tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post5632397510363479333..comments2023-05-24T23:33:57.516+10:00Comments on My Unwelcome Stranger: Religion in post-war Calliope 1Denis Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-47306446192135684882012-11-02T09:07:54.266+11:002012-11-02T09:07:54.266+11:00I'm sure your just deserts await you, Mr Lake,...I'm sure your just deserts await you, Mr Lake, and not in the form of Faith Beasley either. That or <i>karma</i>, which will send you back as a worm.<br /><br />Evil, evil. ☺ But well tolled [dare I say?] By the way, your wife would make mincemeat of the lovely Faith B.Denis Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-18747597989269893352012-11-02T07:49:35.116+11:002012-11-02T07:49:35.116+11:00I liked that, Denis. How well you describe the soc...I liked that, Denis. How well you describe the social and religious attitudes of the time, and how it conjures up for me an English village childhood.<br /><br />Father a Methodist, mother Church of England, although neither of them ever attended a service. But I - for my sins - was sent to church on Sunday mornings and to chapel on Sunday afternoons. Then (with most of my male peers) I enthusiastically and voluntarily attended bell-ringing on Sunday evenings. This latter was less religious dedication than for the sheer joy of watching the lovely Faith Beasley's short skirt ride up and down with the slow movement of the bell rope. <br /><br />My less-than-brilliant career in the church was, at that time, swinging wildly from ultimate sin to repentance and conversion. From creeping into the place of worship early, to release a bag of snails in the pulpit - much to the vicar's discomfort and my private delight, to a 'saved repentant, destined to become a missionary bravely saving the souls of the heathen in far-off places.<br /><br />This early brush (of doubtful virtue) with God and the godly, however, did not carry through into my adult life.<br /> <br />Sister-baiting, though, was a different story. My first live game trap (a pit carefully covered with twigs and grass), enticingly baited with a boiled sweet, snared my first victim. This resulted in a tearful three-year-old sister, a spanked and tearful (but happy and unrepentant) older brother, and the foreshadowing of many happy years in colonial Africa. <br /><br />Not, I am pleased to report, as a missionary saving benighted souls but as a fellow savage, living life as it came - without fear of divine punishment or heavenly reward.<br />Bob Lakenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-57656404103912417202012-11-02T00:39:30.109+11:002012-11-02T00:39:30.109+11:00It was all Bimbo Brown's fault. Now you have n...It was all Bimbo Brown's fault. Now you have no choice but to read this.... one of my earliest postings. Your penance for your first comment.<br /><br /><a href="http://deniswright.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/bimbo-blitz-and-tobacco-part-1.html" rel="nofollow">Bimbo, the Blitz and Tobacco</a><br />Denis Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-44448144239208711772012-11-01T20:39:36.606+11:002012-11-01T20:39:36.606+11:00PS were you really trying out smoking at eight yea...PS were you really trying out smoking at eight years old? What a devilzmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-38196051947890175312012-11-01T20:39:00.051+11:002012-11-01T20:39:00.051+11:00Until I read this, I'd always resented my pare...Until I read this, I'd always resented my parents for raising us as lackadaisical Church of England but reading about prayers on hard floors and being stuck in a caste makes me realise that the Church of England, with its wooly forgivingness and tolerance is, indeed, the one true faithzmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.com