Today’s speaker was our own Richard Ryden, who delivered more anecdotes from his life stories in his own inimitable style.
One particular memory centred around his younger brother, Nick, who apparently sat in his cot in the middle of the night, with a small spade, shovelling away the darkness until daylight appeared. They both wondered who does the shovelling now, as Nick certainly doesn’t!!
He reminisced about the Eagle comic, a publication meant only for boys, and we wondered if this fuelled his interest in space and rockets. He also played a clip from the radio programme “Journey into Space”, which, though very brief, brought back fond memories to all of us. Journeys throughout the continent were a source of mirth; he and his companion never seemed to find the towns of “Touts directions” in France, and “Ausfahrt” in Germany, until they eventually realised that they were trying to find “Everywhere else” and “Motorway Exit”! Whilst hospitalized in Salzburg with a severe leg infection, he struggled to convince a fellow patient that the city could not have been bombed by Lancaster bombers during the 2nd world war, as the Lancaster could not fly that far on a tank of fuel. Later research, however, did make him wonder if bombers could indeed have flown to Russia, refuelled, and then flown onwards to bomb Berchtesgarten, Hitler’s bunker, situated not very far from Salzburg.
It was also very evident that Richard does not have a wife to account to, as he has an elevated train set running round and round his sitting room, just below the ceiling.
He ended by telling us something of the life of his Uncle Walter, who’s wife unfortunately left him for the choir master/organist of his local church. He discovered this side to the family life by digging out newspaper cuttings via the internet!