Some South Woodford scribbles from DD, our resident diarist, commentator and observer of all things local. Illustrated by Evelyn Rowland
I was brought up on proverbs. You know the sort of thing: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” I associate that one with the early stages of learning to knit. Thinking I was getting on fine after 10 rows, until Mother pointed out that I had dropped a stitch in row three. Some proverbs were quite appealing to my imagination but less directly applicable to a small resident of Hillside Avenue in Woodford Green. For example, the one about how useless it is “to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted.”
I saw a proverb in action only last week. I was crossing over from the International Supermarket to the flyover and discovered a cheerful troop of volunteers transforming the half-circle of land at the beginning of Eastwood Road into ‘a mini meadow’. I stopped to admire. “It’s Beth you need to talk to. She’s in charge.” “Yes,” said Beth. “It’s going to be low maintenance, with grasses and wild flowers. Seats for relaxing. A little bit of biodiversity at the heart of things”. I don’t think I’d ever noticed this inconspicuous scrap of land before. But I will now! “We’ve even given it a name,” said Beth. “Eastwood Green.” Yes: “Many hands certainly do make light work.” (Except, of course, in the kitchen, when “too many cooks spoil the broth.”)
It takes a while, years really, to grasp the truth of some of the more surprising proverbs: “The best things in life are free.” Grow a few decades older and you can easily fill a book listing the best things. “If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t make anything.” I’ve found that to be a very useful topic for discussions with grandchildren when the hoped-for A* doesn’t materialise, or when, for once, you don’t get on the podium after the cross-country race. And what about: “It’s better to give than to receive”?A recent poll asking children what they most love about Christmas quite naturally showed a huge majority plumped for “receiving presents”. My partner, David, is a registered speaker on behalf of the charity Mercy Ships, taking first-world surgery to the poorest people on earth. Every member of the workforce on board, from surgeons to deckhands, is a volunteer, even paying a daily charge for board and lodging. But they all say they receive back in fulfilment vastly more than they give.
Two of David’s sturdy, grown-up kids came around yesterday to prove that: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” I wanted a large wardrobe moved from the garage bedroom into the big front bedroom. Up a few stairs and along the narrow landing. I was certain it couldn’t be done. They reached the landing. Weighed up the situation. Took the wardrobe to pieces, carried the pieces up the few stairs, and put them together again. As if by magic.
Of course, some proverbs may need updating: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” That would have to be one of five apples now. “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” If only there were less concrete and more grass! But some proverbs for families seem to have stood the test of time. “Least said, soonest mended. Avoid washing your dirty linen in public. Never let the sun go down on your anger.” No comment needed, perhaps. When we had that week with the supermarkets running out of eggs, we soon learnt that “it’s the early bird that catches the worm.” I bet you thought I was going to advise you “not to put all your eggs in one basket.”
Procrastination comes in for stern treatment: “The thief of time.” I’m writing this shortly after the New Year when I resolved not to “put off to tomorrow what can be done today.” And failed. But surely “better late than never” is at least a step in the right direction.
When thinking it over, I reluctantly and rather sadly had to agree that “beggars can’t be choosers,” but perhaps I was wrong: not long ago I was passing a fellow citizen seated on the pavement in the rain outside NatWest and asked if I could buy him a sandwich. “Ta, mate,” he replied, “I’ll have a chicken and bacon with salad and mayonnaise on thick-cut granary bread. From Greggs.”
Last Thursday, I decided to visit Alex, the jeweller, opposite Sainsbury’s. I thought: “There’s no time like the present”, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” and “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” He had shown me on a previous visit that “a chain is no stronger than its weakest link.” On this occasion, I hoped to sell rather than buy; some items left to me by a friend. I polished them up nicely. Needn’t have bothered! Alex took one look and reminded me: “All that glitters is not gold.” But, in fact, there was some, and I came away well pleased with our transaction, thinking: “every little helps.” “All’s well that ends well.”
I see that one of my most loved proverbs dates back to the third century BC: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” When you look around at all the shops in South Woodford aiming to make us more beautiful, you can’t help (gratefully) laughing when you know that even the most unlikely-looking people – or so we think – will appear beautiful to someone, and it’s not that the beholder needed to go to Specsavers. Here’s that proverb brought to life in one of my favourite poems, John Betjeman’s In a Bath Teashop (could easily be in a George Lane coffee shop).
“Let us not speak, for the love we bear one another–
Let us hold hands and look.”
She such a very ordinary little woman;
He such a thumping crook;
But both, for a moment, little lower than the angels
In the teashop’s ingle-nook.
I‘ll stop now. “Enough is as good as a feast.”
To contact DD with your thoughts or feedback, email dd@swvg.co.uk
