This week has been interesting with its weather to say the least...and
I really wondered what to blog about until a deep fog fell over Eaton tonight. The fog always reminds me of London, it also
reminded me of my latest present from some friends.. a poster. The poster was a copy of a historic poster
put out just before Britain’s anticipated entrance into WWII in 1939. Humorously, the poster was never publically
displayed and recently was found and has become a new symbol...one I love…
“Keep Calm and Carry On”. What could be
more British...perhaps only thoughts of Winston Churchill!
That brought me to Churchill’s mother who was Jennie Jerome,
a beautiful American who actually has great ties to CNY. The Jerome Family farms were in CNY and the
land that my family built its house on was part of the Jerome Farm…home of
Jennie’s grandmother.
Thoughts of the Jerome farm led me to ponder the fact that
for Christmas this year I gave my brother the gold watch dad had given me...he
had found the old gold watch in the family garden as a young man...a garden
that would later become the family compound of homes. Repaired and running, I thought it was a
great family history piece and a great present.
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| Picture I took on a trip to London of Churchill's statue with Big Ben in Background |
Churchill was supposed to come to speak at a family reunion
in Syracuse once, but had to turn back because of the presence of U Boats...he
did send a telegram to the family group assembled…a piece of history I learned
from the Wood-Eaton sisters who visited me years back in Eaton. They were relatives and were to be at the
reunion and remembered the trip. They
had come to Eaton to visit their great grandfather Allen Nelson Wood’s house,
the house I live in. Isn’t it strange how
life is full of so much serendipity?
Mr. Wood was named Allen Nelson Wood...Nelson for Lord Nelson
a hero his family honored with the name for many generations…and then suddenly my
grey cat Rascal jumped in my lap…hint …one o f Winston Churchill’s most famous
cat’s (grey) was named Nelson to honor
Lord Nelson.
Churchill was a cat lover, actually an animal lover. Winston and his wife Clementine signed their
love letters to each other with little drawn pictures…he a dog (Pug) she his
cat...and their daughter the PK or puppy-kitten.
His cat stories are famous and many can still picture him speaking
with a drink in one hand and the grey cat next to him. One story I love is... after one of his famous speeches (he had a
lisp as well as drank) a woman MP in Parliament said, “Sir, you are
drunk!” His replay was “Madame that may
be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly!”
His favorite cat in later life cat was a ginger-marmalade
colored cat he called “Jock”, named
after Sir John Coville his secretary who gave it to him. Churchill loved the color and the cat so much
that after giving his home Chartwell to the National Trust… he stated in his
will that it should always have a ginger colored cat in residence…and to this
day it does…and always named appropriately “Jock”.
Here is one of his most famous speeches....
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