Blog Archives - FordeFables

May 19th, 2018.

19/5/2018

Thought for today:
"I did a post half an hour ago before we set off for our European holiday, but lost it somewhere in cyber space. No time remaining to draft it again, but know why there are two posts if it decides to show its face again.

We are both excited about this trip, realising that it will be the last big holiday for us and that we will probably be back to days, weekends and a week at most in the future. Look forward to seeing new places but shall miss our allotment and will look forward to relaxing there until autumn when we return.

I shall be off Facebook until mid June at the earliest but thought that I couldn't leave you without a song to remember me by. About one monthg ago I came across the song 'Vincent' and said that I liked it so much that I would learn it and sing it to you. It's not really in my key but I humbly offer it to you.

Back towards the last week in June. Love and peace. Bill and Sheila xxx

https://youtu.be/4e8xf-JHPWQ

May 18th, 2018.

18/5/2018

Thought for today:
"Ann Frank once remarked that 'No one has ever become poor by giving.' How true this is. The nicest people I have ever met are invariably those folk who give as a natural way of life. They give the best of themselves by giving their consideration, their good will, their prayers and their time. Giving money is, of course, helpful to alleviating pain and distress, but amassing money at the expense of these other valuable gifts we have in our power to offer costs too much in the end.

In fact, the best lesson that our children receive from teachers at school today is that it is only through the act of giving that one can become the good people we were meant to be. Let us renew our 'giving' resolution and start by giving more of the most precious asset we possess; ourselves, our prayers, our time, and then our money, for as it says in the Bible, 'it is in giving that we receive'.

Having been happy in my development and always feeling loved has no doubt contributed immeasurably to my emotional stability as an adult. Being part of a large family and seeing my mother pay for this week's family provisions with next week's unearned wages of my father left me determined not to go into debt as an adult. With the intention of making life materially easier for my children, I made the common mistake of many parents by thinking the possession of things to be important to one's sense of well-being.

It took me many years and I was well into my forties before I truly realised the essence of feeling safe. Essentially, this insight led me to understand that the best things in life are never things! Having a good job was important to providing comfort and satisfaction in my life, but as Winston Churchill once remarked, 'We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.'

My late mother was one of the most generous people I ever knew and she would, and often did, willingly give people less needy than herself her last penny. One of her sayings was, 'It is the heart that gives; the fingers only let go.' In her own easy way, mum was simply telling me what Mahatma Gandhi meant when he expounded the belief that the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Over thirty years of involving myself in charitable work in the Kirklees Community, I was constantly amazed by the generosity of the materially poorest people who gave themselves and their talents as well as their monetary offerings at every opportunity. I would never have believed that there are so many angels in this world who walk around wearing the disguises of ordinary people doing extraordinary things for the benefit of others. I was recently informed that the Huddersfield Examiner has nominated me as a finalist in the Community Awards Ceremony that is being held when I am on holiday. My two sisters, Mary and Eileen have agreed to attend the presentation award dinner in my stead (they say they are doing it for their lovely brother but I strongly suspect that the top-notch free meal has something to do with their willing involvement to act as stand-ins).

Anyway, my point is this; even were I to win the community award, I could only accept it on behalf of hundreds of 'behind the scenes' individuals, without whom anything I ever achieved on behalf of the Kirklees Community, would not have happened. They are the real people who deserve recognition over and above myself. In the grand scale of things, I was simply the 'front-person'.

So, whatever your circumstances happen to be, never forget that no one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another. Also, none of us born into this world should ever feel the burden of responsibility of saving it by doing 'everything' Our purpose is simply to do 'something' good for the benefit of others!

Sometimes this involves, as a parent particularly, doing things today that will benefit our children tomorrow and in their future lives. In doing this, parents are merely planting trees of life, under whose shade they may never sit and watch their children grow into adults and senior citizens.

In the latter years of my life, I have derived great pleasure in learning to give away more of my possessions and myself while I still am able to draw breath to be able to do so. The best thing to do with the best things in life you possess is to give them away, as good things become better things in the passing of one to another." William Forde: May 18th, 2018.

May 19th, 2018.

18/5/2018

Thought for today:
"Today, Sheila and I embark on one month's holiday driving around Europe. Given my terminal blood cancer condition, along with the fact that I am currently experiencing my longest period of stability since I first contracted my illness five years ago, we thought that now was the best time to 'go for it.' My illness prevents me flying now so driving it must be, or to be more precise in my case, being driven by my lovely wife, Sheila.

We are both really looking forward to this long break as it was preceeded by packing and preparing to store every stick of furniture in our house for two months between mid May and July while our house is rewired, replastered, repainted, partly recarpeted, and with the lounge refloored. When we return from our holiday jaunt, we will stay in next door's holiday cottage for two weeks before moving back into our own house.

We have recently done a great deal of work on our allotment which is now ready for relaxing in as much as working on, and I hope to get some quality time in it relaxing after our European break until the cooler days of autumn arrives. It is perhaps somewhat ironic that as ardent 'Bexiteers' who will be glad when we leave Europe, we wish to be at the heart of it for the next month! Just in case any 'Remainers' on the continent read my daily posts and wish to hamper and delay our journey I am also taking my Irish passport with me as well as my British one, so that I can keep a foot in both camps.

From today, I will be absent from all Facebook content until the end of June. I thank you all so much for your support and prayers during the past years. They really have been appreciated by Sheila and myself and I hope that your holiday period, wherever it is spent , is happily spent.

I am signing off Facebook over the next seven weeks as I mean to give every minute of mine to my lovely wife who has been my mainstay ever since we met and married. Sheila will post some holiday snaps on her Timeline. Love, peace and God bless you all until the beginning of July. As a going away present, I include below my latest rendition. I promised that I would learn the song 'Vincent' and eventually sing it to you. Bill and Sheila xxx" William Forde: May 19th, 2018.
https://youtu.be/4e8xf-JHPWQ

May 17th, 2018.

17/5/2018

Thought for today:
"It is sad to think that one side of the world has so much and the other half so little and yet, while this state of affairs is obviously unjust, the poorer part of the world has developed a capacity to find a strength of endurance that the western world will never know. Many find their smile in the morning sun and grow without resentment to know contentment of lot. They live at a more leisurely and carefree pace of life and discover solace in a simplicity of purpose that most westerners can only dream of. I dedicate this brief poem to them:

'Lost in Lillies' : Copyright William Forde: May, 2018.

"To be lost in lillies when the sun shines sweet.
Where angels smile and life's complete.
Where carefree lives are lived unstressed.
Where less is more and more is less."

William Forde: May 17th, 2018

May 16th,2018.

16/5/2018

Thought for today:
"They do say that the happiest days of our life is when we are young and carefree. My dear late mother often said, 'Billy, if you carry your childhood with you and don't throw it away, you will never grow old'. There is no sweeter innocence than being unaware of world tragedy, the cruelty and the evil that mankind is capable of doing. Far, far better to stay young for as long as possible and to laugh at the world around you at every opportunity. Children have this beautiful capacity be able to spot the humour in most things, especially those things that adults take most seriously.

In my mind, I have always considered childhood as being the happiest of life's seasons. It is an enchanted place; a garden of young senses where colours are brighter, flowers more fragrant, the morning air softer and where anything and everything is possible. For when the moon ceases to be made of green cheese and cows can no longer jump over it, when the secret of Santa's identity is finally exposed and Lapland is no longer shown on the world's map, when lollipops stop growing on trees and The Mad Hatter's Tea Party will not come round again; then all childhood magic is finally crushed beneath the cruel weight of adult reasoning.

Whereas adults measure time in days, hours, minutes and seconds, children measure its passing in sights, sounds, smells and touch, before the dark hour of reason dawns. It is the saddest of time when one's childhood is lost, never again to be recaptured in all its glory until the senility of old age creeps back into the mind reborn.

Childhood shows the man and woman that follows, just as morning shows the day to come. The restriction placed upon a child's imagination by its parents is the first precious coin that adulthood steals from the child's purse. When I was a child, I always thought that once I grew up I could do anything I wanted like stay up all night or eat ice cream and lick my fingers clean without parental reprimand. Only increased age told me that this childhood dream was false and that it was just another childhood promise that was never kept.

So be not in a hurry to have your child grow up. Leave them for as long as necessary in their happy and unadulterated states of being until they are ready to abandon their childhood years. Allow their natural growth to occur without forcing the issue and they shall emerge as happy adults who shall forever remain capable of still deriving great pleasure from jumping in puddles for the sheer hell of it. Always remember that a graceful and honourable old age is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that still contains the colours of childhood immortality." William Forde: May 16th, 2018.

May 15th, 2018.

15/5/2018

Thought for today:
"'There there, Tiddles. Mummy understands. Did the nasty Tom frighten you and ruin your little walk in the allotment. Never mind, Tiddles, soon........soon your claws will grow long and sharp and your mind will not think twice about tolerating male chauvinism. No Tom will ever frighten you again after mummy has taught you how to attract them close enough to you to enable you to scratch their eyes out and to draw first blood before they know what hit them.'

When I was growing up in West Yorkshire on a new council estate called Windybank Estate, lads would fight each other every day of the week as a matter of course, and the size of one's opponent was not always of primary concern. The first Yorkshire code one learned was, 'To do unto them before they did it to you!'

I always remember my dad telling me once when I came home from school with a bust nose after a bigger and older boy had given me one just to show me that he could. Dad said, 'Smaller fighters should always get the advantage. In any fight, son, you have more chance of winning if you get in the first blow!'

Given that dad's favourite film star was John Wayne (The Duke), this specific advice ran contrary to every John Wayne and cowboy code of fairness I'd ever heard of. There was none of this cowboy 'fairness' code of the 'good person' waiting for his opponent to make a draw for his gun from the holster before you drew yours. Instead of the John Wayne code of behaviour being advocated, dad was advising me to follow the one set by Jack Palance, who always played the role of the fast-baddie gunslinger: 'Before you strike son, always position the sun behind you, then, when he's blinded by the sun, hit him in the 'you know where' first when he can't see it coming, Billy!'

I strongly suspect that is why females rarely watched cowboy films when they were busy establishing their survival rules in the 1950s. They had no fist fights in my day, and their prime aim whenever they became physical with another girl, was to pull her opponent's hair out by the roots, which I suppose was a native Indian's way of scalping their foes!'"

When I worked as a Probation Officer in Huddersfield for nearly twenty years, one of my colleagues was an officer called David. David came from a traditional Yorkshire background and was always liberal with both his language and the display of the tough tyke values he'd been raised with. He did not suffer fools gladly and in many ways, he still fought the class war between the bosses and the men. He held no trust for his Senior Probation Management and generally despised and mistrusted all authority figures.

When he and I first joined the Probation Service in 1970, senior management was still made up from the middle-class graduate, and without thirty years' impeccable service behind one and a fair wind, few working-class men and women advanced to senior grade. This biased situation simply strengthened David's long-held beliefs that if someone started at the bottom of the social pile that those on top of it would ensure that they stayed in their rightful place.

There was one area, however, where David knew that Probation Officers from the lower social strata of society had the upper hand over their seniors. He used to advise, 'Whenever you are in head-to-head combat, Bill, with the bosses, never forget the golden rule of working-class survival. You have one distinct advantage over them that their breeding of being brought up to 'play a straight bat' deprived them of and which your lowly upbringing informed you. Stuff this playing by their rules. Get in the first blow; put them down and kick them in the goolies and they'll stay down. Do unto them what they will never do unto you and they'll not get up to attack you again!'

I guess that one of David's film heroes, when he was a young boy, was not John Wayne but instead, Jack Palance!

'So you see, Tiddles, always learn to paw before developing the art of purring!' ": William Forde: May 15th, 2018.

May 14th, 2018.

14/5/2018

Thought for today:
"When one is born the eldest of seven children and family poverty results in a table setting and food enough for no more than five children, one soon learns one of three important survival rules; to either push oneself forward in life and defend one's corner, to learn to do without whenever necessary, or perhaps the most important survival rule of all, to learn to cooperate and share; for it is a well-established truth that if the raging river holds space for only six swimmers to swim side-by-side and hold hands and seven siblings dive in, then one is sure to drown!

Unfortunately, however, loving families may be, sibling rivalry is rife where survival is concerned. It is probably to do with immaturity in its early stages and many psychologists will tell us that it is only natural to try to gain the approval of one or other parent over and above the privileges granted to your brothers and sisters. While children from a large family would shy away from being cast in the role of 'teacher's pet' in the classroom, all would willingly welcome being mum or dad's favourite in the home if the opportunity arose.

Being born the oldest of seven children, I am only too well aware that in relation to my younger siblings, I experienced a privileged position in both my parent's eyes. It is true that expectations were greater than those imposed on my younger brothers and sisters, but so were the rewards. With greater responsibility being given to me to always look after the safety and welfare of my younger siblings came a greater degree of personal freedom that none of the younger six ever knew.

All psychologists know that whether one is an only child or the oldest, youngest or middle child in a large family makes a big difference to the quality of one's childhood years and even during adult years that follow. Although I am the oldest of seven siblings, my memories of growing up are so different from my youngest four siblings but are infinitely closer to my next two sisters down.

For example, whereas I am aware that most of my siblings will respect my view, my sisters Mary and Eileen have been granted different family roles today. Since the death of my mother many years ago, my sister Mary (second in sibling hierarchy), has more or less adopted the role of 'mother of the family'; and my sister Eileen (the next in descending age order), who is the sibling who says little and takes everything it is considered the sensible one to approach by all her siblings for giving the most objective of views. In descending order, brothers Patrick, Peter and Michael, having been closest to each other during their years of growing up, still retain that closeness, and frequently socialise with each other today more than with myself and sisters Mary and Eileen. Sister Susan, who was the baby of the family, probably had the least happiest of upbringings of the seven of us. Whereas I came along and experienced the happiest years of my parent's marriage, sister Susan probably experienced their most difficult years. In many ways, we were not only born in different times but into different families.

I do believe, however, that being brought up at different times in the hierarchical family structure gave each of us different family experiences that moulded us into the characters we are today.

That said, family is everything to me; always has been and always will be. They have been my emotional anchor throughout my life and my greatest support, along with my wife Sheila, and my five children, especially since I contracted a blood cancer five years ago. To me, along with so many others out there, family is everything! " William Forde: May 14th, 2018.

May 13th, 2018.

13/5/2018

Thought for today:
"Two years ago, I woke up to hear heavy artillery being moved outside and when myself and Lady popped outdoors to investigate, we saw tanks on our pavement and our neighbours, Andrea and Brian Leathley were refreshing hungry World War troops with pots of tea. We were celebrating the 1940's Weekend in Haworth; an event that is certainly worth attending by locals and visiting by all outsiders who desire to soak up the atmosphere of years gone by. This year's 1940's weekend begins next Friday and should be coming into its own next Saturday when everything worthy of happening is happening.

Come dressed for the occasion though. In recent years I have walked out dressed as an English gentleman with a Lady on his arm (not a bad disguise to carry off by any Irish man if you ask me). And if you are a bit peckish as you walk up Main Street, hold your hunger pangs until you approach West Lane, where Andrea will provide you with the best hotdogs and beef burgers you'll taste within Yorkshire (All funds raised go to charity).

This year's 1940's weekend sees everything happening. Prince Harry and his bride will marry, Manchester United and Chelsea play for the FA Cup, and West Lane Baptist Church in Haworth is having its first gay marriage. Also, Sheila and I will be heading off for our European holiday.

As a history buff the whole of my life, and being born in 1942, I have always held an interest for 'World War Two' and am proud to have written two books about this period and the part played by England and Great Britain in it. Both of my previous book publications about the 'Second World War' years are suitable to be read by any reader between 10 and 100. All profits from their sales go to charity in perpetuity.

'Robin and the Rubicelle Fusiliers' tells about the life of a boy living through the Blitz with a pregnant mother and a father on the battlefields. He then becomes an evacuee and is sent to live with his granddad in the countryside, who is a veteran of the 'First World War'. A good story soaked in the atmosphere of the times and which the Forces Sweetheart, Vera Lynn praised when she read to a school of children during the 1990s.

'Butterworth's Brigade' is for the more mature reader of teenage years upwards. It deals with all the country's 1990's unruly pupils who refuse to be taught in a traditional school setting. The rebel pupils finish up learning, ostensibly in a private school, which turns out to be a glorified boot camp that is run by a madcap Brigadier. Brigadier Butterworth was never a serving soldier in the 'Second World War' but relives the war every day of his life. He is determined to instil discipline into his young squad of soldiers and to teach them the values of the 1940s and give them a taste of what it was like to have lived through the 'Second World War'.

The first publication of 'Butterworth's Brigade' was a limited 500 edition that was paid for by a soldier of the 'Second World War' who later became a head teacher in a Leeds School. At the time of his retirement, the Government was preventing all schools placing anything about the 'Second World War' on their curriculum, stating it might glorify war. The head teacher was so incensed that he asked me to write a book about the 'Second World War' and he used a substantial part of his retirement money to fund a publication and gave free copies to all his former school pupils. Both he and I agreed that if someone was brave enough to fight for this country and die for it during the 'Second World War', then the least we owed them was 'not to forget' what they sacrificed on our behalf. We believed strongly that the children of today had a right to know what was sacrificed by these brave men and women for the people that followed! Both of these books are available in e-book format from www.smashwords, Amazon and Kindle, and can also be obtained in hard copy from www.lulu.com and www.amazon.com, along with many other book on-line outlets.

As I will not be here next week to join in the 1940's celebrations, I include below my own humble rendition of one of my dear friend's songs, the Forces' Sweetheart, Vera Lynn. Vera was my mother's favourite singer and has become a good and dear friend to me over the past twenty-five years, helping me on numerous occasions with my charitable works and my raising awareness campaigns. Whenever I heard this song as I was growing up, I recall asking who this 'Jimmy' was that Vera sang about. My mother replied, 'Jimmy is you, Billy and every other boy and girl in England.'" William Forde: May 13th, 2018.
https://youtu.be/rEgowZ_LF1k

May 11th, 2018.

11/5/2018

Thought for today:
"I am neither North, South, East or West but feel at home in all tepees. No boundaries exist in my breast; no cultural walls separate my mind from the thoughts that concern you and no hurt that ever touches you can leave me unmoved by your suffering. You are my earth neighbour and my heavenly companion and it is my fervent wish that we continue to walk side-by-side through this troubled world as brothers and sisters in Christ and humanity.

I remember being asked by one of my children when they were young if someone who lived at the bottom of our road where we lived, lived close enough to us to be our neighbour or was it only Jenny and her husband,Terry who lived next door? I have often pondered such a question and found my own conclusion from some written works many years ago.

When we ask, 'But who is my neighbour? Is it the person who lives in the house next door or the one three doors along; or the next street, the adjacent town, the bordering county or even across the sea in another country or on another continent? How will I know?'

My reply today is, if you can see their sadness and pain writ large across their face or know their abject poverty that is circumscribed by their non-access to the wealth and privileges you and I enjoy, if you can sense their soul of muted expectation or feel their emotional burden buckle and strain beneath the worrying load they carry, then call them neighbour, for they truly are!'" William Forde: May 11th, 2018.

May 10th, 2018.

10/5/2018

Thought for today:
"Summer is like seasonal spring unfolding in fullest bloom. It is a time when butterflies invade the stomach and the air is filled with romantic rebellion and foolish notion of breaking rules that border the restraint of conventional behaviour. Summer days for young lovers are days of daring; days when we stand apart from our elders and follow our first instinct, however wrong and pleasant that may prove to be. In every girl's life, there is a young man and a summer where it started. From within every boy's maturity into manhood, there is a young woman and a summer that never ends.

I have always felt that spring carries with it a package of breathing nature that only a summer can unwrap and the romantic arms of lovers fully embrace. The warm weather when walking down a country lane with a beautiful partner by one's side opens the woman's heart to all possibilities and closes the man's mind to none.

Imagine what it would be like to love another forever and be loved in equal measure; imagine being born in a springtime of nubile stirring, before going on to live in a romantic world of summer haze filled with hope and remain forever young. If only I could make this moment last and make summer stretch until I make him/her mine for eternity? If only I could physically and mentally capture him/her, I could win their heart and be their sole companion and soul-mate in this life and the next? For such a prize, who wouldn't gamble all for the opening bid of a springtime kiss among a swarm of butterflies, an open mind and physical abandonment to an invasion of lasting love?" William Forde: May 10th, 2018.

May 9th, 2018.

9/5/2018

Thought for today:
"As we get older, we often fail too see the present for what it is instead of that we would wish it to be. Such aged disillusionment is common, especially if we are beset with ill-health or experience too much loneliness and absence of meaningful purpose and satisfactory daily contact.

In such circumstances, many elderly people live from day to day and allow any possible happier future pass them by as they walk the streets with their head pointed downwards to match their prevailing mood.

There have been many an occasion when I have been out somewhere and have seen a familiar face from my past that I could not put a name to. I often muse as I ask myself the nature of the joint experience we may have shared. Was she an old girlfriend I once dated in my teenage years or perhaps a young woman I once danced with at the Town Hall, walked home with, kissed and cuddled or even related to more intimately?

I wonder how many old people with heads down as they walk the street, pass old flames that once lit up a lonely night in their youth and made the stars in the heavens appear brighter then they might otherwise have been. Often it is appropriate to our circumstances to let the past walk by without recognition, and on other times, who knows where a, 'Hello there! Is it...is it Mary from...?' might lead you.

As one gets older we must beware of our recall playing tricks on us. I once remember seeing this woman in a pub when I was aged around 40 years after I'd decided to have a drink in a place that I frequently patronised as a young man. The woman's face who caught my attention looked so familiar that I was convinced it was a face from my past. For half an hour I racked my memory cells but couldn't recall. Iritated by my failure to put a name to the face, I approached the woman in question and asked. As it transpired after a brief question and answer session, I did not know the woman in question, but I did accurately recognise the face as having been a face from my past. She turned out to be a child to a woman I once dated and danced with as a teenager growing up on Windybank Estate. As I left the pub that night, I smiled wryly to myself and was so pleased that the extent of my physical contact with the woman's mother had been confined to a few harmless dates and a number of dances only.

I often wondered afterwards which road my life would have taken me on had it not been so innocent an outcome, and the age of the woman's daughter had been too close to my past for comfort?": William Forde: May 9th, 2018.

https://youtu.be/49Xp4Kthr2A

May 8th, 2018.

8/5/2018

Thought for today:
"Most of us will go through our lives never truly appreciating how much we have been carried during our journey; how much we have travelled on the backs of others before reaching our final destination. Our parents, family, teachers, employers, neighbours and friends have each, at some stage of our life, been there to help and support us when our need has been greatest and our awareness or lack of knowledge and experience has often been found wanting.

Some of the help we have received will have been 'up front' and we will, therefore, be aware of having received it. However, there will be far more support and help we have received 'in the background' and benefited from on our path of life that we may never think about or know of.

I know from my own experience over the past five years when I have been at death's door a number of times with my terminal illness and its associated medical complications, just how important the 'background' silent help of my God and the constant prayers of my family and friends has proved in pulling me through; a few times against the medical odds. This is the crucial help we all receive (often unknowingly); the help, which like the best of all charitable acts, has no need to shout out its presence in order to effectively make a huge difference and do its work.

There is also the long-term help you may receive, but you deeply resent at the time of getting it; the unwanted truth or some advice you know to be correct but are yet unable to emotionally accept. For example, who helps you the most; the friend who gives or loans you some money to temporarily ease your own irresponsible mounting of debt, or the friend who hears someone speaking badly of you and defends you in your absence? The mother who chastises you and pulls you over the coals when you do wrong, but cuddles you when you do good, or the mother who believes you can do no wrong and defends your actions to all others, whatever you do? Would you prefer a friend who is prepared to tell you the truth even if it hurts you to hear it or one who pretends, praises and agrees with you, in order to spare your fragile feelings and preserve your good will?

The travelling of life's road is never an easy journey and our passage is often made much easier by the good intentions and actions of others; often in the background. I like to call this contribution by others 'the silent support that lives on the gentle side of courage and inhabits the right side of goodness'. " William Forde: May 8th, 2018.

May 6th, 2018.

6/5/2018

Thought for today:
"I was a war baby who was born in 1942, but my earliest memories of my childhood years was from the end of the war onwards. Even though I was a young boy aged 6 or 7 years, I was aware of the difference in mood that pervaded the country after the 'Second World War' had been brought to an end.

Whatever station and class in life one were born into, everyone, particularly the working classes started to look forward again to a more peaceful and prosperous land and a return to more settled family ways and traditions. Families returned to their Sunday walks after the morning church service and visits to the local park to listen to the brass bands resumed. Fresh air was consumed in abundance as most people walked everywhere within a good half-hour stretch of the legs, and children played out from morning until bedtime at weekends. All around the land, one could sense a newborn freedom that promised advancement for all, providing one was prepared to offer a good day's labour for a fair day's pay.

Nowhere exemplified this post-war freedom better than the change in colours that surrounded one's daily life. Out went the drab colours and boring patterns that painted our houses and partitioned walls. Young women no longer had to crayon the lines up the back of their legs anymore to disguise the fact that they had no nylon stockings to wear. Whereas previously, the only women who wore proper nylons (often provided as payment for services rendered by the Yanks based on British soil), were those who were considered 'improper' by those English beauties who refused to sell out. The fashion and colours in women's clothes and dresses and undergarments underwent a revolutionary transformation. Out went tightly clinging twin-suits and in came free-flowing dresses in all the colours of the rainbow, patterned in wild polka dots peppering the contours of the attractive feminine bodies they wrapped around.

There was a general abandonment of the more 'stuffy' by the younger generation in favour of all manner of new thinking and more fashionable ways that often set them at odds with their elders as 'the generation gap' came into being and started to widen with the passing of each year. Instead of wanting to be like their mum and dad as they grew through their middle-to-late teenage years, young men and women were determined to be different and look different from their parents.

Ever since childhood, I have been different to many other youngsters of my own age in the way that I think and the things that I sometimes think about. Having been separated from my peer group for a number of years because of a serious accident I incurred at age 11-12 years that kept me immobile for three years, I was always more comfortable in the company of adults much older than myself. Also, I knew that I formulated my communication from visual images more than concrete ideas and intentions. In short; images and pictures in my mind controlled all my spoken words, my written words, and even my abstract thoughts. Later I.Q. tests revealed my 'thinking' to be significantly different to other children of my own age.

Today, I am still controlled by thoughts, words and deed by the pictures and images I have in my head. That is one of the main reasons that I love all manner of paintings by accomplished artists, and have so many in my home to keep me mentally stimulated.

The earliest images I can recall and still retain pertaining to those immediate post-war years in Yorkshire are the two I have illustrated in my post. The sailor kissing a strange woman in the street after the news became public that the 'Second World War' had ended shows the immediate pleasurable releases of the masses that represented a happiness that could not be contained and must be shared. The second image that has always stayed with me is of the two attractive young women on the seafront, sitting on the railings merrily chatting away in the sun, unable to contain their smiles or an unexpected gust of wind providing any male onlooker with an eyeful they probably found too hard to ignore.

I was always a romantic even since my childhood years and this character trait has never left me and probably, never will. I have no doubt whatsoever that other males receive the same images as I do, and are undoubtedly sensually stirred by such pleasurable sights. Whereas they may not openly express such imagery and hidden thoughts, it is my tendency to state precisely what I see in the spoken and written word that leads me towards being an author and a lover of all visual art form. " William Forde: May 6th, 2018

May 5th, 2018.

5/5/2018

Thought for today:
"There is no better sight that is capable of simple adoration on a warm summer's day than that of a waterfall rippling through the rocks and vale or of a gentle stream meandering through woodlands.

One of the most fearful of deaths imaginable would be to die by drowning, but if water was ever the cause to end this life of mine, then my death would be all the sweeter if I could become part of this gentle flow and continue to forever remain a nourishing source of Nature's path when my earth life is over.

No greater love of Nature can any man have than to want to reside within it forevermore and to be a part of the love it brings to so many people at no more cost than a summer stroll and the boosting tonic of inhaling fresh air filled with the fragrance of country hedgerows and woodland meadows. I once recall reading the words (the source of which I cannot remember), 'The greatest inroad to discovering eternal happiness is to love Nature, for Nature is God and to love Nature is to love God'. " William Forde: May 5th, 2018.

May 4th, 2018.

4/5/2018

Thought for today:
"There is but one person, place and time where the the fullest flush of beautiful and innocent sensuousness can be found, but once the opportunity to experience has been allowed to slip by, so is lost the moment of 'best love' never known. To revisit this once precious vault in later life is merely to find that the treasure therein has been taken by another and that the innocent prize of love's first passion has been forever lost to one moment of uncertainty on virgin ground.

There is one person, one place, and one time that can fill a heart and mind with so much loving and desire that makes one's bones ache with wishes to be broken in a moment of rapturous embrace. When passion suffocates all reason of restraint, the entwined bodies are forever forged and fused within one sculpted shape, shared by two twin souls of joint purpose and lifelong pleasure, then heaven is found.

There is but one experience above all others and that is love; first love, true love, physical love, spiritual love and everlasting love!" William Forde: May 4th, 2018.

May 3rd, 2018.

3/5/2018

Thought for today:
"What nicer image to focus on at the beginning of one's year than the magnificence of the spring to follow. It matters not how many times I gaze at the beautiful crown of a tree in a field of green, my mind is instantly transported back to my emerald homeland where peace of mind can be purchased by a breath of fresh air and a short walk in the countryside. There is nothing as refreshing and re-invigorating as a stroll in nature's garden in the warm, spring sun to raise one's hopes of a good day to come and a better day to follow.

To see the sheep sleepily graze and the new lambs prance and rejoice in happy bleat is music to the ears of the homesick visitor to their native land. Imagine how many creatures have grazed this land since the tree first arrived in sapling form to take up centre stage within its field of green. I wonder how many walkers have trod its grass from the road to hillside far beyond or how many lovers have kissed and cuddled at the base of its trunk or have christened it with the sacrament of new life, not yet born? Perhaps, in centuries gone by, plots have been hatched beneath its branches, acts of great cruelty perpetrated, bodies secretly buried in its nutrient-rich soil or solemn wedding vows of faithfulness temporarily abandoned to lustful temptation and the breaking of innocent hearts? Children may have told each other secrets that are not for adult ears or located the precise spot where Roman treasure lies waiting to be unearthed.

To some, this splendid place will represent no more than a field with a large tree at its centre; to others, it will always be remembered as a field of dreams where once upon a time everything and anything seemed possible to have and to hold and was there for the mere wishing." William Forde: May 3rd, 2018.

May 2nd, 2018.

2/5/2018

" Today is a very busy day for me and Sheila. We have a 9.00 am start at the hospital for me to have another three back teeth and roots taken out. Then to attend the funeral of a mutual friend before returning to Airedale Hospital to see my cancer specialist for my three-month MOT this afternoon. She will supposedly tell me if my old body is up to a month's holiday being motored around Europe, but whatever she says, I've already made up my mind that I'm going!

Four and a half years ago when I was told that I had a blood cancer that was terminal, I eventually changed my overall disposition to 'living for today.' And while I don't deceive myself that my cancer will inevitably return with a vengeance at some future date, I have, over the past nine months witnessed my most settled period during the past five years. During this more stable period of my condition, I have witnessed my disposition change again. Whilst I still 'live for today', I also find myself planning my life for the next day, week, month and even year ahead with one project or another.

The past two months have seen Sheila and I transform our allotment, where hopefully many sunny days will still emerge this year to relax, read and listen to music as we watch the vegetables and the roses grow. We have a super holiday to look forward to in mid-May and hopefully a fully renovated house to return to in mid-June. I have already written my next romantic novel (My best yet I think), which will be published by August. And when my mouth swelling and sore gums improve, I will get back to a bit of singing practice in the autumn.

I am determined that when the time arrives for me to finally leave my home and life with my beautiful wife, Sheila, that I will not go kicking and screaming but 'on a high', grateful for the full and blessed life I have had, and with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

Life is too damn short to take too seriously. We should all kick a few cans before we kick our own." William Forde May 2nd, 2018.

May 1st, 2018.

1/5/2018

Thought for today:
"I have often heard it said that if women were solely responsible for running the country's economy, we wouldn't be in the financial mess that we currently find ourselves. I couldn't disagree more!

Sheila and I recently went shopping. I was reminded of the monetary equation I learned so long ago from an old man filled with worldly wisdom. He said, 'A man will pay £1 for a £2 item that he wants, whereas a woman will pay £2 for a £1 item she doesn't!'": William Forde: May 1st, 2018.