I’ve been working my way through Nigel Baynes’ archives of local memorabilia, and being humbled to tears by what he deemed to be memorable enough to file away. I remember creating this monthly newsletter jam-packed with information about our community, but I think it couldn’t have lasted more than a year or so. Perhaps too many other things got in the way. Besides the newsletter I was also compiling an online diary of events, and writing the weekly District Notes for the Hexham Courant. Of course, I was fortunate to have an insider’s viewpoint as I was becoming more intimately involved with the village hall as well, and that began to become obsessive, that pre-occupation.
We were certainly busy back in the day, weren’t we! It’s particularly intriguing to place the Allendale Lions activities in the context of what was going on in the village during the same time. Some day, I’m convinced, historians will pour over these primary sources and all of the wonders of enchanted community life will be revealed once more. Meanwhile, we have our little blogs and other attempts at what I call contemporary social history, and that’s enough to be getting on with.
Generations change, and things are cyclical. I wrote about just this sort of generational upheaval, disruption, dissipation, and finally rejuvenation, this continuous cycle in the life of a community, in a recent RoadsToJoy.blog entry. What I didn’t mention there, but will try to manage here, is what an incredible joy it was to be part of this vibrancy, this philanthropic and selfless service, while we all had such a lot of fun.