A Guest Post from Ruth Cherrington - THE POPPY SELLER

In the weeks before Remembrance Day, November 11th, the poppy seller becomes noticeable on our streets. Those shaking the collection tins and handing out the poppies range from quite young people ‘doing their bit’ to much older people who’ve been doing it for so many years they can’t remember how many.  

Coventry station

I saw one veteran on November 1^st who probably fell in the latter category. Derrick had a table laid out quite nicely with a variety of poppies on offer and the tin there for donations. This was at Coventry rail station, a place I’ve spent a lot of time at over the decades (believe me, a lot!) as I’ve waited for trains up and down that line visiting parents and family in my home town whilst living and working in London.  It’s always been a cold station and Derrick looked freezing that day as he stood there doing his job. But he clearly didn’t mind. He is a dedicated collector for the Royal British Legion, the organisation that began the poppy campaign back in 1921.   

I already had a poppy but I had to have one from Derrick’s table. And I very much wanted to shake his hand. He had an impressive display of medals on his jacket and I asked where they all came from. One half of them were his father’s, he told me, earned during the First World War, the rest were his from the Second World War plus some other commemorative badges. I told him he was doing a grand job, had done a grand job. When I asked for his photo, he didn’t hesitate for a minute and stood to attention.

Courtesy of BBC News
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news

Then he was back to collecting and distributing poppies. Trade was brisk! It’s a busy station. During the wars, it was also busy with troops going off to fight, some coming back on leave to see loved ones briefly, or to recover from injuries. After the blitz, the King came to visit the city that suffered so badly from enemy bombing that a new word was invented- to Coventrate. The devastation of the city’s ancient cathedral became an icon of suffering yet also of reconciliation.    

It’s all very different now, this chilly 1960s station, about to undergo a revamp as the city itself changes around it. I imagine Derrick raised quite a lot of money that chilly November day in the year we mark 100 years since the end of the First World War.

Thank you, Derrick, not just for the poppies!

Ruth Cherrington

Ruth Cherrington can be found on

twitter @CHistorians and at 

http://www.clubhistorians.co.uk/ 

Author of

Not Just Beer and Bingo! A social history of working men's clubs,

The Dirty Stop Outs Guide to 1970s Coventry and

The Dirty Stop Outs Guide to 1980s Coventry 

Photo of Coventry station courtesy: By Snowmanradio [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Back to basics, London again

A few thank yous to a lot of different people rather than a big, subject, post.

I've called this back to basics as I'm remembering the initial idea for this blog; people who do their job with a smile; who bring something extra to the job and their day thereby making your day all the better.

So first of all, to Ann-Marie at Volvo in Swiss Cottage.  Thank you for always welcoming your customers with such a friendly chat and making them feel like they're coming over to a friend's rather than getting their car serviced or repaired.  

You always make it feel like there's time to sit down, have a natter and coffee.  Excellent, thanks.  

(This is where I would have put the 'thumbs up' but as of the last post, we're dropping that from the blog unless people want them back?).

picture courtesy
www.allinlondon.co.uk/images/

Next a couple of thanks without pictures for the moment but hopefully they'll get their own posts in due course.

To Rosey the hygienist who manages to make me smile and laugh while scraping my teeth. Thank you.  I'm hoping I might feature her in a later post with her lovely smiling face.

To the two armed police outside the Chinese Embassy on Portland Place the other day who were smiling and laughing with about twenty nursery school children walking past with their teachers.

And to Ellias of David's Deli Garden.  Ellias and his brother, Sam, run David's in West Hampstead and have now opened a branch in Praed Street.  I bumped into him in the Castle Chemist in Cricklewood Lane and was so enjoying chatting and catching up, forgot to think of the blog and getting a picture of him but he and his brother definitely deserve a post (see RNIB Black Lion Pub Quiz post here read-for-rnib-pub-quiz-thanks-and-photos), so again hope to feature them in a proper post with photos in due course.

Now to the last thank you of this post, it's to Le, Nba and Nimah of the Sensation Café in Fitzrovia.

Lunch hour midweek in the West End of London is fairly manic in all eateries, particularly places doing fast takeaway food for people in offices.  

However, you walk into the Sensation and you are greeted by three beaming smiles and calm descends. 

Le is behind the counter making up the food and taking the orders.  I had a seriously wicked Báhn mi (a Vietnamese sandwich in a baguette).

Lovely, (shy), Nimah was behind him on drinks and I had a good latte.  I think she thought I was mad taking their photos!

and then Nba (I hope I've got all your names right), is everywhere, serving, clearing, smiling and making sure everything's as it should be.  

An oasis of calm (good food) and smiles in the middle of London.  What can be bad?!

So thank you to everyone above and thumbs up for making all our (London) lives that bit better.

Do you want to say thank you to anyone?  Well this is the place to do it.

If you would like to write a post to thank someone or tell us something nice that happened just get in touch and we would love to hear from you and to spread the thanks.  You don't have to know how to do the formatting and stuff, we'll help you with all that.  We just need some words and preferably some nice smiley photos.  (don't forget to ask if you can take them).  This blog is for you, somewhere for you to have your say.  Thanks.

Five Days In Seattle & As Many Thank Yous

So five days in Seattle and lots of people to thank.

The first one isn’t connected with someone doing a job but to my fellow passenger, Amit, on the flight.  We arrived in Seattle from London which is a ten hour flight.  Add to that the time it takes to get to an airport, the time one spends at the airport and the time clearing customs and getting ones bags when one lands and as you can imagine, Amit and I were pretty tired.  I was visiting a elderly relative, he was coming home to his wife after almost two weeks’ business in the UK.  We agreed to share a cab in to the city.  It would drop him first and then I would take it on.

Once we were in the cab Amit said, no, we would both get out at his home and he would drive me.  Which is what he did.  So Amit, thank you and a thumbs up   for being a true gentleman and kind to a stranger giving me a lift when I’m sure all you wanted to do was relax in your own home.

However, the real 'subject' of this post though, is Annie.  

view from The Summit

My relative has moved into a retirement community, The Summit at First Hill - (we’d call it an old age home in the UK but that would be so misleading as this is nothing like we have in the UK) - called the Summit and the first thing I was impressed with was the light airiness of the place and then I realised a lot of that was down to the fact that I didn’t see one depressed face the whole time I was there.  Not from the residents and not from the staff.  

Annie is from Connecticut but moved to Seattle eleven and a half years ago and has worked at the Summit over three years.  While I was talking to Annie, I was also talking to Natalie, another real smiler.

Natalie

The staff all seemed genuinely to enjoy their work and connected on a personal level with the residents.

Annie, on the front desk epitomised this for me and from a photographic point of view she was perfect.  In addition to laughing all day while doing her job (efficiently to my eye ) she dresses for fun everyday.  Check out just some of the outfits while I was there.  Get those necklaces.

And, then on Friday I met Tech, she and Annie always wear matching outfits once a week.  A real hoot.     

Tech & Annie

So Annie and the staff at the Summit, a big thank you and thumbs up  for bringing your smiles to work.  Thank you. 

Someone I didn’t get a name for or a picture, (‘cause I wasn’t thinking), was a girl working at Frankie & Jo’s vegan ice-cream parlour on 15th (a recommendation of Amit’s above) frankieandjos.com.  The place was packed and she was on her own.  Not only did she not pause for a moment in serving everyone from offering a taste, to scooping the delicious ice-cream (I had the chocolate tahini) to ringing it up, but everyone got individual eye contact, a smile and a nice welcome as if she had all the time in the world.   So thank you to the person serving at Frankie & Jo’s on Tuesday, 19th June around 3:00 in the afternoon and a big thumbs up  for your smile.

Since this blog is also about the not so good I will also just mention the waiter at The Cheese Cake Factory who I actually didn’t tip; you were so rude to all five of us, no need.  You know who you were.... 

And lastly on leaving Seattle, to the guy driving the shuttle bus from the rental car place to the terminal, it was so busy and there were so many people there I didn’t get a chance to thank you properly in person or, obviously to get your name or picture for here, but thank you for your courtesy and smile.  Another thumbs up  to you.

A thumbs up rich trip.  Talking of thumbs up, I'm thinking of dropping the thumbs up emoticon/GIF.  Any thoughts on that readers?

So, do you have someone you would like to thank?  Do you want to promote the positive?  This is about 'bigging up' nice people and it's all about those guest posts so if you would like to send in a post to tell us something nice that happened or to say thank you to someone, just get in touch and we would have great pleasure in putting up your stories here.  We'll do all the formatting don't worry about knowing how to do stuff on the computer or anything like that, we just need your words and some nice smiley photos.  (Don't forget to ask for permission).  Thanks.

A Guest Post from Anne Clarke - THANK YOU TO CRICKLEWOOD

Having thought about writing a guest blog a fortnight ago, I've been rolling around in my head who I'd like to thank. 

There  are simply so many it's difficult to know where to begin. I could thank my very patient family for forever putting up with my busy life, 

I could thank the shopkeepers who go the extra mile and sweep their bit of Cricklewood Lane  

Cricklewood Lane

or my friends and neighbours who take the time to listen and look after each other. 

But, it occurs to me, these people are my community. These people build each other up while maintaining the things we all share from green spaces to schools.  So a big thank you and thumbs up to them all.

The name of this blog is EverdayFolk. I've had the song Everyday People by Arrested Development in my head for over a week, (YouTube - Arrested Development). Everyday people make the community what it is. 

Living in Cricklewood, our community comes from all over the world and bring a wealth of lived experiences and talents. Our communities are forever changing; some people live their whole lives in Cricklewood, some people's parents met at The Galtymore,

(photo courtesy of BRING-BACK-THE-GALTYMORE-NITECLUB Facebook Group) 
others stay for a long while and some quickly come and go without getting to know the area at all well. Given that so many of us have families who live oceans away, it makes all the more sense for us to get to know each other and take an active interest in the wellbeing of our neighbours. 

The Clitterhouse Farm building dons a sign “watch this space”. I certainly am watching.

Who are these community builders? It's the people who give their time to plant and nurture our station garden, Swan Hill, the Clitterhouse Farm (The Clitterhouse Farm Project) and the Millennium Green

The orchard at Clitterhouse Farm

    Cricklewood station, now with community garden and the wonderful
@nw2_coffee serving delicious, locally roasted, fair trade coffee. 

Swan Hill, a tiny parcel of land between the railway bridge & the B&Q carpark.
This land has been overgrown for decades & a real eyesore.
The Cricklewood Town Team & NorthwestTwo Residents’ Association
cleared it,put some lovely wooden sleepers at the
bottom and planted it together with local volunteers. 

The Millennium Green is maintained fully by volunteers and there is a
community clean-up 14 July 2018. - millennium-green-cleanup-saturday-july-14

I want to say thank you and thumbs up to say many, too many to list but you know who you are.

The Cricklewood Town Team at the end of the annual Cricklewood Festival, summer 2018. We had another wonderful festival and installed a sheep on the green space. This green had been marked for development in the Brent Cross/Cricklewood Regeneration. A 5-year community battle against Barnet Council finally saw it listed as an Asset of Community Value. More here: https://www.northwesttwo.org.uk/green-space-asset-community-value/

It's also the Cricklewood Town Team who lovingly arrange community festivals and ensure that everyone is included. Governors of local schools give up countless hours of time pursuing the best possible outcomes for children.

So to our community gardeners, the Cricklewood Town Team and all our schools’ governers, a big thank you and thumbs up .

Loch Ness Monster, laid out by residents for the enjoyment
of children on the estate.

Further up Cricklewood Lane, is the Granville Road Estate  

Granville Road Estate flowers planted by residents,
set against the barrier which protects the new private development.

who pulled together while their green spaces were threatened with development. (twitter @GERANW2  They have lost many well fought battles but what can't be taken from them is community. They look after each other, care for the most vulnerable on the estate and celebrate their friendships with the Great Get-Together that took place on 23rd June, #TheBigLunch - there are some super photos on both @GERANW2's twitter page and their facebook page facebook.com/gera.  It's more than an estate, it's a community which can't be built nor destroyed by development.  A special thanks and thumbs up  to Anthony, Tracey and Deepa.  

In times of austerity with cuts everywhere we look, it's easy to want to give up and look for the negative. Communities don't give up, there's far too much to be lost that way.  

So to all communities sticking together and promoting the positive, thank you and thumbs up     

                                    Anne Clarke was born and raised in Illinois, she came to London in 1998.

She is a member of the Cricklewood Town Team

 and NorthwestTwo and she is involved with local schools. 

In 2018, Anne was elected as a ward councillor for Childs Hill.
Anne lives in her very favourite place in the world, Cricklewood.

She can be found on twitter at @anne_clarke