wendy house

the sound of the subway phone

John Foxx sang underpass

Tiger: you were sat under your tree
Wendy: my tree?
Tiger: In Kingfisher field
Wendy: the copper beech?
Tiger: yes.  before I came to call for you, first I would come by the field and look under the tree because you were often there,  you did a lot of your exam revision under the tree
Wendy: yes, I remember now. The tree was very helpful.  A calm, wise tree.  A girl’s got to develop a strong bond with a well established tree during her formative years. I had completely forgotten it.
Tiger:  Oh, Honey,  you are SO fickle

This blog post was bought to you courtesy of a cellular connection infront of Salisbury cathedral on a sunny September saturday courtesy of the letter T,  the colour green, and the shade of a conker tree.  Another day, another tree. Some things don’t change, other things change frequently. Perhaps it’s time to find a tree in Reading…

In the 80’s I used to cut the shoulderpads out from new clothes.  This fashion-subversive act enabled me to avoid looking like a cast extra from Dynasty, Falconcrest, Dallas, or an aspiring  USA football team member.   

Apparantly the shoulder-pad look is returning.  There are rumours that The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) haberdashery department has recently sold-out of shoulder pads.  

I didn’t purchase them.

In my day,  before personal cell phones,  there would be one phone in any household, if you were Lucky.  All incoming calls came through this one, shared, phone.  In our house the parents answered the phone until, as teenagers, our friends started to call us (rather than their parents calling our parents). 

Shared phone

Skillfullly avoiding parental or sibling interview of people calling-in was tricky.  It is a skill today’s youngsters have not had to learn.    The role of phone sanitizers has also been reduced by the relative lack of phone sharing.  I can’t remember the last time I called a number then asked ‘Is [name] there?‘

Department S sang Is Vic there?

My plan for choosing ‘A’ level’s was to pick topics where I got the best results.  Unfortunately my selection strategy didn’t work.  My results were the same in all topics.  Straight B grades.  I needed another strategy for deciding what to study for ‘A’ levels.  Mum and dad had clear guidance

Parents:  ‘you can’t go wrong with maths and physics,  you can become an engineer,  you can learn how to solve practical problems and look after yourself and your home properly’

Wendy: but I really enjoy Art, English Literature and History

Parents: You can study Art, English literature and History in your spare time,  you’ll be motivated to do it.  You probably wont study maths and physics in your spare time

This made sense to me. 

I talked to my English teacher.  He was furious,  I had a talent that I should nurture,  he would never speak to me again if I chose Math’s over English.  I chose Maths, Physics and History.  He never spoke to me again.  Complying with emotional blackmail is not a personal strength.   History covered literature (Nietzsche) and art (Futurism, Cubism).  

Since that fateful decision I’ve played with writing, painting, sketching, and plagued you with my laxadaisical spelling and grammar.

 A fairly typical secondary school conversation about my brother in the late 1970’s:

Secondary School Peer (SSP):  you know your brother?

Wendy:  yes, I know both of them,  do you mean [name]?

SSP: No,  the other one,  what’s wrong with him?

Wendy:  What do you mean ‘what’s wrong with him’

SSP:  well,  you know he’s not normal…

Wendy:  how is he not ‘normal’?

SSP:  you know,  skipping down the corridors, laughing to himself and clapping his hands

Wendy:  Oh (signifying acknowledgement that my other brother does all these things), yes, he does that when he’s happy

SSP: he’s happy in the corridors at school?

Wendy: yes,  he’s always been able to entertain himself and find things to make him smile

SSP: He’s weird

He  is still a happy soul, able to entertain himself and skip down the street when he’s happy.  It’s as cute in a man in his 50’s as it was for a boy in his teens.  I just bounce,  I find that the less complex up-down movement reduces the likelihood that I will fall over. 

A deficit of skipping must be a very sad thing,  as indeed the beautiful, be-hatted, talented, lip-synch-averse, wiggly, much missed Billie MacKenzie recognised:

The Associates sang Skipping

During 1980, like any self-respecting UK punk, I would indulge myself in freeform meandering around deserted warehouses. 

In those days who didn’t?  

The right warehouses were quite good places to hide from the strange people that send messages describing our past in ways I don’t remember.  Gradually, deserted warehouses became harder to find as rampant film crews,  homeless people, musicians and punks sought their particular ambience.   

OMD sang Messages