We’re still away from home: grandparental duties now over in Surrey, and with me going to a deacons’ retreat near Oxford on Thursday, we decided to take a coupla days at my old stamping ground in Winchester.
On our first afternoon we drove out to the village which had been my Dad’s parish, and we stopped outside the church where we got married. I was taking a photo when an elderly couple who were out walking their dog stopped by us. Well, the old gent stopped but his wife carried on with the dog … if she’d had a balloon over her head it would have read ‘why does he always have to stop and talk to strangers????!!’
Anyway, he was very friendly and said he could answer any questions about the church for us, and I told him I’d grown up there and who my Dad had been and that we’d got married in the church. And he said he had an amusing story about Dad. I pricked up my ears.
They moved to the village the year after we were married. He was getting the house sorted and he’d arranged for a man to come and put up the TV aerial on the roof. The door bell went and when he opened the door, he said that there was a nice-looking man (take a bow, Dad) muffled up to the ears in a scarf because it was a cold November. Dad introduced himself.
‘Ah good,’ said Old Boy. ‘I’ll show you exactly where I’d like you to fix the aerial.’
It took a few minutes to establish that Dad had not said ‘erector’ but ‘rector’… 
Godschool's Blog 
LOL its a good job your dad corrected him before he was sent up the ladder :))
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Dad would have loved that exchange!!
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How lovely to hear that anecdote and meet somebody who had known your dad etc!
Hope you have a lovely retreat……..funnily enough I’m off to Winchester first of March to meet a friend from absolutely yonks ago… but I don’t know it at all apart from I remember the splendid statue of Alfred the Great…. and the Cathedral with the Anthony Gormley sculpture in the crypt bit….:)
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Well gracious me!! We really did enjoy it – it’s a lovely town and I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Winchester Cathedral … la la la …
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Hahahahaha….BRILLIANT! How lovely that someone remembered your dad though, that’s so sweet.
Glad to hear that you’re having a few days playing out….enjoy, and the retreat.xxx
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Thanks, PP! Dad would have found that absolutely hilarious :yes:
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Must have looked the part!
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The scarf covered up the dog collar, you see … 😉
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Delightful. :yes:
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The village is still very ‘county’ and so was he,- that can be difficult at times – but it’s helpful when such people are positively inclined towards the church … he had been churchwarden, apparently, and was very proud of the fact that he’d managed, some years later, to persuade the church council to appoint their first woman priest.
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:)):)) Good story…. ;)xx
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Ain’t it just? Dad would have loved that exchange!
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Ha, ha. I love stories like that. Misheard words are the source of much amusement :))
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Dad would have loved that exchange!! :yes:
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Ah, what a lovely story gilly 🙂 small world for you to meet them like that.
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It’s funny, isn’t it :yes: He was a bit of a sweetie 😉
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