I resisted commenting the first time the name appeared, but I can keep quiet no longer! There can only be one H Massingham - Harold Massingham was a student at Manchester University at the same time as me - early to mid-50s. I never knew what he was studying - I didn't actually ask, but he wrote poetry, and his hero was Dylan Thomas, and he consequently drank like Dylan Thomas. One day, he announced that he was giving up drinking for a month - just to show that he could - and he stood in the Union bar drinking tomato juice for the whole of February!
For a period of time we had a wall in common, as we occupied adjacent bed-sits in a house in Didsbury, and shared a bathroom. One Sunday, around midday, he appeared at the door of my room, waving a tin-opener ineffectually around a tin of corned beef, and asked me if I could open it for him. He looked so pathetic, that I invited him in to share the meal my boyfriend and I were about to sit down to. He stayed the rest of the day, smoking his way through all my cigarettes. When they were finished he announced that he was going to buy some cigarettes, and did I want him to get some for me?!! (This trip to the shops coincided with my telling him that it was his turn to wash up!) We saved the washing up for him - he wasn't very pleased about that, but he did it - singing "Rock of Ages" all the way through! About 25 years later, when I was on the Recreation and Arts Committee on Greater Manchester Council, I found his name on a list of grant-aided events, listed under "Poets in Schools" - so he must have made it as a poet. Ann in Manchester, UK ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 12:17 PM Subject: [lace] Handling bobbins Marjorie also mentions a bit more about a quotation in her collection by H. Massingham (not a name I am familiar with) describing a similar method of working. Very interesting. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
