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Thursday 1 January 2015

A New Year Ritual

When I was a child I loved New Year.  My parents were definitely party animals and unless they hosted a party on New Year's Eve they invariably went to one.

If they were the hosts I was ushered off to bed before the guests arrived but all the ladies used to come up to visit me.  Some of them kept coming back during the evening with delicious plates of party food.  I was also a keen reader so with ladies making a fuss of me and bringing goodies up to me whilst I read one of my Christmas books I was one happy bunny.

If they were going out I would be sent to my grandparents for a couple of days.  They lived in a big old fashioned farmhouse on the Lincolnshire Wolds.  It kept out the worst of the weather but it was damp and had very little in the way of insulation.  It was not unknown for there to be frost on the counterpane and it was rarely known for there not to be thick frost on the windows on those cold January mornings.  But what the house lacked in warmth didn't matter - it is the warmth of my grandmother's heart that I remember most. 

There was a small ritual on New Year's Eve.  My grandfather would give me a shilling and the three of us would go out into the yard and each of us would hide our shillings.  The next morning we would go out and "find" our money - the idea being that if you brought money into the house on New Year's Day money would continue to come into the house throughout the year.  However, I would have watched where grandad hid his shilling and with grandma egging me on I would  retrieve it for myself.

My grandparents were both wonderful.

10 comments:

  1. What lovely memories, and yes I remember the days of the inside of our windows having ice on them

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  2. Oh wow, is that the actual house?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it really is the house my grandparents lived in. I know the people who live their now so have visited and it has been modernised but I think that view would still look very similar to the photo.

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    2. !! It looks like from one of my British Homes and Gardens glossy magazines. Awesome.

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  3. What wonderful memories! It may have been cold but that house looks so warm and inviting!

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    Replies
    1. Wherever my grandparents lived would have been inviting!

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  4. Your wonderful quote yesterday is the start of a longer poem, which continues thus:


    And He led me towards the hills
    and the breaking of day in the lone East.

    So heart be still:
    What need our little life
    Our human life to know,
    If God hath comprehension?
    In all the dizzy strife
    Of things both high and low,
    God hideth His intention.

    God knows. His will
    Is best. The stretch of years
    Which wind ahead, so dim
    To our imperfect vision,
    Are clear to God. Our fears
    Are premature; In Him,
    All time hath full provision.

    Then rest: until
    God moves to lift the veil
    From our impatient eyes,
    When, as the sweeter features
    Of Life’s stern face we hail,
    Fair beyond all surmise
    God’s thought around His creatures
    Our mind shall fill.

    Minnie Louise Haskins, 1875 – 1957
    Published in 1908

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, yes the whole poem is lovely. With a bit of luck Rivulet who commented yesterday will also read it.

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    2. Fantastic! I absolutely love the middle part:
      God knows. His will
      Is best. The stretch of years
      Which wind ahead, so dim
      To our imperfect vision,
      Are clear to God...
      Thank-you for posting that :)

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  5. Awesome!

    I remember so fondly a few summers when my parents dropped me and my siblings at my grandparent's house in Indiana (about a 6 hour drive from our home). I imagine a great deal of my love of nature stemmed from the summers at their 32 acre home. I can still remember the aromas of their house in Indiana too, swimming in their mucky Indiana clay lined ponds, and the fire flies at night. What great memories!

    My grandparent's house was similarly filled with warmth and I remember being so happy there.

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