Morning in the history centre
I'm one of the volunteers at our local history centre (Ein Hanes). It's a small, borrowed shop front full of memorabilia, maps and books about the local area. We have no funding and operate on a shoestring. The place is chilly even in summer and will shortly close for the winter because a) there are next to no visitors once the holiday season is over, and b) it's simply too cold to spend a morning or afternoon shift sitting there.
Soon after I opened up today this woman came in. I assumed she was an unseasonal tourist but it turned out that, although Vietnamese, she lives at the county town about 15 miles away. She'd come to Fishguard to get her hair done by her favourite hairdresser "She does it so nicely" and "I'm old fashioned, I copy Elizabeth Taylor". When I asked if I could take her picture she proudly preened her tresses. Then her phone went and man's voice asked what she was doing in Boots (the chemist next door) "Oh I'm not there, I'm learning about history" she replied. (Was he keeping tabs on her, perhaps from the pub across the road? But she seemed relaxed and went cheerfully on her way, clutching some free handouts I'd given her.)
Later a young mother came in with her 3-year old daughter. There's not much for children at Ein Hanes but they looked at a big map with the magnifying glass and I showed the litle girl a pair of wooden clogs. And then her mum was overjoyed to find a copy of Jane Asher's Book of Fancy Dress (1983) on our second-hand book shelf. I had seen it there and doubted it could possibly be of interest to any of our visitors. Turned out I was wrong: apparently it's recently gone viral on social media.
And no wonder!
Finally, as I was about to close up (nobody available for the afternoon) a man came in, breathless, "I've left the car over the road, I've got angina..." but he wanted to tell us that, from doing family history research, he's discovered that his mother's local Jenkins family is connected to Richard Burton's - who was a Jenkins before he took his teacher's name.
Burton has remained a local hero in these parts ever since Under Milk Wood was filmed at the old harbour in 1972.
Burton and Taylor live on! As does Jane Asher - very much so.
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