Bacon Cheeseburgers and Other Delightful Things

Sunday mornings in England start alot like every other day here. Rise and shine, have breakfast served to you by the Iranian man who bows and thanks you very much for everything, then get on the subway. This time we headed for Ealing, the extreme west of London, and upon arriving we were picked up by Paul Meiners (MTW-England). A short drive later we were walking into International Presbyterian Church for their Morning Worship. It was wonderful to be there and the service was very similar to NCPC, so we felt right at home. Unfortunately, Sunday morning is when my jet lag kicked in so the ride on the subway and the hour or so in church were spent desperately trying not to fall asleep.

After the service was over we were served tea and met many of the locals. They are fascinated by American politics. A quick drive later we were outside the home of the Meiners and about to meet our first children of WWII. Mrs. Pam Hallett was the matriarch of the group, and she sat in the chair and took total control of the conversations. She had a lot to share and loved having a captive audience. She was 14 years old, living in Exeter during the war, and her family housed evacuated children. She related a story about a surprise Blitz on her town, and how she had to search for her older sister and niece to make sure they were okay. (Her dad and her sister's husband were both away at war, of course.) The roof of her sister's house was somewhat destroyed, but she found them both safe and sound with the next-door neighbor. Upon her return trip to her house, where her elderly mother was anxiously waiting to hear news of the family, she found that her street was closed off due to an unexploded bomb. The police officers were amazed that she had not been blown to bits earlier in the day.

Terry and Janet Seaber were the other couple, and they were both young children living in London during the Blitz. They did not have personal bomb shelters in their homes and had to sleep in the Underground to be safe. Terry also told me about a day when he and some buddies all realized they had enough points in their ration books to get an apple. They went to the grocer, handed over their coupons, and spent quite a few minutes trying to find the biggest, juciest apple. Before they picked one, the sirens went off and the shopkeeper told them to run along to a shelter as fast as they could. After the bombs finished falling and the all clear sounded, they ran back to the shop to get their apple, but the shop was gone. They were very upset that they had used up their coupon and gotten nothing for it!

Terry and his mother and baby brother were evacuated into the country and lived in a very difficult situation with a host who did not like having them there. Some months later it was his little brother's second birthday. His mother had been saving her ration coupons for quite a while in order to have enough sugar to bake him a birthday cake, and she was able to do so and store it in a tin until it was time for the celebration. When she went to get the tin, she found that the lady of the house had already opened the tin and served the cake to her own children - the cake was gone.

Lots of memories like that were shared around the dinner table, and Tim and I, along with Paul and Liz, were enthralled. It was a wonderful time together.

Eventually we caught the subway back to the southeast district, and had to find a place to eat our last meal of the day. I pointed out a Burger King, and Tim shook his head and lectured me on how disappointed everyone back home would be to find out that we ate normal 'ole stuff. He kept walking me past burger joints in favor of pubs. We chose a very English pub called the Rising Sun and sat down to look at the menu. Lots of English fare. The waiter asked for our order and I chose Shepherd's Pie so that Wendy Lankford would be proud of me, as this pie was made with minced lamb. Tim then ordered his food - a bacon cheeseburger!!!!