We celebrated the Armistice with a morning or nostalgia from music, singing, poems, a play, memorabilia and baking.

On arriving at the Town hall we were welcomed with a crocheted poppy beautifully made by our Secretary Jo. The stage was decorated with red, white and blue bunting and red balloons. Silhouettes of soldiers were displayed along with a beautiful flower arrangement by Eileen Sturt,each of the yellow roses representing one of the named men on the Memorial. Whilst enjoying a cup of tea or coffee we were able to sample a selection of cakes, biscuits and bread, each made following war time recipes by our baking group. These included Anzac biscuits, Trench cake, potato scones, oatmeal and ginger biscuits, potato and chocolate biscuits and bread and dripping.

Many of the groups displayed memorabilia including letters, photo’s, games, advertisements, medals, journalist reports and beautiful displays of poppies amongst other rare and interesting items. The Singing Group began our morning programme with a medley of war time tunes including, ‘Its a Long way to Tipperary’ and ‘Pack up your troubles. The Poetry and Bookworms group contributed with war poems, one written by one of of our members and The Family History Group read out the names of local soldiers who lost their lives during the war and who are remembered on the Callington Memorial. This was all interspersed with music and narration of how the war began and ended.

Sheila Tredinnick wrote a playlet entitled ‘Land for Heroes? which was performed by members of the Play Reading Group and demonstrated peoples thoughts and concerns after the war had ended. We finished the morning with the Singing Group leading us in a lively rendition of celebration songs including ‘There’ll always be an England’ and Rule Britannia’ with flags flying!

Huge thanks go to the committee and all the other members whose support and hard work enabled us to enjoy a wonderful morning, we certainly are a very talented bunch! I would also like to say a BIG Thank You to John Wheeley and Rosy Hanns for the brilliant photos far too many to include in this newsletter so please have a look on the Callington U3A website. https://u3asites.org.uk/callington/groups