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Registered Charity No. 1082254
August 2020 The Emergency Newsletter of U3A Clitheroe during these unprecedented times
of 2020—the year of the Coronavirus
WHERE DO WE GO FOM HERE?
In June it was hoped that we might be able to start offering face-to-face meetings from September. This
has proved to be too optimistic. We have to continue to follow the advice from National U3A and this is to
adhere to government guidelines concerning social distancing. The Committee met via Zoom on 16 th July
2020 at which various decisions were made. These are listed below:
Face to Face Meetings
Monthly General Meetings in St Mary’s Hall will be cancelled until January 2021. The same ruling will
apply to Monthly Interest Groups. (Please note, insurance cover provided by U3A would be invalidated if
any meetings are held in breach of Covid-19 regulations/advice).
Zoom Meetings
It is possible to hold meetings of varying size using Zoom technology. Many of you will already be familiar
with this for communicating with family and friends. It is similar to Skype. Many organisations are now
going down this route in order to keep businesses going, and keeping people in touch.
The committee has decided to invest in Zoom licences so that we can hold large meetings (Monthly
Speaker Meetings) as well as smaller ones (Interest Group Meetings).
Things are moving fast and groups will have already heard from the Groups Coordinator, Philip Bradshaw,
with information as to where we are up to with this. Groups are encouraged to make use of this
investment to enhance the activities of their groups in the absence of face to face meetings. He has
already arranged two possible dates for Zoom Meetings for Group Convenors to join in.
We appreciate that some of you who receive Newsflash are not computer users. In order that you do not
feel left out we think it would be a good idea to introduce a ‘buddy’ system. If you would like to do this
please make contact with David Grimes, the Membership Secretary. He will be very happy to make
arrangements to ‘pair’ you with someone who lives near you who has a computer to facilitate this.
Forthcoming Event - September Main Meeting
This will be held on Tuesday 8 September using Zoom. Paul Fisher has very kindly agreed to be the
speaker and his subject will be the artist Pablo Picasso. Details of how to sign up for this will be included
in the September Newsflash. Watch this space!
Reduction of Membership Fee
The Committee have decided that next year’s membership fee will be at the reduced rate of £10. This is in
recognition of the reduced activity associated with the restrictions imposed on us by Covid-19.
National Newsletter
For those of you who wish to sign up to receive this electronically please go to the National U3A Website:
www.u3a.org.uk where you will find a link for doing this.
With best wishes,
I Alison Hoyle, Chairman
U3A Officers and Committee 2020
Chairman: Alison Hoyle, Tel: 01200 424622 e-mail: alison57@live.co.uk
Vice-Chair: Marjorie Taylor, Tel: 01254 249897
e-mail@marjorietaylor@hotmail.co.uk
Vice-Chair: Janet Elliott, Tel: 01254 248106 e-mail: jkelliott108@gmail.com
Treasurer: Paul Fisher, Tel: 01254 245910 e-mail: pfisher3@btinternet.com
Secretary: Eileen Narain Tel: 01200 859727 e-mail: eileen.narain@gmail.com
Newsletter Editor: Pauline Hutchinson, Tel: 01282 817544 Mob: 07792719033
e-mail: pauline.m.hutchinson@btinternet.com
Groups Co-ordinator: Philip Bradshaw, Tel: 01254 249764
e-mail: philip@ribbvalley.co.uk
Membership Secretary: David Grimes, Tel: 01254 240707
e-mail: davidgrimes1@mac.com
Webmaster: Frank Taylor, Tel: 01200 443633
e-mail: frankhtaylor@yahoo.co.uk
FIND THE JOINING WORD
HOW FRUITY ARE YOU? FROM LAST ISSUE
ANSWERS IN THE NEXT ISSUE Answers
1. This one is cheap ………………………………...
2. Red and Yellow ………………………………... 1. SWEET Tooth PASTE
3. He leaves ………………………………... 2. CUP Hook NOSE
4. Fields, fair or blonde ………………………………... 3. SOUTH Pacific OCEAN
5. Could this be the third person? ………………………………... 4. BOOK Shelf LIFE
6. Never ban Anastasia from Jamaica ………………………………. 5. FOOT STEP LADDER
7. Simple pottery made in Japan ….…………………………… 6. IRON BAR NONE
8. She married an English politician ……………………………… 7. TOFFEE PAPER CLIP
9. Infants bed after a short month ……………………………… 8. ACCRINGTON STANLEY KNIFE
10. He interferes ……………………………… 9. POODLE PARLOUR MAID
11. Change a lemon into this ……………………………... 10. TEA LEAF MOULD
12. Are there two of these? ……………………….……... 11. FISH TAIL GATE
13. Is this pie in order? ………….…………..……… 12. TELEPHONE CALL CENTRE
14. Feeling down about this fruit ………………………………... 13. COMIC STRIP POKER
15. From New Zealand ………………………………... 14. FLAP JACK SPRATT
16. Don’t wine about these ………………………………... 15. WASHING LINE DANCE
16. RUBBER DUCK BOARD
17. STAR LIGHT HOUSE
ZOOM 18. WATER FEATURE FILM
The Committee are considering the use of Zoom technology for use 19. FATHER TIME PIECE
with future meetings 20. MERRY CHRISTMAS GREETINGS
WATCH THIS SPACE
U? 2Press Ganged?
Tra la la…”Zoom, just one look and then my heart went boom, suddenly and we were on the moon
Flyin' high in a neon sky, oh oh…”
Now hands up those of you who remember that song written by Fat Larry’s Band, released in 1982.
Well, Zoom is upon us in more ways than one. I have a sports car that goes zoom when I feel like it and
having spoken with my fellow committee members, it appears that Zoom is also a way of keeping in
touch. You may have already experienced the Zoom on your computer and for those who haven’t it’s a
really great way of seeing friends, relatives and others who you want to see and keep in touch with.
As Alison Hoyle our chairperson has mentioned in the introduction, we are holding a Zoom meeting in
September which will be open to all members who wish to join in. U3A Clitheroe has invested a significant
amount in order that you are able to join us for a meeting in September, more details to follow.
As luck would have it, I’ve been preparing a presentation on some of the work of Picasso and as part of
the Zoom meeting, I will be presenting this.
Now please don’t let this put you off, I promise that if I get more than three thumbs down, yes, you can
do that with Zoom, I’ll get my coat and go to the pub… If only I could though.
Picasso’s Dove a symbol of peace so simple but effective.
Iwill be delighted to see you at the Zoom meeting scheduled for Tuesday 8 th September starting at
2:00pm. More details and joining instructions will be made available to you.
With best wishes,
Paul Fisher, Treasurer and not sailor Sam.
EDITORIAL COMMENT
Have you anything to contribute to this temporary electronic newsletter? We would like to invite you our members to
contribute. It can be on any topic that interests you and does not have to be long. Text as Word Documents and any
illustrations or photos as jpg format
Copy date: September NewsFlash deadline: Friday Friday 28 August 2020.
All copy required by e-mail to the Editor, pauline.m.hutchinson@btinternet.com
Pauline Hutchinson, Editor
3Submitted by Maureen Pickup
Ethel Carnie Holdsworth 1886 – 1962
(Mill girl brought up in Great Harwood who became the first working
class woman to have a novel published)
“For God’s sake, women, go out and play.
Instead of staring round to see what wants polishing or rubbing, go
out into the open and draw the breath of the moors or the hills into
your lungs ….. and do not forget that you are something more than a
dish washer - that you are more necessary to the human race than
politicians - or anything”.
These inspirational words about female empowerment were written
in 1909 by a remarkable local lass called Ethel Carnie.
Born in Oswaldtwistle Ethel moved to Great Harwood when she was
4. Aged 11, as was the norm, she started part time work as a reacher
in a mill becoming full time at 13. An avid reader, Ethel frequently visited the Co-op reading room in Great
Harwood. She attended evening classes and studied in Manchester. She wrote poetry from an early age
and, aged 17, submitted poems to local newspapers.
Ethel was strongly Influenced by her socialist upbringing. She was profoundly aware of the conditions in
which she lived and worked and wasn’t afraid to address “difficult” topics such as the inequities of
women’s “selfless” roles. Her style of writing captured the public imagination and two local editors
encouraged her to write articles, short stories and plays.
Eventually she became a self supporting journalist and author, was the first working class woman to have
a novel published and the early twentieth century’s best known working class woman poet. She wrote 10
novels including stories for children, had her work published in Russia and the USA and one novel was
even made into a silent film.
Ethel was an ardent suffragist and a socialist campaigner for welfare reform; equal rights for all and
international peace. In 1916 Ethel married fellow pacifist, Arthur Holdsworth, and they had two
daughters.
Ethel once remarked “all my poems came into my head at the mill” and the following is an extract from a
poem published in 1909 .
“Once I saw a picture of the crucified Christ.
That wan brow and anguished look – you need not go to a picture gallery to see it.
Stand at the gates of a cotton factory at the end of a summer’s day and see the operatives trail out.
The little half-timer by the loom, straining to reach – with thin hands throwing the shuttle – you may see it
there.”
Powerful stuff indeed!
4Charles Pearce is Working or perhaps not working
From Home
Just when I was feeling moderately smug about having come to terms with FYI, BTW and WTF, along come
WFH and athleisure. It seems that those who Work From Home (I gradually worked it out) are faced with
difficult sartorial decisions. All day in pyjamas? T-shirt and tracky pants? Or just anything that’s been lying
on the floor for so long it has cleaned itself before you start the “working day”? Difficult choices indeed.
Enter, apparently, the panacea, the godsend, the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything: viz Athleisure
Wear. It seems to be a posh name for most of the above but with a covetable label and a price to match.
And it’s not the only example of a trendification process. My nightwear – and I am not, you will be relieved
to know, going to reveal too much – is now labelled as loungewear. Now, we don’t have a lounge. We have
a sitting room or front room, but, alas, no lounge. And as for lounging in bed…. well, perish the thought for
one reason or another.
Even though we are not WFH (indeed we are not even W), it’s important to maintain standards and
therefore to “dress” for dinner. We are making a distinction, admittedly somewhat artificial in our case,
between the working day and the evening leisure. And yes, that does betray our age / generation who
regard films and TV programmes as arriving on set days at set times and viewing to be counted as
something of reward for a day well spent, as opposed to a younger lot for whom everything is available as a
movable feast at any time of day or night.
So it’s time to give the moths a fright and dig out of the wardrobe things that have not seen the light of day
for many a moon. Could be fun at a time when fun is in short supply. Anyone for the shell suit? Flares and
big shoulders? What about that safari suit? Might be best, though, to avoid the string vest and the micro-
mini skirt (they never did look good on me, neither singly nor together). Only one problem: will it end in
floods of tears or gales of laughter?
Charles Pearce
5Rocks from Space. David Grimes
MSR is a project for space exploration – Mars Sample-Return. The idea is send a space-craft to Mars,
collect rock samples and then return them to Earth. But we already have rock samples from Mars, and
some of them are on display in the Natural History Museum in Vienna. They travelled here on their own,
which sounds most peculiar.
When rocks from space hit the surface of the Earth they are called meteorites. The large majority burn up
in the atmosphere and they are called meteors, known as shooting stars. 61,000 meteorites have been
identified on the surface of the Earth, and 130 of them have come from Mars. This identification is on the
basis of analysis compared to analysis of rocks still on Mars. What dragged them off the surface of Mars
and put them on a collision course with Earth is of course far from clear.
Other meteorites have their origins in asteroids and comets. Asteroids circle the Sun between Mars and
Jupiter, but some have very eccentric orbits. This means that they can cross the orbit of the Earth and
there is a potential danger of collision. In fact during the course of 2020, 48 asteroids have orbited close to
Earth, passing closer than the Moon. The most recent was on July 27th, an asteroid that passed us at a
distance of only 25,800 miles but was less than 5 metres in diameter. The next one is scheduled for
September 1st; it is up to 50 meters in diameter but it should come no closer than 74,000 miles and it is
too small to be visible..
Comets originate in the Ort cloud, which is beyond the orbit of Pluto. Those with orbits that are very
eccentric can come close to the Earth very rarely. During July, had it not been cloudy most of the time, we
might have been able to see the newly identified comet Neowise. It passed 65 million miles from the
Earth, and if you missed it there will be another visit in 6,800 years.
Comets can break up when close to the Sun, forming many small fragments. The Earth might pass through
these clouds of fragments at annual intervals, giving rise to many meteors. The main one is the Perseid
meteor shower. We will pass through it during August 11th to 13th, and we hope for clear night skies.
Pungent Aroma
When man was created, God gave us a nose,
The essence of smelling, aromas we chose,
Flowers in the Springtime, the blossom in May,
A horse in his stable and freshly mown hay,
Roses in Summertime, honeysuckle in June,
Seaweed at the seaside on sand in the dune.
But man has abused God’s creation of smell,
Paint sprays of cellulose, exhaust fumes as well,
Sulphur and chemicals emit from tall flues,
Byproducts of slaughter are processed for glues,
Fertilizer from bones, spread out on the land,
Effluent is treated, the pungency fanned.
For these necessities of our life today
With God’s own creation, through the nose, we pay.
Pauline M Hutchinson
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