Today is the 'Longest Day' in the UK. By that I do not mean longest in the sense of waiting for the dentist to open so that a tooth can be extracted, nor do I mean longest in the sense of waiting for the bus to arrive while the rain pours down your neck. No indeed I mean longest between between sunrise and sunset. Now for many year man thought this moment was significant. Men without God sought him as they could and Stonehenge reflects early Britons ideas concerning the importance of sunrise, although some suggest that in fact the sunset was important instead. But clearly they felt this important enough to spend hundreds of years building Stonehenge into a major gathering point. Quite what occurred when they gathered is unclear but the event was important enough to transport huge blocks of stone all the way from darkest Wales to Salisbury plain. The transport of such blocks seems difficult enough today when cranes and lorries are employed to transport such loads, imagine the trouble taken in the days of yore? However early man ingenious and capable of great building works. The Tower of Babel, Pyramids, Standing stones, huge temples and palace complexes and the like are found in many places often dating back thousands of years. Today, it is impossible in some cases to understand the intellectual reasons behind their works, but clearly these were important social settings.
This morning vast numbers of numpties gathered at Stonehenge to see the sunrise. Naturally being Britain (not England as some would have it) the sky is covered with clouds and even here when I woke just after three the sky was coloured a darkish hue as morning approached, very disappointing but better than the dark black days to come! This is my favourite day off the year! I cannot be doing with these dark nights, I was made for light and sunshine - yet I was born in Edinburgh! Sometimes one wonders! These numpties at Stonehenge have gathered in imitation of pagan worship from the past. Few however actually have any idea what the past activities were all about as information regarding the ancient druids is almost non existent, so those who dress in fancy robes and gather so intently there each year are in fact living a fantasy life based on their own desires, not those of Iron or Bronze age man. The majority attend for the spectacle, with little care for the 'worship' and naturally the media will also gather there, anything to fill the press on slow news day.
In November 1918 Scapa Flow welcomed the German Fleet interned after the armistice. Some 74 ships, Battleships, Battle cruisers, and Cruisers along with destroyers were brought into the famous naval base. These ships were manned by a skeleton crew (that is skeleton as is small number of men, not a lot of bones running around the ship). Scapa Flow while an important base for the Royal navy was also much disliked as a posting. In the north of Scotland the weather becomes extremely cold in winter and there was little or nothing to appeal to the thousands of men normally based on Royal Naval ships. The German crews, who had spent most of the war in Williamshaven naval base, probably felt extremely unhappy with their lot! This could not have been helped by the news of revolution at home while Germany tore herself apart. By the middle of 1919 Rear Admiral von Reuter, in charge of the imprisoned ships, knew Germany would be forced to accept whatever terms were ordered by the Versailles discussions. So on this day 90 years ago, 21 June 1919, 72 warships of the German fleet were scuttled in Scapa Flow, Orkney. Many were scuttled where they lay and others were beached. This gave the Germans some sense of revenge as they realised this would stop their ships being used by the enemy. Most however were salvaged for scrap during the next twenty years.
Fathers Day is the day nasty women sent 'Fathers Day' cards to single men they feel spiteful towards."To Daddy from Johnny" it reads, "When will I ever see you?" Single man feels no little concern as this is the first time he has heard of 'Little Johnny' and begins to wonder just what did happen that time in the social club. he had a drink but, but....?
Fathers day was not thought off when I was a lad, fathers were, but no special day was set apart for them. Fathers Day, like Mothers, Valentine, and any other special day are only inventions from people making money out of emotional blackmail! My dad, like most of his generation, would appreciate some consideration I suppose, but he would not have been to bothered about a special day for this. For the kids, or mum yes, but not for himself. He probably thought that would be making him a bit of a 'Jessie!' He saw his role as providing for his family, especially as his mum, who he was close to, left his dad when he was about five, probably because of his drinking. My dads aim from then on was to do the right thing and provide for, care for and bring up a family properly! Naturally this went well for the most part, although he and I managed not to get on - too similar in some ways. He also felt a failure when my mother went out to work. When I, the last in the line, started secondary school she began to clean houses for the middle classes. She got on with them so well she is still a family friend with them over forty five years later! Dad still felt this made him inadequate but this I did not realise for years. While in the army he managed to scratch his initials on Stonehenge he claimed. Salisbury Plains being a huge army training area and I suspect he, and others, were indulging in the age old army occupation of dodging the work! He died from lung cancer, caused most likely by cigarette smoking, at the age of 61. Had he lived he would today be 101 and probably spent all day complaining about something. So unlike me! It has to be said we didn't get on, partly from the age gap, the sixties revolution and both of us sharing certain dispositions. However in the last twenty years I have often wondered what life would have been like had he lived? Sometimes I would like to ask him questions, but I suspect I already know the answers.
