Time Lapse: 20th Century Stories

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© Copyright 2012

Elizabeth Love

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ISBN-9781780690575

First Published as an e-book 2012

E-Books Publisher

17 Sedgeway Business Park

Witchford CB6 2HY

Elizabeth Love, whose parents both came from generations of farming folk, was born on a farm at Reagill, near Shap. She has lived and worked in a clerical capacity all her life, for some time for the once well-known firm of seedsmen and nurserymen, Little and Ballantyne of Carlisle.

A great lover of the countryside around her home town of Carlisle, she writes about her observations and colours her stories with occupational and human interest.

She is now retired and enjoys writing poetry and prose, painting and embroidering pictures.

TIME LAPSE 20th Century Stories

Elizabeth Love

These stories are all works of fiction apart from those written in the first person which reflect experiences drawn from the author’s life.

Dedication

To those of my family who have gone before.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank Mr John McNeill for his help in putting together these stories.

DANCING QUEEN

For my sister Anne

Her mother christened her Anna Sophie and she had been, as it were, an afterthought; fourteen years younger than her brother Simon. She was largely brought up by her grandmother who lived in with her daughter and son-in-law. Of course, Anna was too young to realise at the time that Maria had been a very devoted and patient tutor in her formative years before she was old enough to go to school. Maria’s emotions found expression in her love for the flaxen haired little girl and they were often seen in each others company. There was one day when Anna was three and a half years old and they were sitting underneath a cherry tree in the library garden. A photographer for a local magazine happened to be walking through the path which leads from Abbey Street to Castle Street when he noticed them. Can I take a picture of the little lady? he asked Maria. Why yes, of course, replied Maria, who was delighted at the notion that her Anna was seen as a photo opportunity. I will send you a print, said the young man as he got his picture of Anna standing beside the sun dial and in the shadow of the cherry tree blossom. She was wearing a pink bonnet and a matching pink dress, and it was a very pleasing picture when it arrived in the post the following week. And sure enough, the photograph did appear in the next issue of the Cumbria Life magazine.

Maria had definite ideas about how a child should be taught to read. The old proven method was the best which was the ‘Cat sat on the mat’ formula and building up the alphabet from such beginnings was the best in her opinion. Pictures and words were very good too, and she spent time with Anna, teaching her by word association. At the back of the old eighteenth century house there was a large orchard which accommodated a glazed extension to the kitchen; a large conservatory extended into the orchard. After dark it became a magical place, with the bright lights inside and the apple and pear trees with the dark eerie shadows of their branches against the deep midnight blue of the sky. It was one of Anna’s early recollections, seeing the full moon gliding along between the bare branches of the trees, the little wispy clouds floating across it. As she got older, she learned the poem and was fascinated by the words, -

Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon This way and that, she peers and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees.

Anna’s mother, Julie, owned a nursery in the town and she was kept busy, sometimes working at night with paper work and making the place ready for the next day. Julie wanted her daughter to have the best opportunities there were, and when she turned three she took her to a dance school to be taught ballet. Anna was a lithesome little girl and a natural dancer. She had two pairs of very small shoes, one pair for ballet and one pair for tap. Her first two pairs of shoes were very small indeed, and when she grew up and became a celebrated dancer, she marvelled at the tiny shoes which she had kept as a keepsake.

Maria encouraged Anna with her dancing. Show me what you were doing today, she would say to her and Anna performed her dance routine in the middle of the kitchen floor. They were simple steps at first, and Anna could best demonstrate the tap dancing steps. It was the heel and then the toe and then the toe and then the heel. Maria liked to hear the tapping on the polished floor. She took her first exam when she was only four. She got nine out of ten marks. It was ballet that she excelled in. The teacher says that you must be aware of your arms and hands, she would tell her granny. She waved her little bare arms in the air to show her.

In her first show she appeared as a dancing bunny. There was a whole row of dancing bunnies with painted faces and large white pom-poms fastened to their costumes. It was in that show that her first ballet steps were practised. It was tripping backwards on the toes. Later on it was standing with the left leg bent at the knee and the right one raised on the toe of the shoe. It was all a matter of balance. Raise your arms, her teacher, Miss Moffat, would say. Your arms and hands will help you to balance. Anna practised and got better and better. From a very young age, Anna was captivated by dance.

Anna found it harder to balance on her left foot, and it was what the others in the class found difficulty with. It is a case of being ambidextrous, their teacher often told them. Practise writing with your left hand and that will help you. Anna tried writing left handed and found it difficult. She persevered though and got better with practise. Her footwork got better with practise too. When she was seven and had taken her fourth test, her teacher told her mother that she had a special talent. She was elegant and graceful, which was special in one so young and she was a very keen student.

Anna had a feel for the music and a natural rhythm. She loved dancing, and even at that age she had an ambition to be a dancing star.

Anna’s progress had been greatly helped by her granny’s interest and encouragement. Maria knew that dance required agility, and she encouraged Anna to do physical exercises, buying illustrated books to guide her. In the evenings they would go into the conservatory and have exercise sessions on a woollen rug which was kept for that purpose. Maria put the cassettes in the recorder and timed the different exercises as they were performed to the music; the body became suppler and the muscles were strengthened. Anna could stand on one leg, grasp the other round the calf and hold it high above her head. In the ballet class she had mastered the pirouette and was learning the double reverse. It was difficult. Clockwise turning was easy, but anti-clockwise was the tricky thing to master. It was practise and perseverance.

It was just when things were going so well that tragedy struck. Her right ankle began to ache. It was just a little ache at first, but it got increasingly worse and her mother had to take her to the doctor. You will have to stop dancing for the time being, he told her and advised her to see a specialist. The following week she went to see a specialist at the Infirmary.

You have got an Achilles Heel, he told her, and it needs complete rest if it is to get better. He gave her a special bandage which went round the bridge of the foot and round the heel. It is unfortunate that you like to dance so much, but it will come right if you rest it. When she got home and saw her granny, she couldn’t tell her about it for sobbing, she was so heartbroken. Maria tried to comfort her and told her it would give her time to catch up on her school work.

It was Christmas time and there was a Christmas Show in which Anna would have been dancing one of the leading roles if she had not been incapacitated. She had at first been very upset about not being able to take part, but her granny consoled her by promising to take her to see the Royal Ballet. They were to go down to London two days after Christmas Day and they were staying overnight at the Imperial Hotel. Anna was very excited about going. Part of the show happened to be called ‘Moonlight’ which was Anna’s idea of magic and grace and she dreamt about it. The day arrived and they took the midday train to London, having lunch in the restaurant. That was an exciting experience as well, both for Maria and Anna. They marvelled at how the plates of soup arrived on the table without being spilt.

You have to have good balance, the waiter told them. Well, Anna knew all about balance. The journey was interesting too and Anna noticed the crooked spire. Yes, that is Chesterfield, Maria told her.

From Euston Station they hired a taxi to their hotel and to their delight, it took them up the Mall and past the famous gates of Buckingham Palace. They just had nice time to get ready for the early evening show.

The ballet fulfilled all Anna’s expectations as she watched with rapturous attention. They were dancing to Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ and the stage was lit by shafts of iridescent light. The costumes were very pretty – the skirts decorated with twinkling stars and fairies with gossamer-like wings and fluted skirts in the colours of the rainbow. Then there was the moon; first a crescent and then the full moon gliding between the foamy clouds in the midnight blue sky, which was the back drop to the dance. The steps were familiar to Anna, but she knew in her heart that although her teacher said she had a special talent, she would never aspire to that standard. You had to be very good to be in the Royal Ballet. There were other forms of dance though, and she had noticed the programmes on television – ballroom, Latin and free style. It would be very nice to excel in those. It was early days yet, but her young mind romanticised about how she might meet the man of her dreams who would be her dancing partner. When they got back to their hotel that night she told her granny about her fantasy.

Don’t be in such a hurry to grow up, she was told, and make the most of your time. It is a shame to wish the time away. When they got back home the following day, Anna described the show to her mother, who was very anxious to know how they had fared.

Anna had turned twelve and was going to the secondary school. Her foot had mended, and she could resume her sessions at the dance school. She soon made up for lost time and danced with more verve and determination than ever. Her visit to London to see the Royal Ballet had shown her how expressive and important the arms and hands were, and she was able to copy the dancers. That year there was to be a spectacular Christmas show, and the theme was to be Cinderella. Anna was chosen for the lead role of Cinderella and her best friend, Diane, who was a year older, was to be her Prince Charming. Anna practised her dance routine. As Cinders she had two main dances; one of them was dancing with a pink feather duster, and the other was with an old fashioned broom made out of hazel twigs. The interpretation was left much to her own making and she thoroughly enjoyed doing it – dancing round an imaginary room flicking the dust of imaginary shelves and cupboards. She could use the duster in either hand, and that is why Miss Moffat had been right about being ambidextrous, both with the hands and with the feet. She made it into an art form, using the empty hand in a graceful manner, tripping backwards as well as forwards and putting in lots of little ballet steps. The broom dance was similar, using both hands to hold the broom and to sweep and then leaving go with one, swinging to the side and across to the other side in the other hand. Then she would take it in both hands and swing it in a circular movement over her head. She liked both dances equally well. She had three costumes; one she wore as Cinders, the second for when her Prince Charming came with the glass slipper and the third for the final dance with the Prince. They were all lovely. Maria was excited about Anna’s leading role, as too was Julie, her mother.

The rest of Anna’s age group were doing a tambourine dance with coloured ribbons attached to their tambourines. It was an attractive dance too. They were all meant to be doing the same movement at the same time. Even their heads had to be turning in unison. If a certain dancer made a mistake it would be obvious, whereas Anna’s wouldn’t be detected. The final dance was to be performed by Cinderella and Prince Charming taking to the centre stage. Anna and Diane practised the dance very carefully. Diane’s was a supportive role in which she stood aside half the time, leaving the floor to Anna. In their rehearsals they danced before Maria, and after a lot of rehearsing they perfected it. At the end, when Anna had finished her solo dance, Diane was to step forward, stand behind her and let her fall gently on her outstretched arm to the floor and then, in a half kneeling position (and looking at each other) finish the show.

There were two shows, one on Friday afternoon and the other on Saturday afternoon. Maria and Julie were there at the first one. The Mayor was in the audience as well. At the end of the show he thanked all the people who had helped and the dancers and finished by saying, And please give a big round of applause for our own dancing queen and her Prince Charming. Anna was congratulated by her teacher and by her proud mother and grandmother.

I liked the dance when you were showing off the ring, Maria told her. For the final dance Anna wore her fair hair swept up bouffant style which was adorned with a sparkling tiara. Maria thought she looked like a real princess.

* * * * *

When Anna was seventeen she left school and started work as a dentist’s receptionist. It was exactly what she wanted to do as the job involved meeting lots of different people from all walks of life, the young and the old. It was interesting. Through being a receptionist she would learn to be a dental nurse, which was a better paid job. She also started to go to Jimmy Irving’s ballroom dancing classes, which were held in the evenings in the Waverton Hall. She went down to the town on the bus and her mother brought her back in the car.

It is a very good idea, Maria had told her. Her granny was an avid fan of the leading ballroom and Latin dancers. Anna soon became the star pupil at the dancing class. Jimmy, who had been taking dancing classes for twenty years, told her she had a natural feel for the dance. Of course, it was all her previous training that had paid off and had made her a very good all round dancer. She learnt the Latin dances – the cha-cha-cha, the tango and the rumba and the traditional ballroom dances – the waltz, the Viennese waltz, the foxtrot and the quickstep. She particularly liked the cha-cha-cha and the jive because they allowed her to do her own individual style of dancing apart from her partner.

Dance made you very much aware of your sensuality as she was to realise, and she discovered her own transition from adolescence to womanhood. She was partnered by several different male dancers at the dancing class and had been out for a meal with one of them, but she hadn’t met anyone that she really liked. Then one day, about a year after she had started work, she was sitting behind her desk when a tall young man came through the door. He stood before her and as their eyes met she thought how handsome he was. He made an appointment for the following Thursday at 2.00 p.m. She made a mental note of the time as he went away, and she thought how she would be looking her best when he came.

The next Thursday she was waiting for her Prince Charming’s arrival. She had made a note of his name which was Kevin McAllister. Yes, it was a nice name and it suited him, so when he made his appearance at ten minutes to two she put on her best smile saying, Good afternoon, Mr McAllister. Please take a seat until the dentist is ready for you. She noted his dress, which was neat and tidy, and he did not come in jeans and trainers as some of the young men did. He had dark, almost black hair