Thursday 24 January 2013

Funny Friday - Champagne socialist?

This letter from my grandfather, found in my great-aunt's belongings, certainly made me smile.

The letter - which interestingly has been witnessed and stamped - is written on headed note paper from the local Labour Party and is dated 3 months after the general election that  swept the Labour Party to power just after the end of the war in Europe.  My grandfather campaigned very actively for the Labour Party in the election. Letters between his sisters say he spoke of nothing else at the time.  My father's first memory is of standing outside their cottage - which was opposite the polling station - waving his, suitably red shirted, Pooh Bear and shouting "Vote Labour!"


JWTTransferChampagneGlassesRed_opt
The contents of the letter however, seem a little at odds with the paper on which it is written, for it is recording the transfer from my grandfather to his sister of 6 champagne flutes and 2 cut glass wine decanters!  Hardly good socialist stuff.

As the family had very little money, quite what my grandfather was doing with 6 champagne flutes and 2 cut glass decanters I don't know.  And whether the humour in his choice of letter head had struck him I am unsure.






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2 comments:

  1. Love it!!! ... Was he just having "a joke", I wonder? Reminded me that in my teenage years our "Occupational Health & Safety" officer, snapped a photo, and wrote a seeming official report re: me washing up our office "tea cups" which were often known to grow all sorts of "greebies" as we "office girls" seemed not to notice :-) ha ha ha... Thanks for the post, Catherine

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    1. Really not sure if he was having a joke or just so engrossed in the election he didn't notice. I guess with rationing even paper supplies must have been tight!

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