The Village Pump Contributors

The people that bring you your monthly dose of community life

Les Lawrence said some very kind things about my contributions to The Pump in the July issue. It was nice to read a few words of praise, especially so since I have been concerned that I was producing a mixture of nothing but dead boring material in articles along with moans in the 'Soapbox'. I would like to produce humorous articles but find I do not have the wit, not that I am a complete sober sides, I can see the funny side of things and I do like to read humorous items but I cannot produce them.

I am sure all of those that do contribute items are motivated by a wish to see the Pump thrive and we all have our own style. Les's more light hearted look at life strikes a chord with me, as I am sure it does with others. I like Janet Tilburn's 'Runnin' On', which often appears to be inspired by one day in her life, and my namesake, Pat Watts, has given us some very amusing rhymes. Graham Forster's 'Day Out' has encouraged us to try the Mid-Norfolk Railway, and Robin Ford's dry humour often gave us something to smile about. The 'Doctor's Casebook' is a very welcome contribution from very busy professionals as are those from Rev'd Jackie Goddard and Rev'd Nigel Tuffnell.

Nothing really compares, however, with Frank Planton's masterpiece. I have found this truly fascinating, I knew, of course, of the way in which many of our men were treated by the Japanese but I have never read anything quite so detailed before or anything that really brought home to me their awful daily grind. Frank's contribution has been the mainstay of the Pump for so many months; it will be difficult to fill the gap that he will leave.

We need the regular contributors but we need more 'one off' items from villagers. Stories from the past, local news, reports on local events, funny things that happen, inside information from your particular line of work, surely some of you can find one thing to tell us about? The 'Soapbox' was intended as a spot where anyone could get up and have a good old moan about anything that was bugging them. Surely some of you have got something you would like to get off your chests?

Ron Watts