Grandma P's Ramblings Through Life

Ekatarina and Ashley arrived in Crawley yesterday.



The first thing that Ekatarina wanted to do was change into the ballet clothes that she found neatly displayed on the chair in her bedroom. This set of clothes was a lucky find at the South Park car boot sale last Sunday.










This morning we awoke to grey skies and rain - after the weeks of a heatwave we felt a bit cheated that we would have to stay indoors.
But we had some fun anyway.
I have a lot of old metal farm animals and people in a cabinet. I love them, but these days hardly seem to notice that they are there and so it was lovely to see them being played with.



Soon Ekatarina was weaving stories about the lives and adventures of the people in the village she had created.
There were 3 little girls who ride in the cart pulled by the donkey and these became Poppy, Lily and Theresa.





Here is Ekatarina playing with the well.
It is interesting that a well became part of an episode later in the day.










Whilst we were having fun, Grandad was not having such a good time.
He had an appointment with Dr Oliver who drained more fluid from his painful knee.
Ashley went off to church. He is pleased that I can give him some chance for peace and freedom to follow his spiritual needs. He would like to spend time at church most days but of course normally he can't spare the time.
By lunch time it had stopped raining.
We went into Crawley town centre.
Both Ashley and Ekatarina enjoyed today's shopping.
Ashley bought some second hand computer games.
Ekatarina chose a dress in Primark like the one that we bought for Jessica earlier in the year - just a different colour.
I bought her a set of magnetic stick on figures and a board for creating stories - just what she wanted and I assured her that I wouldn't buy her anything else today.
But then I just had to change my mind!
We were in the Save the Children shop and I saw a delightful cuddly dog. I knew that he had to come home with us.
The dog's name is now Angel. The reason for this is interesting and quite mature I think.
As we were leaving the Save the Children shop we saw a poster that pointed out that just £3 would pay for equipment needed at a well head to provide fresh water for the children of Sudan.
I said to Ekatarina that as the dog had cost us £3 it was really special because now that money would go to make a well for the poor children.
Ekatarina suddenly said that the dog should be called Helping Angel.
Wonderful!


Here is Ekatarina back at home wearing the new dress and cuddling Angel.












Crawley town centre these days has several parts. I took some photos whilst we were there but they were deleted from the chip before they were safely saved into our normal photographic programme.
So I have searched our archives for some examples.
Queen's Square was the first big new part of the town centre, built in the late 1950s. It used to be a great place to meet friends and on Sunday afternoons in the summer jazz bands would play in the bandstand and all the hippy and beatnik young people would listen and dance.
Yes - I saw myself as an interesting beatnik, wearing black stockings and big sloppy jumpers and smoking French cigarettes.




It has altered now.
The fountain has been moved and beyond the bandstand there is a new building with more shops in the middle of the square.




But there was a town centre long before Queen's Square was built. Both Bill and I can remember when the High Street was the only place to find shops. There were one or two of the big chain stores, like Woolworths but no such thing as a department store.
The High Street grew up around the even older medieval centre.
The George Hotel was a coaching inn before the days of the railways.












This is called The Ancient Priors. I can remember that part of it was a tea room in my childhood and the other half was a hairdresser's and I had my hair cut there.
But the building is very much older - several hundred years old. There are still rumours about the underground tunnel between The Ancient Priors and The George Hotel, used by smugglers.

The High Street has changed since this picture was taken. There is less traffic now and much of the central area, always known as The Square has been paved and there has been some tasteful landscaping. People now can use some of the new trendy cafes and restaurants that have opened and tables and chairs are set up outside.