The Tolkien Coming of Age Club 2 - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Mithalwen · 11-12-2004, 01:50 PM

Elder sister (torturer), Yellow Renault, vinyl upholstery (of course) but very practical for all those hours spent outside pubs with only a glass of lemonade and a shared packet of crisps for amusement......

Lalwendë · 11-12-2004, 02:16 PM

I think my parents thanked the lord for the invention of the table-top space invader machine. It stopped them from having to troop into the 'family room' every five minutes because a fight had broken out between us and some kids from Stoke-on-Trent over a heated game of pop-o-matic frustration. Then we all got old and they lost two of us to Tolkien for several years.

Mithalwen · 11-12-2004, 02:20 PM

Oh we had one of those binatone tennis games!!!! even my reactions were quick enough for that....... and my sister scorned Tolkien til she discovered Orlando Bloom

mark12_30 · 11-12-2004, 02:23 PM

Well, if we're going to really reminisce...

My niehgborhood was built in an ancient apple orchard. A few of the trees were still standing when I was ten. But the nearest candy store was in the next town. To get there, my friend B. and I used to cut through the woods to the golf course and then take a back road from there. But cutting though the woods was delightful, because we walked on what we called "The Hobbit Trail". It began at the stone wall two yards back of my house, and cut through many acres of private woods (naughty us!) til it came to a ridge. (It seemed a great big ridge to us, who were small hobbits after all.) Beyond the ridge and past a hollow lay the vast rolling Downs of 'Maynard Country Club'. I now understand the true nature of the Greens-Wight, who vented his wrath on small children that put footprints in his greens and sand-traps.

Far beyond the Golf-Downs rose the buildings of men. In those days Sharkey's Mill Buildings were inhabited by Digital Systems (before they made it big). We hunted through several candy-counters to find what we sought. It was always a relief to be safely on this side of the Golf-Downs and once again travelling the Hobbit-Trail back home.

The Hobbit was read to my class in fourth grade. Let's see, that would have been 1968 or 69 or so?... Because by 1972, I had braved The Paper Store fantasy section (Main Street) and had purchased a Red-Heraldry-Box Ballantine paperback set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

I remember when the Gold-box set came out a few years later I wanted one of those too. And the Red Leather edition was a faroff dream... Realised at last.

Mithalwen · 11-12-2004, 02:32 PM

Well I think it was 79 before I read the hobbit ... (I am afraid I don't remember the 60's cos I really wasn't there...

) And although I was a precocious reader and soon having read everything in my class library had to go up to the "top class" (lol - the seven year olds!) for higher level "Wide range readers", at home it was probably Winnie the Pooh... and Issy Noho and Teddy Robinson - and other arctophile literature

Lalwendë · 11-12-2004, 03:29 PM

*Sigh* - I was 12 when I first read the books. Wish I could have that experience all over again... My Mum always says that if there were no books in the house then I would read the cornflake box; I've always been a bookworm. I remember learning to read from looking at maps, wondering where all the lines went. And then reading 'There was an old woman who swallowed a fly' at playschool to my friend Andrew - and then no doubt he would have gone and eaten something from the sandpit, he was that kind of boy.

When we moved to the house where my Dad was born (I guess you could say he moved back) there were lots of old tumbledown barns to be pulled down so for a while the big garden was like a battleground full of trenches, and we used to play 'War!' - the exclamation mark was very important to the game. Then we made 'the greenhouse tavern', stealing pint glasses and making 'pints' out of muddy water in them. We used to find clay pipes buried all over the place and pretend to smoke them, filling them with dust and blowing it out.

Mark - that might make an interesting thread - 'What's your Sharkey's Mill?'.

mark12_30 · 11-12-2004, 03:48 PM

...you start it...

Hilde Bracegirdle · 11-12-2004, 04:15 PM

Oh heavens, what fun. I remember being a wraith with a shovel frequenting a golf course around '76 or so. A friend and I tried to turn a picturesque bent in the stream into an eyot! And looking back I realize now that that picture I carry inside my head of Rohan is based on the green expanses of that same place.

mark12_30 · 11-12-2004, 10:50 PM

Oddly, my mental picture of Rohan has been hugely influenced by the movies. Living in NE as I do, I always struggled to find good riding trails; too many young woods with no trails at all. The more I rode, the fewer fields I rode in.

Imagine riding on a golf course--

What a good way to die young.

But then, I can't picture Kentucky Bluegrass very well, either. It always has pristine white-board fences... not very rohirric.

Here in RI we have turf farms. Not very rohirric, either.

Perhaps something more like what the buffaloes run on out west...?

Mithalwen · 11-14-2004, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lalwendë And then reading 'There was an old woman who swallowed a fly' at playschool to my friend Andrew - and then no doubt he would have gone and eaten something from the sandpit, he was that kind of boy. ;)

[B

Mark [/B] - that might make an interesting thread - 'What's your Sharkey's Mill?'.

Lal.. just to put my mind at rest... did Andrew live to adulthood under your tender influence?

Hmm one of my "Sharkey's mill"s would be the monstrously insensitive housing development around Orange Cottage in Brockenhurst. the ugliest imaginings of 80's architects surrounting a tiny elizabethan jewel. Another is the soulless modernisation of the Inklings' Bird and Baby in Oxford... Oh dear.. I am sounding like Prince Charles...... and I do like some modern architecture

Lalwendë · 11-14-2004, 04:42 PM

Mithalwen, that made me laugh! You know? I have not seen him in many a year. I think our mothers had to keep us apart in the end, lest we cause any more junior mayhem. I think I may ask her if she knows where he is. He may have had to go and join the infant division of the French Foreign Legion after the little prank we got into involving the altar cloth in the local Chapel.

What have they done to the Bird & Baby? Have they ruined it? How typical...Iwas planning a trip to Oxford soon, too. I parked near it a few years ago but was unable to go in! Darn.

Mithalwen · 11-16-2004, 01:10 PM

Well I haven't been for a few years but as I recall, apart from some relevant Inkling photos it was that rather characterless stripped pine stye... much preferred the Lamb and Flag across the road but that was under threat from the modernisers as I recall..

Someone has been ratrher more recently and described it..... hope to go again soon.... visit old stamping grounds..

11-12-2004, 01:50 PM	#1
Mithalwen Pilgrim Soul Join Date: May 2004 Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle... Posts: 9,461	Elder sister (torturer), Yellow Renault, vinyl upholstery (of course) but very practical for all those hours spent outside pubs with only a glass of lemonade and a shared packet of crisps for amusement...... __________________ “But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.” Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace

11-12-2004, 02:16 PM	#2
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	I think my parents thanked the lord for the invention of the table-top space invader machine. It stopped them from having to troop into the 'family room' every five minutes because a fight had broken out between us and some kids from Stoke-on-Trent over a heated game of pop-o-matic frustration. Then we all got old and they lost two of us to Tolkien for several years. __________________ Gordon's alive!

11-12-2004, 02:20 PM	#3
Mithalwen Pilgrim Soul Join Date: May 2004 Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle... Posts: 9,461	Oh we had one of those binatone tennis games!!!! even my reactions were quick enough for that....... and my sister scorned Tolkien til she discovered Orlando Bloom __________________ “But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.” Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace

11-12-2004, 02:23 PM	#4
mark12_30 Stormdancer of Doom Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars Posts: 4,349	Well, if we're going to really reminisce... My niehgborhood was built in an ancient apple orchard. A few of the trees were still standing when I was ten. But the nearest candy store was in the next town. To get there, my friend B. and I used to cut through the woods to the golf course and then take a back road from there. But cutting though the woods was delightful, because we walked on what we called "The Hobbit Trail". It began at the stone wall two yards back of my house, and cut through many acres of private woods (naughty us!) til it came to a ridge. (It seemed a great big ridge to us, who were small hobbits after all.) Beyond the ridge and past a hollow lay the vast rolling Downs of 'Maynard Country Club'. I now understand the true nature of the Greens-Wight, who vented his wrath on small children that put footprints in his greens and sand-traps. Far beyond the Golf-Downs rose the buildings of men. In those days Sharkey's Mill Buildings were inhabited by Digital Systems (before they made it big). We hunted through several candy-counters to find what we sought. It was always a relief to be safely on this side of the Golf-Downs and once again travelling the Hobbit-Trail back home. The Hobbit was read to my class in fourth grade. Let's see, that would have been 1968 or 69 or so?... Because by 1972, I had braved The Paper Store fantasy section (Main Street) and had purchased a Red-Heraldry-Box Ballantine paperback set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I remember when the Gold-box set came out a few years later I wanted one of those too. And the Red Leather edition was a faroff dream... Realised at last. __________________ ...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve.

11-12-2004, 02:32 PM	#5
Mithalwen Pilgrim Soul Join Date: May 2004 Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle... Posts: 9,461	Well I think it was 79 before I read the hobbit ... (I am afraid I don't remember the 60's cos I really wasn't there... ) And although I was a precocious reader and soon having read everything in my class library had to go up to the "top class" (lol - the seven year olds!) for higher level "Wide range readers", at home it was probably Winnie the Pooh... and Issy Noho and Teddy Robinson - and other arctophile literature __________________ “But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.” Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace

11-12-2004, 03:29 PM	#6
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	Sigh - I was 12 when I first read the books. Wish I could have that experience all over again... My Mum always says that if there were no books in the house then I would read the cornflake box; I've always been a bookworm. I remember learning to read from looking at maps, wondering where all the lines went. And then reading 'There was an old woman who swallowed a fly' at playschool to my friend Andrew - and then no doubt he would have gone and eaten something from the sandpit, he was that kind of boy. When we moved to the house where my Dad was born (I guess you could say he moved back) there were lots of old tumbledown barns to be pulled down so for a while the big garden was like a battleground full of trenches, and we used to play 'War!' - the exclamation mark was very important to the game. Then we made 'the greenhouse tavern', stealing pint glasses and making 'pints' out of muddy water in them. We used to find clay pipes buried all over the place and pretend to smoke them, filling them with dust and blowing it out. Mark - that might make an interesting thread - 'What's your Sharkey's Mill?'. __________________ Gordon's alive!

11-12-2004, 03:48 PM	#7
mark12_30 Stormdancer of Doom Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars Posts: 4,349	...you start it... __________________ ...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve.

11-12-2004, 04:15 PM	#8
Hilde Bracegirdle Relic of Wandering Days Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: You'll See Perpetual Change. Posts: 1,480	Oh heavens, what fun. I remember being a wraith with a shovel frequenting a golf course around '76 or so. A friend and I tried to turn a picturesque bent in the stream into an eyot! And looking back I realize now that that picture I carry inside my head of Rohan is based on the green expanses of that same place.

11-12-2004, 10:50 PM	#9
mark12_30 Stormdancer of Doom Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars Posts: 4,349	Oddly, my mental picture of Rohan has been hugely influenced by the movies. Living in NE as I do, I always struggled to find good riding trails; too many young woods with no trails at all. The more I rode, the fewer fields I rode in. Imagine riding on a golf course-- What a good way to die young. But then, I can't picture Kentucky Bluegrass very well, either. It always has pristine white-board fences... not very rohirric. Here in RI we have turf farms. Not very rohirric, either. Perhaps something more like what the buffaloes run on out west...? __________________ ...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve.

11-14-2004, 04:42 PM	#11
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	Mithalwen, that made me laugh! You know? I have not seen him in many a year. I think our mothers had to keep us apart in the end, lest we cause any more junior mayhem. I think I may ask her if she knows where he is. He may have had to go and join the infant division of the French Foreign Legion after the little prank we got into involving the altar cloth in the local Chapel. What have they done to the Bird & Baby? Have they ruined it? How typical...Iwas planning a trip to Oxford soon, too. I parked near it a few years ago but was unable to go in! Darn. __________________ Gordon's alive!

11-16-2004, 01:10 PM	#12
Mithalwen Pilgrim Soul Join Date: May 2004 Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle... Posts: 9,461	Well I haven't been for a few years but as I recall, apart from some relevant Inkling photos it was that rather characterless stripped pine stye... much preferred the Lamb and Flag across the road but that was under threat from the modernisers as I recall.. Someone has been ratrher more recently and described it..... hope to go again soon.... visit old stamping grounds.. __________________ “But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.” Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace

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