To bring some life into my life I sauntered slowly down to the Geriatric Men's Club meeting last night. A grumble of old men if you like.
A gorgeous evening, the bright sun setting behind the trees across the park. A handful of people dog walking, chatting, and child avoiding in the late sun. How much better life is when bright sunshine, at any time of day, fills the air with some warmth and brightens the skies?
I entered the club, filled with men in bright team coloured shirts. They had gathered at the side hall, pints aplenty, talking and laughing, and disappearing occasionally through to the games room. This was a visiting Darts Team, come to throw darts and drink beer. As far as we could see more beer was being drunk than darts thrown. The noise was tremendous, quite unlike our usual Monday gatherings.
The fire door was open to let in air, as the poor barmaid was feeling the heat, it also let in the smoke from wandering smokers who paraded outside from time to time. How much better life is with a smoke free zone! How did we cope with this constantly in days past? Poor barmaid was overworked all evening, but not by me obviously. £3:15 for a pint here, club prices as opposed to Public House prices are much cheaper, no wonder the Darts Team were drinking happily.
We spent our time in the same boring conversations as always, nothing changes there. Nothing much came out of it, only a new grumble or two. Talk of grumbling, I noted one or two regulars were far from chuffed at the noise and crowd. They came for a quiet night and could not move. What with the Darts Team and ourselves, they glared a lot.
I found it unfortunate that I arrived a wee bit after the others. This meant I had to buy my own, and as they all had been served there was no requirement to by for them. This I found unfortunate. However, I manged to survive this and accept a drink when offered.
Very tired this morning, grumpy and tense. No idea why.
William Dyce - Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th 1858
