And May You Stay

Hi Young Isaac !

We’ve yet to meet …

But you are Right at the Top of my Bucket List of the people I want to meet …

 

You were born in Haywards Heath in the Mighty County of Sussex just couple of months ago on Sunday 12^th April. 

Right at the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic.

What a Top Tale your Mum has to tell you.

Make sure she begins Right at the Very Beginning – where all Top Tales should begin –

On the patio at the Lime Wood hotel in the New Forest.

She’ll go on to tell you about her Wedding Day at The Montagu Arms in Beaulieu.

As you go through your Life, I hope that - like me - you’ll love to hear and to tell Top Tales.

 

As well as Top Tales, I also hope that you’ll enjoy Music.

In the swift whirl of time Music is a constant

Reminding us of what we were and of that toward which we aspire

Living with Music by Ralph Ellison

During the Covid-19 pandemic, on Facebook The Lads ^* & I have been playing Sounds of Our Decades on Facebook.

A couple of Top Tunes each day

Once you’ve chosen the Performer, you can’t choose them again

* ‘ Lads ’ is not Gender specific.

And they’ll still be The Lads ... ... even when they’re all Old Age Pensioners !!

 

I started back in 1959 with Livin’ Doll by Cliff Richard.

The first Top Tune I remember & the favourite record of teenage sisters Barbara & Irene Iles, who regularly babysat me. 

And I ended in 2019 with Someone You Loved by Taylor Swift.

 I was getting kinda used to being someone you Loved

As you go through Life… you may well be on both sides of that equation !!

If our Love Song
Could fly over mountains
Could laugh at the ocean
Just like the films

There's no reason
To feel all the hard times
To lay down the hard lines
It's absolutely true

Sounds of Our Decades – 1986: Absolute Beginners by David Bowie

 

Along the way there have been so many, many Top Tunes & Performers.

You have the whole of your Life ahead of you, so what can Top Performers tell you that might help you just a little ?

Well, as I write this Blog in many countries there are #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations.

"The Battles that count aren't the ones for Gold medals.

The Struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us that's where it's at.”

Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man by Jesse Owens

Athlete and 4 times Olympic gold medallist in 1936 at the Berlin Games

 

You might like to start with choosing  Your Values.

The King explained what Values are all about:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1969: Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley

I don’t suppose everything will go just as you want; that is just how it is in Everyone’s Life.

When things go really, really wrong … It is all too tempting to simply find someone to blame; whether they are guilty or not.

It is always much more useful to follow Don's advice:

Sounds of Our Decades – ‘80s: Boys of Summer by Don Henley

My Favourite Song

But I can see you
Your brown skin shining in the sun
You got your hair combed back and your
Sunglasses on baby

I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the Boys of Summer have gone

Of course, you’ll come across plenty of people who ‘ Talk A Good Game ‘ when it comes to their own Values.

Watch  - very closely - what they do when they are really up against it & (perhaps ) think no one is watching them …

Tom Petty told us what we all should do when the going gets tough, really tough:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1989: I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty

We should just touch on the World of Work.

Billy calls it absolutely right:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1977: Always A Woman to Me by Billy Joel

So, Isaac, before I tell about The Final Song, I’d like to mention one other crucial aspect of Life:  

  Friends

Over 2,000 years ago Cicero wrote:

Suppose a god carried you far away to a place where you were granted an abundance of every material good that nature could wish for—but you were denied the possibility of ever seeing or talking with another human being.

Wouldn’t you have to be as hard as iron to endure that sort of life?

Wouldn’t you, utterly alone, lose every capacity for joy and pleasure?

De Amicitia - “On Friendship” by Marcellus Cicero

Friends  - once found  - are to be cherished !

You may well find yours in the local park, at school, at college, at work …

But they may be found in unexpected places too … …

Sounds of Our Decades – ‘90s: Different Corner by George Michael

I mentioned that for 2019 - the final year of Sounds of Our Decades - the song I chose was Someone You Loved by Taylor Swift.

A few years ago I was Out Rambling across Northern Spain …

All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking
Twilight of the Idols by Friedrich Nietzsche

One day I was about a dozen miles west of Leon, when a Young Girl ( who grew up 30 years after me and lives 3,000 miles away from where I live) caught me up & said:

Wanna be a Friend for Life ?

It turns out we both did !!!

She’s a Big Fan of Taylor Swift … & now so am I !!

You’ll work  out how to choose your own friends.

If I may give some advice …

Never ever choose those who are Unkind.

Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?

The Little White Bird by JM Barrie

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And The Final One ?

It was written by a Genius.

The only Top Performer ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature !

I don’t usually go for Covers …

   But every Rule has an Exception !

My choice was performed at a Celebration of the Life of another Genius …

Isaac, you have been blessed to be born to a Mum & Dad  - Emma & James -  whose Love for you will keep you safe all the days of your Life.

But the Genius whose Life was being celebrated had a very unpromising start to his Life.

Born on Friday 24 February 1955, Steve’s genetic parents gave him up for Adoption.

His first adopted parents decided they wanted a Girl.

But Paul & Clara took him it.

Paul was a car mechanic & in their house’s garage in Mountain View in California he taught his son the love of making things.

His son went on to found a business that would help Change the World.

He would become a Billionaire.

Indeed Steve’s story is the story of all our lives…

No matter how Unpromising Our Beginnings… We can all help Change the World.

But at any point  - & often completely out of the blue - whatever we have or haven’t achieved… … as John Lennon said:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1975: Imagine by John Lennon

On Wednesday 5 October 2011 Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, died of respiratory failure related to a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour.

He was just 56.

At the Celebration of Steve Jobs’ Life Norah Jones sang this song - my Final One - written by Bob Dylan:

Sounds of Our Decades – THE FINAL ONE

1974: ' Forever Young ' written by Bob Dylan for his Album 'Planet Waves'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEKY-3eNZc

 Well, that's pretty much all from me ...

So, Young Isaac,

I wish a Long & Happy Life !!!

May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift

May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung

And May You Stay … Forever Young

With Love, Young Ric xx

   Wednesday 24 June 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our time is

Hi everyone!

For our time is

A very shadow

That passeth away

Wisdom 2.5

As the Calendar edges ever forward into a new decade and daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere start to lengthen, what better than to get some dates into your diary for:

Season 2020: Cricket with Ric

Some New Grounds: I’ve got down both Derby & Leicester to visit this year.

A New Form of cricket too: in its first season, The 100.

With some trepidation - for my Beloved Sussex do not have a team in a competition which is based on artificial, city-based franchises.

No Men’s 100 games at Hove, but there will be Women’s matches, including Finals Day in August.

Old Favourites: the big Thursday night T20 games in London at Lords and the Oval.

And the always looked forward to Annual Trips to Chelmsford and out to the Wild West, to Taunton.

I’ll be watching the Old Rivals, Kent; both at Beckenham and at The Nevill, Tunbridge Wells.

Sadly, there will not be a Championship game at The Nevill this year.

But there are three RL50 one day games.

Home matches: at the Sussex outgrounds – Arundel, Eastbourne & (after a gap of 5 seasons) Horsham.

Special days at special grounds.

What can I tell you about Arundel?

When I became a Duke and a Billionaire, I’ll build a ground like Arundel!

With free ice creams; obviously!!

And Lots & Lots of days in the sun at Hove.

Watching from the iconic deckchairs, up at the Cromwell Road end.

 T20 games under the floodlights 
From the CanCom verandah; the best office view in world cricket.

There’ll be time – as there always is – for plenty of telling of the Old Familiar Stories; never in doubt!

Of Days That Are Never To Be Forgotten.

This Season there are four Decennial Anniversaries:

In May, a 60^th: to commemorate a First.

In June, a 40^th: to remember a Last

In December – long after the season has ended – a 50^th: to say Thanks.

We start today with a 100^th Anniversary…

For exactly 100 years ago today Isabel Bilsby - my Mum - was born in Rye on Saturday 10^th January 1920. With 3 brothers and 4 sisters, she was the youngest of 8 siblings.

Sister Ivy & Mum  - in her 30s

(Ivy made the Best Chocolate Cake in the World; unless you know otherwise)

Mum died 16 years ago at Easter 2004.

But her Love for me lives on, keeping me warm even on Life’s coldest days.

(OK, Mum did give me some well-deserved b*ll*ck*ings; and perhaps just a few I didn't deserve!)

To mark this Special Anniversary Dianne & I spent today in Rye, a small town about 50 miles south of London.

Back in Medieval times Rye was a Cinque Port, a confederation formed for military and trade purposes.

But the days of battles with the French are long gone. Rye’s main activity these days is Tourism.

Mum was born overlooking the cricket ground.

Two of her brothers played for Rye, where Dad was captain in the years leading up to WWII. 
It was through her oldest brother John (left arm fast bowler) that she met Dad, Fred Piper.

Right by the cricket ground, on 7^th September 1940 six high explosive German bombs destroyed the houses numbered 83 to 95, killing all the residents.

The car park is there now, for the houses have never been re-built.

A footpath separated No.83 from No. 81 where Mum lived.

The gap saved her from certain death.

Mum would often say that every day after that was a Bonus Day, for Life was to be cherished.

She knew well:

Let everything happen to you

Beauty and terror

Just keep going

No feeling is final

Go to the Limits of Your Longing by Rainer Marie Rilke

---

Many of you will have your own Memories of Mum…

Perhaps you first knew her back in your own childhood in the ‘50s & ‘60s.

The cups of tea & chatting in 102 Farmcombe Road.

Mum in her early 50s

Maybe you first knew her in the ‘80s & ‘90s when Mum was a Grandma…

Were you there on that Boxing Day evening at The Squires for the Christmas Quiz when Mum astounded many with her knowledge & recall?

“That would be Midge Ure, dear!”

I well remember playing cards with Mum.

From childhood, I learnt to always try to be her partner.

For though it seemed that Mum was talking 'nineteen to the dozen' and not really concentrating, she had a photographic memory – which could recite in order every card each player had laid.

Not too many people regularly beat Mum at Whist!

Mum in her early 80s

Dianne & my walk took me along the streets so familiar to me from childhood.

Those Sunday afternoon walks with my cousin Pat, when visiting my maternal Grandma.

Just as Pat & I always did, Dianne & I paused to look at the clock on St Mary’s Church.

Begun in 1515, the clock's construction was only completed 45 years later in 1560.

Needing to be wound twice a day, it is the only clock in England, and possibly in the world, with its pendulum swinging through the roof into the body of the church.

I looked - as I have done these last 60+ years – at the text on above the clock.

Though Mum would live a full & happy life into her 85^th year, her time - as for all of us – was a shadow that passeth away.

Mum, wherever you are on what would have been your 100^th birthday …

I bet there is a cup of tea on the go & you are chatting away.

Thank you so much for Everything !!!

All my Love, Richard XXX

PS

As Dianne & I went back to our car, we walked down Landgate.

As we approached The Queen’s Head - opened over 300 years ago in 1706 as The Two Brewers, re-named in 1781 - we decided to pop in…

Almost 70 years ago, late on in the evening of Friday 22^nd June 1951, Fred & Isabel also decided to pop in.

At the Bar a former Rye cricket team mate of Fred’s asked if he was going to the Cricket on the Saturday, the next day:

Kent v Sussex at The Nevill, Tunbridge Wells.

Though it was very, very short notice, Fred & Isabel decided to go.

Sussex won the toss and batted.

With the score on 58, Sussex lost their second wicket: John Langridge out for 25.

Down the pavilion steps came the Sussex No.4, a 19 year old on weekend leave from doing National Service in the RAF.

Of course, you all know the Story of what happened that day…

(Just in case you don’t, I only tell it about 20 times every Season !!!) 

Young Jim Parks going to a 100 off the last ball of the day.

Fred & Isabel getting Engaged).

Young Jim at The Nevill  - Saturday 23^rd June 1951

Just my Favourite Cricket Story.

And one that goes to show … The Best Decisions are indeed made in the Pub.

And it is never too late - even the night before - to decide to come and watch the Cricket!!

I really do hope that you’ll come along and watch with me this coming Season.

After all ….

Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can star in your own. 

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace