When Mrs Butler came to talk about In My Own Write we wondered what exactly she was going to talk about. She gave us a most entertaining and enjoyable evening reciting some amusing poems she had written and relating the sort of encounters we have all experienced. She recited a poem she had written on trying to find an outfit to wear at a friend's wedding, finding what she wanted, but not in her size, and finally when all hope had gone, finding just the outfit on a dummy in an Oxfam shop, complete with matching hat.
She recounted an incident that has happened to many of us, seeing someone in the street who obviously knows you but who you cannot recall. You grope for words to try to get some information from her where you have met before and after a few such remarks as "I hope your family is keeping well" go on your way none the wiser who the person was.
Then there was the day she decided to do what the supermarket suggested, be environmentally friendly and buy a really big substantial plastic bag to put your shopping in and use it each week to save using all the small bags. This all went well until she got to the car park and tried to get the large heavy bag of shopping out of the trolley and into the car boot - single handed!
She did not know whether to feel hurt or to burst out laughing after she had been speaking at one meeting when someone in the group announced they had got a very good raffle as they were hoping to raise funds to enable them in the future to get better speakers. We were certainly delighted to have her as a speaker and I think for many of us the hour went by all too quickly.
At the end of the evening one of the ladies from Canine Partners for Independence, the charity for which we raised money last year, came in with one of the dogs in training and presented our chairman with a lovely photograph of one of the dogs.
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page last updated 5 DECEMBER 1999