Memories of Uncle Pat

I have been listening to music this afternoon, relaxing and retreating into my own thoughts.  It is funny how music can, and often does for me brings to the surface a special memory, often of special family members who have passed over, but who are never forgotten.  Certainly not in my heart.

Great Uncle Pat was the husband of my Nan's older sister, Aunty Kit (on my Dad's side).  I have no real memory of Aunty Kit as she passed when I was about 6 months of age.  She had lived in a very large flat which was covered originally by the Greenhouse at the Hall.  See the picture below.

This is how I remember the Hall.

You can just see a tree to the side of the building.  This is where the pond was and there is still a lot of the building that you cannot see. Including the kitchen area of the Hall which my Aunty lived in.

However, I have never forgotten Uncle Pat.  He was a big gentleman in size and in stature and he read a lot.  He did not like noisy children, (being a Victorian and of the opinion that children should be seen and not heard) and always had a siesta after lunch.   As a consequence of this I was always encouraged to be quiet around him and certainly whilst he had his nap after lunch.

Uncle Pat's flat was accessed from my Aunties home, down a long passage, with a glazed interconnecting door.  He had a pantry to the left, and his bedroom was to the right.  Then the kitchen and then his front room.  There were oil paintings of horses on the walls down this passageway and also small dressers and tables.  At the end of the passage was a big brass Chinese Gong with a padded beater.  When I was there it was my job to bang the gong to get everybody together for dinner in the kitchen.

Lunch was always held around a big deal kitchen table in Uncle Pat's Flat, where all the family would gather for midday lunch.  That was my Aunty R, my Uncle J, my cousin who used to come home from work at lunchtime and then go back, Uncle Pat and me when I was there. That kitchen also had a small upholstered child's chair in the corner where I was encouraged to sit whilst Aunty was preparing lunch.  There was not much space  in the kitchen and it was safer that way for everyone concerned.  However that did not stop me chatting and talking to Aunty. 

Uncle Pat also owned a large two tone green leather seated Jaguar car.  I do not know the model but it was very much a luxury car and very comfortable.  I used to sit in the back on the arm rest so I could see out the window when he used to take us into Lincoln for the market where he used to pick up the fruit for his birds and his seed and also Aunty R used to do the weekly shopping.  We then used to meet up in a little café off the main market for lunch.  What I remember most about that café is that it had Toulouse Lautrec posters on the wall which intrigued me.  I believe that café was still there until a few years ago.

When we got back home, then we had the job of unpacking all the food into the pantry, and it was there that I first came upon a terracotta crock, used for storing the bread in.  The small Hovis wholemeal bread loaves at least a couple used to be stored in this large pot which certainly kept the bread fresh.

Uncle Pat was an interesting gentleman in his own right as he had been in the Royal Air Flying Corps and had been an early joiner with a very low service number.  A lot of our family members or indeed extended family members have been in the forces either the Air Force or the Army.  He also kept caged birds and had aviaries in his garden for quite a selection of rare exotic birds.  When he used to go and feed them I used to go with him. When he went outside  or on any outing, he always used to wear a large Panama Hat. 

Uncle Pat also had a large pond outside his flat window which he kept goldfish in.  There were a series of interconnecting ponds that went down the hill all linked so that they could flow into each other which went down to the aviaries as well.  They were good to paddle in, in hot weather.  He loved his gardening, and his birds.

We frequently used to go to the Caged Bird Society meet up at Cleethorpes, and whilst he used to attend this event and catch up with other members, I used to be taken down to the sea or to the Zoo.  The last time I attended the bird show with him I was about 17 years of age and he bought for my Aunty a pebble necklace with a blackbird on it and for me one with a parrot on.  It was nothing expensive but it was the spontaneity of the treat for us both that made it memorable for me.  It was also my last outing with him to the Bird Show and I still have this pendant to this day.

I went to stay many times over an 18 year period at the Hall, the twilight years for Uncle Pat, but he remained very interested in what was going on in the world.  He often spoke to me after his siesta about different things.  He was convinced that there had in his mind to be a "missing link" in the progress of the human race and he was certain that we would at some point find that missing link.  

He loved a good Western film and a good Western book to read and he liked music.  Every so often he would meet up with old friends at the Ram Jam Inn on the old A1 road. 

He also thought that the ability to be able to speak a second language would be a bonus in due course, something else which he was right about. 

I remember however, that he was particularly taken with the above song, so much so my Aunty went to the trouble of getting him a copy of the recording.  I remember him playing it on an old record player in his front room.  It is a lovely song but I can never not hear this song without thinking of my Uncle Pat.  A lovely and gentle man.  Sadly he passed just after I got married - I think just short of my 20th birthday.  I was very fond of him.  It was a different time and a different world then and so different for him for the world that he had grown up in.

Happy times indeed.

Are there songs that bring you back to a particular individual or a memory of a loved one.  Would love to hear from you.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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