Pilton turned upside down..... as if.

Well a good day was had by one and all at the Pilton Festival/Green Man Day last weekend. As I said I started early and got in the Reform early in order to secure my place at the bar. I also got Esther to put by a few bottles of Natch for me and the boys in case some incomers fancied a drop. I was amazed as I walked down the street and came across crowds of people as it was only 10.30. I bumped into me sister in law and a few others so by the time I reached the bottom house I was in need of a pint. This was the pattern for the day, have a drink go out for a stroll and a fag meet someone who I only see once in a blue moon have a natter and then dive back inside for a pint. It was good to see some of the old Pilton faces, faces that I have known all me life. Old Ian Stokey rolled up as did Charlie Street and Charles Dart.
I have to say that although I tip me hat to the folk who organise it but it seems to me that they miss the point of the Green man festival and also they have taken it upon themselves to re-write history according to their own ideas as to what form a village festival should take. Being a woodsman meself, I'm a firm believer in the spirit of the Green Man and from my own readings about festivities associated in celebrating him it appears to me that a lot more fun would be had if the historical elements of such a celebration were more strictly followed. In the past such activities were licensed by the village authorities and the church in order to create social cohesion and allow release for the folk whose everyday life was lived under harsh and prohibitive control, basically a couple of times a year they were allowed to let off steam and this is exactly what they did. The green man is seen as an outlaw figure and it is indeed from these tales that the figure of Robin Hood evolved. He came from the woods to protect and look over the common people and was a figure whose qualities were the direct opposite of those embodied in the Churchmen, land owners and the State. On these days the folk would cock a snoop at the social norms of the day and undertake a process of inversion. World turned upside town as it became known. Last weekend I saw little of this. The parade should have been a ribald chaotic procession not with a bleddy samba band but an ensemble of people claterring pots and pans and making rude music. There would also be cross dressing, men dressed as women and vice versa. People would be crudely dressed as landowners, bishops, sheriffs also some lowly clergy would be press ganged into pulling carts and as often as not the vicar would be seized and dunked in a pond. As far as I could tell the Rev. Nigel Dilkes didn't really get into the spirit of things as I seem to recall seeing him late in the afternoon and he didn't look as if he had been thrown in the Yeo. Also as the ale and cider and wine flowed the crowd would tumble into the church and would listen to profane bawdy sermons delivered by the local lads, they would also dress up in the vestments. A couple of final points the king of the fayre was also a pig or hog, dressed up in finery and sat in cart not a rather dainty looking octogenarian potter, also the green man himself was often portrayed by the village idiot who would be pushed along at the head of the procession and force fed pies and ale not some fella throwing karate shapes and carrying a bottle of Evian.
Of course by the end of the day I had rather warmed to these thoughts and I put me ideas forward to a couple of chaps I know in the walking band, who I'm glad to say were satisfactory awful. However, I got short shrift. I also took a chap to task as he insisted on calling Pilton Street, the high street, Pilton the village. "how long have you lived in the village?', he asked me. He got an incoherent disgust laden response as you can imagine.
I have to say though that despite the historical inaccuracies, the cow towing to middle class incomers  it was an bleddy good day. Next year at the committee maybe I'm going to suggest a greater adherence to the historical precedents that should liven thing up. I was also very pleased the bell that I bought for me bike from the Communists.

Flippin blimmin Green men......... get off

I've been told to keep me council on thisat least until it's over. All I can say that it's a good excuse to get a few pints of natch in and have a good old blather with some of the bauys. If you can find 'em. I'll be down the Reform early to get me spot on the corner of the bar before the voroners all turn up to sample our ales. I'll be off up the Chichester when the beardy weirdy count gets too high mind you they always suggest I go up the road as they don't seem able to appreciate my tales of the Pilton of old. I usually start with a captive audience but after a while they drink too much of the ale which folk these days aren't used to and they don't seem to understand what I'm saying. Mazed fools. Well,  Ian Stokey both the Charles, Street and Dart should be about so us'll have a laugh whatever happens.

The last days of Somerfield

Over the weekend I was coming back from Ashford Strand on me bike and I thought I'd pop into Somerfield on the Pottington Estate well I cycled up to it only to find two bloody great big skips in the car park and I was stunned to discover that  it ad closed down. I tell you I almost fell down right there and then. What was going on? Somerfield has closed down. I've only been away a couple of weeks but all these changes are causing me to be in a right muddle. First Heart FM now Somerfield. I was glad to say that I was not the only one as while I was stood in the car park by now feeling really flustered, a few folk turned up wanting to get a few ales in for the world cup. They was also taken aback. I suggested that we go up and find out what was going on. So I went up and hammered on the door until a chippy chap came up and asked what I was up to in my confused state I spluttered out my concerns. Well, it turns out that it hasn't really closed for good it is just being refitted and will open next week as a Co-op. I was glad to hear this, I tell you but still it isn't quite the same as the Co-op ain't what it used to be you dont get divvy stamps any more for a start and I reckon it's gone a bit fancy. One of the football fans was disappointed to hear this as he was under the impression that it was going to be a Waitrose at some point. Waitrose on the Pottington Estate between King's Carpets and the carting centre cor no thank you. To my mind why do you need a Waitrose when you've got a Co-op they sell enough fancy stuff as it is. When Somerfield was open I always made a point of buying their own brand rather than Co-op stuff that started creeping in as it was a darn sight cheaper and I reckon that their spaghetti hoops were better.
I also have a bit of history with that particular establishment as before it was Somerfield it was Gateway and during a transitional period I recall it was a Fine Fare (I lalways thought that was Latin). However before that it was the cash and Carry and my Granfer had a members card and so we would all go down there the whole family on a Friday afternoon and stock up on wholesale priced provisions. I never failed to be amazed by the catering sized tins of marrow fat peas and gurt slabs of Anchor cheddar. Me Auntie took a liking to the plastic 40pint barrels of Armontillado sherry or armadillo sherry as she called it. Everyday she would syphon off a bottle of it and would sell on some of it to the neighbours who would turn up at her door with old cups and jam jars for a few draughts of the stuff. Oh happy days.
Anyway, all in all I'm relieved to know that it is still going to be a supermarket as I'd be a bit stuck without one down there. I can't go to Tesco as due to certain events back in the day I'm banned from every store in the country and buggered if I'm going up to the beige wonderland that is Sainsbury's . I also can't go in the Somerfield in the high street as once you get in there you might never come out especially if you get sandwiched between a couple of trolley pushing old biddies. Stuck tight you can only totter along with the flow.

http://www.co-operative.coop/food/

On the road

I was away for a bit longer than I originally planned this was due to a combination of factors. I finished up me job deer stalking in Arnos Vale cemetery up in the big big city and on the last day me and the lads went out for a few pints of Thatcher's up the Highbury Vaults (smashin' pub) on Bristol City Council suffice it to say I was was a bit muddled when I got back down to the bus station and somehow I managed to get on the wrong bus. I fell asleep in the back and when I came to I was in this strange landscape it all seem far fetched something out of science fiction it was only when I realised that I wasn't having a nightmare that I was able to deduce that I was heading into the bleddy big, big, big city, London and hurtling over the Chiswick flyover. Well that was that, no bus back so I was stuck up there the only option available me was to go down to Kent and pop by and see Ian Stokey. Anyway, to cut a long story short he got me a few days work mole catching on the local cricket ground. Nice work if you can get it. Plus I now have a nice little stack of mole skins. I spent a few days up there in Kent, the garden of England so say they say. Well all I can say is that it's all a bit clean for me, sanitized country. Beautiful but it all is a bit well maintained. You don't get any slurry trails in the lanes up there and there's no mangy old dugs to greet you when you pass by a farm. Plus, I fell out with the locals when I was asked to take me boots off in the local pub. I'd forgotten to put me socks on and for some reason they took exception to my bare feet. I wasn't on the carpet and I told 'em I'd stay on the flags by the bar which they seemed o.k with at the start but after a few pints of Thatcher's which they had as guest tipple and for some reason, me and a few of the locals didn't see eye to eye about the differences between Devon and Kent and I was asked to leave. Well that was that, the final straw so they say I was hopping mad what audacity after that my day's in the so called Garden of England were numbered and as soon as I'd done away with the final mole I was back up at Victoria and on my way back home on the good old Royal Blue.

Hardly recognise the place...

Blimey, I've been away for a couple of weeks I get back and find there has been a lot of changes. What fast times we live in. No sooner do I get of the Royal Blue coach at the bus station than I notice a Journal board outside Summerland Street Stores where I just popped into buy a couple of bottles of natch, declaring that Heart FM is to close it's North Devon Studio. I was shocked. What am I going to listen to now. I can't listen to Radio Devon all day long I don't mind it in the mornings with Judy Spiers but at lunch time I usually tune into HeartFM of course it used to be Lantern FM which was a darn sight better than Heart but I suppose there isn't much to choose between the two. I reckon the music is more up to date, a bit more trendy you get a taste of what the youngsters like to listen to and I also find the adverts that they play between every song very informative. I must look into this matter further and see what's going on. I have a mind to get a petition going or maybe get a demonstration together outside their studios. I reckon if push comes to shove might even have to occupy the station in order to save a valuable local cultural asset being wrenched from our community by faceless money men up in Exeter.  Rebels have seized the radio station that was what they always announce when some gorillas have taken the initiative to announce their displeasure about various goings on. Now that give me an idea.
Talking of radio stations I was down at Somerfield yesterday morning having a delve through the cut price items in the cold cabinet and bugger me if over the in-store radio channel which they pipe from store to store up and down the land they started playing my favourite Neil Young. I couldn't quite believe my ears. If we are going to get more of the same when it converts to a CO-OP supermarket over the next few days then my distress in finding that the store is to be closed for a week will be a bit tempered. Infact, it might make a bit of sense if Heart FM should close down  then I could just spend more time in the co-op listening to their radio station. I could buy me paper and a couple of bottles of Westons and sit outside by the trolleys and still have a half decent radio to listen to. Now that gives me an idea.

Listen now to Heart FM North Devon or lodge your complaint about the service moving up to Exeter

Hopps and Chappel  the heart of Heart FM keep it local!