IT REALLY IS A SMALL WORLD. By Michael James Last month I wrote about coincidences and little did I know at the time that I can relate to comments or situations written about by three of my fellow contributors to this wonderful community magazine. Not exactly coincidences, more like similar experiences that make me comment, “It really is a small world!” Let me explain. Wyn Evans recently wrote a lovely piece about his daughter, ‘The Girl’ as he calls her, who has Downs Syndrome and is quite fiercely living her life with the attitude of ‘disability does not mean inability’. ‘The Girl’ attends Cardiff High School and takes her place among her fellow pupils as an equal and loves to take part in many physical activities, with high levels of achievement. Go (The) Girl!
In the hymn, ‘Who Would True Valour See’, comes the line, ‘his first avowed intent, to be a pilgrim’, had me wondering, “why on earth would a pilgrim be making his vows, in a tent?” It wasn’t until many years later, singing from a hymn book, that I first realised how wrong I was. His final paragraph, about David losing his ID and is now known as Dav, had me remembering about a school mate, David Davies, being known as Dai Twice. Nothing new under the sun, eh Vince?
I am in awe of that, and it only confirms what I have seen for myself among a couple of my friends who have Downs Syndrome and others with either physical and/or learning disabilities and their parents or helpers who do everything they can to help them lead a full a life as possible. My wife helps with a group of adults with learning and physical disabilities, Cardiff Prospects or Causeway. They meet together, at 3.00 pm every other Sunday afternoon at Albany Road Baptist Church and, they brighten our lives and are a joy to be with. It gives us a small insight into what it is like to have a family member with different disabilities and the way that they really enhance the lives of those who know and love them.
Finally, and this really is a coincidence. It seems that I have more in common with Sara John than just being a fellow contributor. We were both brought up in the little village of Ton Pentre, in the upper reaches of The Rhondda Valley, but did not know of each other’s existence. It really is a small world. In the February edition, Sara wrote about her first visit to the pictures (Cinema) to see The Red Shoes, in the Workmans Hall, the local Institute of the miners from the Maindy and Eastern Colliery. I used to go regularly to the ‘Works’, sometimes twice a week, if and when I could afford it, not to see the same film but because the main programme used to change twice a week. Unlike Sara, I can’t remember my first visit but one early visit I do remember was with my Mother and Father to see the 1943 version of, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, starring Claude Rains. Not the most suitable film for a boy of about six or seven, I was scared stiff and suffered nightmares for many weeks afterwards. To this day I still don’t watch horror films!
Secondly, Vince Nolan, who always manages to make me smile and, sometimes, laugh out loud, with his stories and anecdotes about people he has observed or overheard on his travels or visits to his local hostelries. It seems that we both love rugby and Guinness and I laughed at his needing to finish off the remaining cans he bought after one exploded. They say that Guinness is good for you, it really shouldn’t be trying to kill you off. Vince ended his article by saying that he was disappointed to learn that the phrase, ‘having murderous intent’, was nothing to do with camping. That reminded me of my early days in Chapel, regularly learning to sing hymns by repetition.
I suspect that Sara must be much younger than I because I cannot remember her and, of course, as she is married her maiden name will have changed but our childhood memories will have been of similar places and occasions. Ton Pentre is not a large village, it’s main street is probably no longer than Albany Road but much life was packed into the surrounding terraced streets of miners cottages, although, not seemingly growing out of the steep mountain sides as drawn by Gren in his wonderful cartoons of the Welsh Valleys. Unlike many South Wales villages, Ton Pentre as nearly all on the flat floor of the steep valley between two large mountain ranges. It does not even have a
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