To Wallington...

... with Mother, to a concert organised by the Beddington, Carshalton, and Wallington Musical Society. It was a happy evening - beautiful music, and it was in the Mallinson Room at Wallington Library, where, long years ago, I wrote my first job applications for local newspapers, after looking up the relevant addresses in Willings Press Directory. Later, as a Borough Councillor, I sat on the Committee looking after, among other things, all the local libraries, and later still wrote some books on local history (Croydon Airport) which are still on sale there - we passed a nice display of them as we arrived.

It was a coincidence that brought us to the concert - Jamie's brother D. and his wife J. were both playing in it, as part of a Quartet, and contacted us, knowing this was my home patch.
When people write about the place where they grew up, the nostalgia can be mawkish. I don't think that can work with suburbia...but I realised, sitting in the Library, how the London suburbs that I knew, and the culture of which shaped me, had a "feel" and a flavour that is slipping away...clubs and committees, things now grandly called "the voluntary sector", groups and societies run with enthusiasm, for the sheer joy of things - can these survive the crush of consumerism and political correctness and inertia and health-and-safety rules and all that? The High Streets treets of the suburbs now ring more often with drunken shrieks and scuffling fights than with the chatter of people hurrying out of meetings and concerts...

Anyway, we had a happy time, met old friends, enjoyed the wonderful music, and came back to Mother's for late snacks and cheerful talk...