My mad old friends

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This is in response to a post by @TheHorse When I was a student I needed to earn some money, I looked at working in McDonalds but after going to the induction evening I just knew I could never do that! Luckily I saw an advert asking for students to do odd jobs. The employer turned out to be an elderly couple, Peggy and Gerry, who wanted help to build raised beds in their garden. I love that sort of thing so I quickly became a regular, cycling over to their house once or twice a week to work in the garden. A few other students also came along at various times. Apart from sowing seeds and building raised beds, we were paid to build various buildings, help adapt their ‘camper van’, make clothes and soft furniture, cook up preserves from their produce and all sorts of other things. But the things that made them unusual was that every working day, during a break when we were supplied with hot drinks and cake, Gerry would ‘discuss’ (basically read to us) his pre-prepared thoughts on philosophy, generally Plato, or else the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Sometimes we would do exercises based on Steiner’s ‘anthroposophy’ and we also followed his methods in the garden. They also had their own unique approach to doing anything. I remember creating an automatic watering system with a series of pipes, a timer switch and an electric kettle. They had their own camper van but they hadn’t just bought one and driven off in it, oh no! They bought one, stripped out the interior, then refitted it in their own unique way with a heating system made from metal tubes and inverted mop buckets, and water which came out of the tap when you pressed a doorbell. I later found that the boat I lived in had first belonged to them (I didn’t know this when I bought it); they had owned a whole series of boats of all kinds including various canal boats, sailing boats and a catamaran. They were accomplished sailors and knew how to navigate by the stars. All their boats had star-related names including ‘Starlight’ and ‘Stellar Way’. They did give me a couple of beginners sailing lessons when we had time, and also gave me a windsurf board. Several of their other student helpers learned to sail with them. One of Gerry’s favourite sayings was ‘Invest in the means of production’ – if he needed something making or mending he would get whatever tools were needed to do it himself. I can’t say this was a really new idea as my parents had a very similar attitude, but it did reinforce that approach and give me more confidence to tackle any new skill! They had an interesting life story. Gerry studied at the London School of Economics, during which period they lived in a converted London taxi parked outside! (I remember them showing me a newspaper cutting about them). After that both had worked for the BBC, then they started their own school. They had done a lot of sailing, and Gerry was in the RAF during the war but almost died when his plane crashed on fire during training. After that he hated to be indoors so although they owned a nice house in an expensive part of town, every evening they would drive out into the countryside in their camper van, where they would spend every night and all weekends in different places. They converted their house into eight ‘bedsits’ and rented out seven while using the other themselves during daytimes. They tried to foster more community spirit in their area by donating produce from their garden to their neighbours. I can only imagine what the posh people on their street thought when this gruff elderly man wearing an old beret (which he was never without) knocked on their door and presented them with a carrier bag of enormous runner beans! I’m very grateful to them for all the work they gave me (which, along with working for another eccentric character, was responsible for me getting through my student years without debt) and also for all the interesting times I spent with them. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of them as they wouldn’t let me take any, but l think of them often and tell stories about them, so I hope in that way their legacy lives on. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.