I met a man called Graeme on May 14th 1991, the day we were both interviewed to become drama teachers in the same department in a school in Wakefield. Nearly 27 years later he’s still a key piece of my life’s jigsaw and it was an unadulterated joy to celebrate a round number birthday with him this year high above the North Staffordshire Moors overlooking a panoramic valley across from The Roaches, the stegosaurus ridge outside Leek. Spookily the weekend party was in a venue that I’d haunted in the mid-1980s during my first teaching job and in the early days when Sally and I were newly married. The Mermaid Inn was then a pub and is now a luxury holiday let for large groups.
Food, drink, fairy lights, dancing, karaoke, walks up and down the valley, cracking ice in the furrows, capering round tussocks, gambolling across stepping stones, shoes lost in the mud (Squelchy Socks for Rosie!), skinny dipping in the (freezing) Mermaid Pool, cocktails at the bar, songs, speeches, nimble-fingered Dave conjuring atmospheres old and new, techno-Nigel dragging us into the 21st century, Ian & Nick dragging in an alternative way behind the bar, Nicky snapping our portraits, wigs a-waggling, dresses dressed up with somewhere to go, senses infused, palates satisfied, bellies gratified and chattering, chattering, words, words, words. Opening up, catching up, filling up…. the ghosts of the past met the people of the present. The different cast members in Graeme’s life lined up in order of when he met them, settled down, rearranged, intermingled…. and drank some more…. and more.
Lou Reed
Just a perfect day
Drink champagne in the house
And then later
When it gets dark, we are soused
Just a perfect day
Feed animals in the zoo
Then later
Dancing, too, and then home
Oh, it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spent it with you
Oh, such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on
You just keep me hanging on
Problems all left alone
Weekenders on our own
It's such fun
Just a perfect day
You made me forget myself
I thought I was
Someone else, someone young
Oh, it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spent it with you
Oh, such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on
You just keep me hanging on
Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein
The most beautiful sound I ever heard:
Graeme, Graeme, Graeme, Graeme!
All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word
Graeme, Graeme, Graeme, Graeme!
….Graeme…. Graeme!
And suddenly that name
Will never be the same to me.
Graeme!
I've just kissed a boy named Graeme
And suddenly I've found
How wonderful a sound can be!
Graeme!
Say it loud and there's music playing
Say it soft and it's almost like praying
I'll never stop saying Graeme!
The most beautiful sound I ever heard
Graeme!
Lesley (Burns) Boyd
(tae be read in a Rabbie Burns accent)
As a walked inta school that day
feeling kinda sad and doon
a walked intae the staffroom
and there he was, Mr Graeme Broon
A thought tae mysel, who can this be
this gorgeous gorgeous creature
and then a wis introduced, to
the brand new drama teacher
be his friend i wondered if I dare
this gorgeous gorgeous creature
with soft brown eyes, and hair
He wis an oasis of normality
amongst a group of nutters
Jean from PE, the slug
They still give me the jutters
and played bridge together
did we ever teach?
for here we are, friends forever
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
we’ll take a cup o kindness yet
for the sake of auld lang syne
Dorothy Field and Jerome Kern
Some day, when I'm awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight.
You're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft,
There is nothing for me but to love you,
And the way you look tonight.
Tearing my fears apart
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
Touches my foolish heart.
Yes you're lovely, never, ever change
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it?
'Cause I love you
Just the way you look tonight.
William Shakespeare
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
To quote the titles of some of the songs performed by Rosie and Maggie: When I Was No But (Sweet Sixteen), Lillie Marlene was Mad About The Boy and Every Time We Say Goodbye, I Get A Kick Out Of You, since I’ve Got You Under My Skin and wish we could spend our days Cheek To Cheek. Many thanks to Graeme and hubby Nick for the generous gift of a wintry weekend away. And a massive hoorah to all family and friends for pitching in, setting up and clearing away. The Mermaid Inn will forever be a part of our memory bank, isolated geographically but connected to many souls in their feelings for Graeme. Unforgettable!
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