The Mail Train

As I was sorting through the Christmas cards which had arrived this week, I began to wonder…,

‘This is the Mail Train
Crossing the border,
Bringing the ??? ,
And the postal order ‘…..

Must look up that poem and fill in the missing words. Border? Now, that might be a ‘first line’ in answer to the anagram I’m stuck on in the Military Quiz. Must remember to put a cheque in that Birthday card today. Does anyone use postal orders now most local Post Offices have closed?

Despite having two bookshelves with poetry books, and quotation selections galore, I can’t find the poem – think the missing word may be ‘stamps’.

Well, at least we can buy stamps in all the local shops, & I have a list & a calculator to try to match 4 varieties of stamps with umpteen different postal charges.

Wonder whether the Royal mail sorting office is still at Crewe? I seem to remember reading about a re-location to Warrington.

Do ‘penniless students’ still earn some extra Christmas cash as we did? Mike as a postman on his bike; me in the local hall, ‘facing up’ the piles & piles of letters & cards which were emptied onto the table in front of me, each time a postman returned with yet another sackful from his collection round.

Andy had ‘flu when he hauled the heavy sacks around, on the night shift – somewhere in the depths of Crewe station.

When they celebrated the Cheshire Gardens ’08 at Crewe station, I saw a picture of the water bowl ‘For ye dogs’. Dayve’s lasting memory of his infant school trip round Crewe station was of that same bowl!
’Bowl’? Must get some breakfast! I’ll put the cards I’ve already sorted into the child’s-train bookends until I’ve the time to arrange them properly.

As you realise, it is not surprising that I have yet to write a family ‘Christmas Letter’. Mike has already written , stamped & posted, or hand delivered, most of the Christmas cards from us this year. I hope they will wish family & friends ‘A Happy Christmas’, while my ‘train of thought’ continues to pause at every station, awaiting the key to the single track which would allow the mail to go through.

Best Wishes,
Mary Garratt (Mrs)
12th. December 2008

A Childhood Puzzle Remembered

As a child my only real quizzes for Xmas were my Great Aunt’s riddles at the tea table. Of more recent years, I have used some of those, with many children, and even as a topic at various talks to adults.

These days there are many different kinds of quizzes available: in newspapers; on TV; at fund-raising evenings, and even – the kind I prefer – as sheets of A4 questions to be studied at leisure.

With the widespread use of the internet, the quiz compilers need to find more and more ways to formulate interesting and challenging questions which are not available already answered on ‘The Net’.

During the last few days I came across several items which caused me to think about a question I remembered reading about as a child.

At the Christmas Lunch for the Retired Staff from Mike’s previous employment, he won a pack of 4 wax crayons from the Christmas Cracker. One day I received the December ’08. edition of a friend’s local magazine. It had a Christmas picture for children and adults to colour. Last night I was using an atlas – one I’ve had since childhood – to look for a quiz answer.

This morning I remembered: well I think I do !

Somewhere I read that it is possible to colour in a map, so that no adjoining countries have the same colour, and only four different colours are needed.

Is/was this correct? Will you need to buy 4 wax crayons to find out?

Have ‘fun for a few pence’ at Christmas 2008, as in 1908 (!) and in 1958 (!).

Best wishes.

Mary Garratt
7th. December 2008