From Joyce Grenfell to Family Traits

From Joyce Grenfell to Family Traits ©

By Michael Casey

First of all apologies to David, I said this story would be online by 4pm, but as its 3.55 and I’ve only just started he’ll have to forgive me. David is the church organist for the choir the girls are in, he and his wife are also the Godparents for the girls.  So think of Al Capone who can hit a high C but rides a bike to and from Aldi, and yes that’s where I just bumped into him. He was also a member of the Inland Revenue or IRS as they say in USA, and as we all know it was the IRS who finally put Al Capone away, hence the circle, the wheels on David’s bike.

Now where was I before David led me astray or is it ashtray, it must be astray as we are both non-smokers. So today I’m going to talk about Family Traits, the things that make us alike to our siblings and parents, assuming you were not adopted after being left on the doorstep at Aldi in a Moses basket, slowly drifting away in the puddles of water that gather in the ally leading to the car park.

When I talk to you or write these stories I am speaking to you all as I hope eventually my stories will be broadcast on radio, so once they are written  I post them on www.michaelgcasey.wordpress.com and on https://butcherbakerundertaker.blogspot.co.uk/  then once I’ve done my security I shout to the girls who are watching Peppa Pig in the next room, do you want to hear the latest story.

They always say yes dad, because they want me to continue buying chocolate biscuits from Aldi for them. Then I read aloud the latest story, and it’s here that Joyce Grenfell comes in, because as I read a story back for the 1^st time I realise that Joyce Grenfell a dotty comedienne from 1950s and 1960s+  is reading the story, or rather the writing style is her performance style. No I have not copied her and as her material is not broadcast in decades it’s as if she has percolated inside me without me realising it. Now I want you all to go and google her and watch old black and white material on Utube, I only discovered it was there a couple of days ago when the idea for today presented itself.

Welcome back from your googling, which sounds like a real dirty word, something that a lady like me should not use, ever. See  that was Joyce Grenfell herself speaking not me, perhaps it explains why I like dressing up in women’s clothing, thank God David has never spotted me in the bargain basket in Aldi with my bum in the air as I root in the bottom of the basket.

There is a manner a way of talking that adds something to my words, to everybody’s words, the little touches that makes the difference. It’s the way I tell them as Frank Carson  used to say, he nearly died in Birmingham you know, Roger our driver at the hotel was taking Frank to the airport and Frank was cracking so many jokes that Roger nearly crashed the van he was crying with laughter.

So as I read back my stories the intonation has been influenced by Joyce Grenfell, directly and indirectly. We are all influenced by our surroundings, by the voices we hear and by the way in which words are used. I am talking to my girls and quiet often I’ll stop myself and say I sound like uncle X or uncle Y my brothers. How can this be? WE are all related that’s for sure, but sometimes out pops something even though you only see this relative at Christmas. It’s in the breed as my dad used to say.

So is it the rhythm of life itself, as I’ve shared a womb and we all share rooms or offices we share the same sounds and vibrations, just as we do in the womb itself. So we have a similar sense of humour and enjoy similar things, we are mass produced if you like, mass liking for this and for that. So family traits come about, those Caseys are all like this or all like that.

By coincidence the sound of the womb plays as Depeche Mode sing the next song in the background, music and football add to family and group traits, both have tremendous passion and influence, the heartbeat of life itself. With the heartbeat fading in the background of the Depeche Mode song I’ll finish for today, tomorrow they’ll be another story. What it’ll be about and which style it’ll be in I don’t know, but it will be different, as David might say Michael Casey is different, very different. What does he mean by that? Come back get off that bicycle, I want a word with you, where’s my Police Whistle as Joyce Grenfell might say.

Thanks to France and Germany for reading my stories, if its Mr Aldi reading them in Germany don't forget my idea to teach English via humour in www.michaelgcasey.typepad.com