had come to meet me at Leeds station. It was a shock to hear the station master say to my father, in his broad accent, "Have ya coom to meet ya daughter then?" Bradford was a terminus.

Alice mimics the station master in a low voice and a strong accent. Followed by a peel of laughter. You can see why she enjoyed being in amateur dramatics. She leans forward conspiratorially:

"I had learned to sew at school and my mother asked me to patch a white sheet. In those days everybody had white sheets - and white linen or cotton handkerchiefs." 

Loudon agrees and nods, "That's right. No paper tissues!" He shakes his head. "No. They came in later.”

Alice recalls:
"My school was a girls only school. Boarding schools were all like that in those days. I met my friend Joan on my first day at school and we were best friends from the age of 13 to 17, when I left. Joan stayed on another year.

"She married in 1956, the same year that I married Loudon. She had two children, but her husband died four or five years later, about 1960. He had a brain tumour. So she was left with two young children. Fortunately her parents were wealthy - and she was an only child." No sisters. So Alice was like a sister to Joan.

"Joan became a teacher, of English and all subjects to a pre-infant's kindergarten, ensuring children knew everything they needed to know to start school.

"Later Joan took me back to visit our old school. It was called Castle, a Tudor building with turrets, and sections added in stone. Some of the dormitories were in the old castle and some in the annexe buildings. Now the property a holiday resort, Bodelwyddon Castle, in the Warner group.For details of the history read:
http://www.warnerleisurehotels.co.uk/hotels/bodelwyddan-castle-hotel/hotel-history/index.aspx

19 Why No Photos? Loudon's Ancestors' stories: A murder, a pub and Auld Reekie

Why No Photos? Loudon's Ancestors' Stories: A murder, a pub and Auld Reekie

One thing which puzzled me, and muddled me, was that Loudon's family name was Parkin, which is a Yorkshire name, but although Loudon's wife Alice is from Yorkshire, he is Scottish.

Loudon's Mother Winnie Parkin
Loudon's mother Winifred Gladys Parkin, was called Winnie.

He recalls, "At one stage she didn't like me, but had more affection for her first born, my older brother Ian Robert Parkin. He's just celebrated his 90th birthday!  I was born 10 months later, so he was always 10 months older than I was.

"My mother threw away all the negatives which showed the family."

Of course, her married name, Parkin, came from her husband, as was usual in those days.

Loudon's Father
"Our father, Robert Parkin, known as "Bertie" was in Hong Kong in WWII - he was moved to Singapore when the Japanese war started, as the Japanese were allies of the Germans.

Loudon's Maternal Grandparents
Loudon says, "My maternal grandmother and father were from Kent. They lived in Gravesend and he worked in the dockyard.

"Their neighbour murdered his own family. With a hatchet. Then committed suicide."

"They were so upset, they went to Scotland. There were plenty of jobs in the Rhosyth shipyard, a dockyard outside Edinburgh. It's over the go Firth of Forth bridge. There was only one bridge then, before the rail bridge there was a ferry.

"My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Barker.

"The name Parkin comes from my paternal grandfather who lived in Bridge of Weir, a village in the West of Scotland. It was a small place. My grandfather, Ernest Parkin, ran the village's only pub. he used to go regularly from Edinburgh to Bridge of Weir to help at the pub, every other weekend, taking me and my brother and sister.

"My father worked for the Civil Service on the accountancy side, stationed in Edinburgh. He was posted there and probably had digs in a tenement and went dancing and met up and married.

"The Edinburgh tenements were roomy - bigger than your three bedroom bungalow. They had high ceilings, and a big kitchen range, like an Aga, with an open coal fire, a cooker on top to bake bread and boil a kettle. The Kitchen range was originally coal but later converted to gas. Coal - that's when Edinburgh was called Auld Reekie - because you could see smoke above the houses. They converted to gas when I was 7 or 8. The baths were galvanised steel in metal colour, not white or coloured like today. Steel would rust, so it was dipped in zinc.

18 Australia on a £10 ticket - Loudon's sister Heather and brother-in-law Terry's changed name

Australia on a £10 ticket - Loudnon's sister Heather and brother-in-law Terry's changed name

Loudon's sister-in-law Heather went to a dance and met a boy she danced with, but soon found out that his brother Terry Mackenzie was a better dancer. Terry got interested in her and at last asked her to marry him. Heather said, "I'll marry you but You'll have to change your surname. I can't be called Heather Feather!"

"So he changed his name to a good Scottish name, Mackenzie. It suited her. She was born in Scotland.

"Unfortunately our mother, Winifred Gladys, known as Winnie, didn't like Terry's family and she didn't like Terry. Despite that, they married, here in Harrow. However, the wedding was not a happy occasion for Winnie, and everybody else for another reason. A good friend died on the way to the wedding.

"Winnie had been a housekeeper to Mrs Gurr, who had remained a good friend. The wedding ceremony and reception were delayed whilst we all waited for Mrs Gurr to arrive. She never arrived. She had had a heart attack. She died on the way to the wedding. The wedding went ahead.

"However, to get away from it all, they eventually went to Australia, on a £10 ticket. They went to Adelaide with their children, all boys, who settled in well.

"Later they adopted two girls, sick, unwanted oriental children who needed good homes. Children who had been abandoned. The would-be adoptive parents were given lottery numbers.  They received one Chinese baby, and one Vietnamese.

How did that work out?

"It worked out very well. The girls recovered their health and did well. Alice and I want back to Australia specially for the wedding of one of the girls."

(See earlier post about Terry reading Angela's book on wedding speeches.)