Robert Carey, aged eight
Part 2 of a short story series about the young Robert Carey - and in case you don't already have it, you can get part 1 as well, A Pest of a Boy.
By gum, these Penryn kids are tough. In the teeth of a nasty cold gale straight off Falmouth Harbour, there they were in their pretty dresses to be May Queens, dancing down the street to the music of Bagas Crowd, complete with violins, drums, clarinets. They were not fazed at all by the scary Green Men marching ahead nor by press photographers, nor people watching from windows. Down on the Memorial Gardens, they rushed around, listened to stories, cheered the splendid Relentless band (average age around 10 years old) and cheered the May Queens.
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There had been a hitch with the weather. We had obviously ordered fine sunshine from 1.00 pm to 6.00 pm with a very light fresh breeze, and done it well in advance. I think the people organising That Wedding must have had a word with someone and hijacked our weather for the Friday. What we got was nasty, cold, grey – until our protests got to someone in charge and some blue sky and sun was quickly rustled up very late in the day. You can be sure we\’ll be making complaints to the very highest authority.
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No matter – the stall holders who braved the wind did good business and even though we couldn\’t raise the maypole in case it got blown over and killed somebody, we still danced around a virtual maypole to welcome in the summer.