Although our Bibles are full of writing, many of the stories were passed down orally before they were recorded.
We learn that 94 year old Leonard Trewin from Yate has been given a Légion d’honneur for his part in the liberation in France in World War 2. He’s apparently a bit of a legend. His party trick for years was to move the shrapnel under his eye around with a magnet.
So when I got the details of today's stories from the producer yesterday afternoon they included a note, after the details of Leonard's story. The note said, in capitals...
PLEASE CHOOSE THIS ONE - followed by four exclamation marks.
I had an English teacher who was anti-exclamation marks. 'If your words aren't exclaiming what are they doing on the page?' I can still hear him shout.
Many of us have our party-tricks. And of course we all have our bugbears.
Emma please tell your producer that for four exclamation points she has earned a detention.
But we're running out of people who were heroic in the Second World War. Maybe we're also running out of shouty English teachers.
My thought. What's my thought?
It's this. Don't forget to take advantage of the stories older folk can tell. My Mum has dementia. She is 91 but can't answer questions or tell stories. I wish I'd quizzed her a bit more.
The Bible has no exclamation marks because they don't exist in Hebrew or ancient Greek. But it has great stories which were told and told and told until printing appeared.
Ask Leonard and his generation to tell you their tales. You hide the magnets. I'll hide the exclamation marks.
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