PICK A CARD - ANY CARD!

As many of you know, Thursday is Training Day for me over at the Swindon 105.5 Radio Station and today was no exception - but I also had an interview in my diary, with John Williams.  John had rung a couple of weeks ago to speak to Shirley, the Station Manager, and said that he had written a couple of poems that he would like to read on the radio.  Shirley immediately asked me if I would like to interview him and said it would be good practice for me, so today was the day.

What I like about Shirley is that she gives you a job to do and then leaves you to get on with it - there is no peering over your shoulder or telling you exactly what to do, so John and I went into Studio 1, which was set up for the results of the Local Elections later.  I had my own microphone, so didn’t need to worry about the recording desk and off we went.  John was very easy to chat to and of course, it wasn’t a very formal interview - so we chatted first of all about when he came to Swindon, because with a name like John Williams and hearing his voice, it was obvious that he wasn’t originally from here.

It transpired that John was a miner’s son and came to Swindon from the Rhondda Valley in Wales in the 1970s because he wanted to open up his experiences in different work situations.  When I mentioned that even after all these years, he still had his Welsh accent, he told me that he felt it was important to keep that, as it was part of his character, but that when he goes back to Wales, he finds that his accent becomes more pronounced, but then when he gets back here he has a more neutral accent, which was very interesting. 

John started working at the local hospital as a technician in the operating theatre.  After about three years, he became a freelance tutor with an organisation that looked after the railway workers at British Rail when they were made redundant, helping them to build their confidence so that they could look for new positions.  I told John that my own husband had been made redundant from British Rail but when I asked Mr. HCB if he had ever met John, he said he hadn’t.

He then moved on to working in different schools as a freelance drama tutor - and again, he enjoyed teaching pupils, which involved not only building their confidence but also teaching them to work as a team, to be focused on what they were doing and performing, using their bodies and their voices.  He told me that he still sees some of his pupils and they often tell him they remember being part of his drama group many years ago, which pleases him, because he feels he has left some sort of mark on their lives.

John was obviously a very busy man during his working life, teaching and running drama workshops;  although he is now retired, he is still busy.  He directs plays at The Trout, a public house at Lechlade, where they have created a “theatre space” in the actual pub in a marquee - where they are actually performing this weekend.  He also does what he called “close-up magic” and told me that he would show me some of it once we had finished.

Like me, John feels it is essential to keep one’s mind active and to that end he does lots of reading and learning.  In fact, he has been going to a Creative Writing Workshop that lasts five weeks, at The Sun Inn, which is just down the road from where I live - and he invited me to go along - however, I’m not sure, having thought about it, that I would have the time, what with all the other things I am doing at the moment.  We also agreed that for many of us retirement doesn’t mean we stop doing things - except working for payment - but rather that we find new and exciting things to fill our lives.  I did tell him that I never expected to have a new career at my age!

John read two of the poems he had written, both of which were excellent - the one about his father was particularly moving.  At the end of the interview, I asked him to come back when he had written more, so we could have another chat and he promised me he would.  

I wasn’t at all surprised that John had a pack - or deck - of cards with him and he even performed a couple of card tricks for me.  I still don’t know how he did what he did - in fact, I thought the trick had gone wrong at first, but John “came up trumps” - pun intended!  He told me that he writes all his poems in longhand, so I told him I would teach him to touch-type if he would teach me some magic card tricks - sounds like a good swap although I'm not sure I will have time to add card tricks to my repertoire!

Of course, it didn't finish there - I then had to edit the interview and sort out with Shirley when it will go out on air, but even that is fun to do.

I explained to John about Blip and he said he was happy for me to use the photograph I took for my Blip today and of course, I have promised to send him a copy - so thank you, John, for a very interesting morning.

“I love meeting new people;
     I think everyone has a story to tell.
          We should all listen sometimes.”
Kim Smith