FEBRUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER
Dear Members
Did you all suffer from that terrible heat (and very little wind) over the past three weeks?? I hope none of you got ill (other than Mary Douglas who got heat-stroke on the golf course and wasn’t well for six days). Anyway, as I write this (11th Feb) more normal summer weather seems to be back with us (although we still badly need some rain).
We look forward to our usual good turnout of members and friends at our annual DVD showing of the previous year’s Edinburgh Military Tattoo (2011 + plus of course fish & chips and a short 20 minute showing of Celtic Woman).
You may have noticed that there has been no Seniors Afternoon. This was an AGM decision last July to save the expense as our funds are getting less and less. Pity – but we have to be realistic!
FUTURE EVENTS:
PAYMENTS
Either (a) cheques payable “Pinelands Caledonian Society” and posted to Anne Stevenson, 2 Peach Tree Cres, Sunningdale 7441
or (b) direct & internet banking to: Pinelands Caledonian Society; ABSA N1 City Goodwood; Branch Code 420410; Account 0712761849 (add your surname/function as reference).
or (c) cheque payable “Pinelands Caledonian Society” and handed in at the door on arrival at a function (please – no cash)
EDINBURGH MILITARY TATTOO VIDEO EVENING, SATURDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2012.CATHOLIC CHURCH HALL – 7.00 FOR 7.30 P M. COST R65 (including fish & chips) Dress Smart/Casual
Bring own drinks and glasses (we provide the fish & chips).
A very popular evening viewing the 1½ hour 2011 Tattoo DVD. After fish & chips, we will show 25 min from another entertaining DVD (Celtic Woman – Songs from the Heart). We remind you that the DVD is easy to see and hear from all parts of the hall. Bring your friends – I’m sure they enjoy the evening. Raffle as usual + tea/coffee
BOOK WITH ANNE (021.554.0302)
SATURDAY MARCH 31ST – AN IRISH EVENING AT CATHOLIC CHURCH HALL
7.00 FOR 7.30 P M
Full details and cost in March Newsletter. We will have Irish Dancers, the young fiddler Connor, dancing by us, Irish Joke competition (we had this last time). We must all wear something green. Bring own drinks, glasses and snacks
APRIL
We are possibly having a fun evening at a pub with a pub quiz, prizes and pub food. A Friday or Saturday evening. Details later.
PAST EVENTS:
Burns Supper – Saturday, 21st January
Although numbers attending were, unfortunately, less than normal, the evening was very good. Excellent meal (plenty of it) plus lovely haggis by Jean Girvan. Speakers all good – Ken Hundermark on Immortal Memory – Gordon Wallace on Address to Haggis – and Rev David Gray and his wife Rosemary doing Toast to Lassies and Reply. M C Aileen de Groot was excellent.
NEW MEMBERS:
None this month
NEWS OF MEMBERS:
We send our best wishes to Melvyn Deacon and ask all of you to remember Melvyn (and Joan) in your prayers. Margaret Tonner had a mini-stroke in December, but is recovering well (she and Lawrie will be at the Tattoo Evening). We also remember Fred McQuarrie and Tommy Cruikshanks and hope for better health for both of them. Doug Lockett and Dolly Watson are not doing well these days. Joe & Janie send their regards and say Happy New Year to all of us.
COUNTRY DANCING:
Still a bit too hot to “trip the light fantastic”
BIRTHDAYS
February March (up to 7th)
12 Tony Reis 7 Jeanette Moulder
22 Anne Harris
23 Dolly Watson/Jacinta Munro
25 Norma Ferguson
GENERAL:
Special Appeal. The C D we normally use for our favourite dance – Pinelands Promenade – has gone missing. Does anyone have a C D that could be a substitute? – tunes are “I love to go a wandering along a mountain track” and “It’s a long way to Tipperary” and “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile” etc. If you have, please phone Eddie Stevenson at 021.554.0302. We must find a C D that gives us the right “beat” for this very popular dance.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The “Greening” of the Environment”
At the local Supermarket, the young cashier suggested to the older lady customer that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The lady apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this “green thing” back in my earlier days”.The cashier responded, “That’s the problem for us nowadays. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations”.
She was right – our generation didn’t have the “green thing” in its day. We didn’t need it!!
Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV (or radio) in the house – not a TV in every room. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not styro foam plastic bubble wrap. We didn’t start up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn – we used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
We drank from a water fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.We replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
Back then, people took a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest fish & chips shop. She was right – we didn’t have the “green thing”.
But isn’t it sad the current generation of “smart-ass” young persons laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the “green thing” back then?!!
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
YOURS AYE
BRAVEHEART