Garden Find
Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:20 pm
Because of this: Garden Find, we have the following...
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Eric Whitemore hated Boxing Day, but not for any reason you'd think about that would be associated with the holiday.
Boxing Day, for the Whitemore family, meant going up to Birmingham on the Chiltern. And then, a long drive up the Birmingham Road to his grandmother's house.
And then, having to deal with her in her dotage. And, of course, the rest of his family.
He'd taken solace on occasion that his one uncle, Horace, would be there to allow him to talk some shop. He was an old assembly-line worker, like his dad before him at Solihull. They shared stories about how working for AHI UK was similar to life on the lines at JLR. Da' had included him in on the "big boy" talk about cars and such as he was growing up, and he loved it.
It definitely beat having to hear the rantings from Gran about the Tories.
The train pulled in to Kidderminster – thankfully, they were running a morning train on the line, despite the holiday – and Eric stepped off the pacer, scanning the station platform. Amid the mass of people exiting the train was a familiar face: his cousin Selene.
"Oi, Eric, over here!" she called, and he ambled over to her after adjusting his shoulder bag and positioning his case behind him. Hugs and greetings were exchanged, and the two went off to the car park where her Discovery sat.
"Gran's gettin' the goose ready, even as we speak," she said as they drove off towards Birmingham. Selene gave him the rundown on the latest with her job – working in ticket sales for West Brom Albion. "Sitting in relegation land, sadly. Seen too many draws as of late. Still hopeful they'll pull it out."
"Part of the job, innit?" Eric joked.
"Have to; selling tickets to a relegated team isn't easy, even for diehards." The two discussed the weather – rainy, as usual, but it had let up as of late – until the turnoff for their gran's home came up.
"How she still chooses to live here is beyond me," Eric commented as the Discovery wound its way across the rutted drive that led through the countryside outside of Kidderminster.
"Uncle Horace has taken over as a bit of a caretaker, I'm told," she replied as the Land Rover slogged through the semi-frozen mud. "Since grandad passed, he's looked after gran, and the estate. Personally, 'tween your da and me mum, I think she picked the right one to do it."
"I wouldn't argue that," he said as the home came into sight. "Heh, now I remember why that drive seemed so familiar," he mentioned to himself.
"What drive?" Selene asked as she navigated the Rover through the hedges into the estate.
"Oh, happened to go pick up a 130 from a little place up in Campbeltown," he remarked offhandedly.
"Ah, something for ye masters back in the states, eh?"
"Yeh. Little place called High Park Farms. Some old git lives up there, wantin' to get rid of his old Rover."
She pulled the car next to others that were parked by the home. It wasn't until they both had disembarked that it finally hit her what he'd said.
"Wait a minute, High Park Farms?" He just smiled in reply. "You mean Macca's place?" He pulled out his case from the back seat as she came around to his side. "You met Paul McCartney???"
"All in a day's work for Alexander Harvesters," he said with a smile. "Tell you about it later."
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Eric Whitemore hated Boxing Day, but not for any reason you'd think about that would be associated with the holiday.
Boxing Day, for the Whitemore family, meant going up to Birmingham on the Chiltern. And then, a long drive up the Birmingham Road to his grandmother's house.
And then, having to deal with her in her dotage. And, of course, the rest of his family.
He'd taken solace on occasion that his one uncle, Horace, would be there to allow him to talk some shop. He was an old assembly-line worker, like his dad before him at Solihull. They shared stories about how working for AHI UK was similar to life on the lines at JLR. Da' had included him in on the "big boy" talk about cars and such as he was growing up, and he loved it.
It definitely beat having to hear the rantings from Gran about the Tories.
The train pulled in to Kidderminster – thankfully, they were running a morning train on the line, despite the holiday – and Eric stepped off the pacer, scanning the station platform. Amid the mass of people exiting the train was a familiar face: his cousin Selene.
"Oi, Eric, over here!" she called, and he ambled over to her after adjusting his shoulder bag and positioning his case behind him. Hugs and greetings were exchanged, and the two went off to the car park where her Discovery sat.
"Gran's gettin' the goose ready, even as we speak," she said as they drove off towards Birmingham. Selene gave him the rundown on the latest with her job – working in ticket sales for West Brom Albion. "Sitting in relegation land, sadly. Seen too many draws as of late. Still hopeful they'll pull it out."
"Part of the job, innit?" Eric joked.
"Have to; selling tickets to a relegated team isn't easy, even for diehards." The two discussed the weather – rainy, as usual, but it had let up as of late – until the turnoff for their gran's home came up.
"How she still chooses to live here is beyond me," Eric commented as the Discovery wound its way across the rutted drive that led through the countryside outside of Kidderminster.
"Uncle Horace has taken over as a bit of a caretaker, I'm told," she replied as the Land Rover slogged through the semi-frozen mud. "Since grandad passed, he's looked after gran, and the estate. Personally, 'tween your da and me mum, I think she picked the right one to do it."
"I wouldn't argue that," he said as the home came into sight. "Heh, now I remember why that drive seemed so familiar," he mentioned to himself.
"What drive?" Selene asked as she navigated the Rover through the hedges into the estate.
"Oh, happened to go pick up a 130 from a little place up in Campbeltown," he remarked offhandedly.
"Ah, something for ye masters back in the states, eh?"
"Yeh. Little place called High Park Farms. Some old git lives up there, wantin' to get rid of his old Rover."
She pulled the car next to others that were parked by the home. It wasn't until they both had disembarked that it finally hit her what he'd said.
"Wait a minute, High Park Farms?" He just smiled in reply. "You mean Macca's place?" He pulled out his case from the back seat as she came around to his side. "You met Paul McCartney???"
"All in a day's work for Alexander Harvesters," he said with a smile. "Tell you about it later."