Funny how when you start thinking back about all that you missed... it wasn't until just before we went off on what could have been a permanent move that I realised it was folk music that I'd miss. To be honest, I didn't even know I liked it more than any other! My husband Ian had just started doing Morris in the few months before we went and luckily we got a contact for Jubilee Morris based near Jo'burg, before we went, from a returned founder member. (Andy Houghton, where is he now?) They had a women's NW side which I joined, and there was another men's side called Arcadia, but we were so isolated, being the only sides in the continent. As for the women, I think at the time we may have been the only female NW side in the southern hemisphere! The BBC World Service had a folk programme when we first went out there, but it soon disappeared. I wish we had had access to something like Mudcat in the early 80s. We never knew how many like-minded people there may have been out there. When we came back after a couple of years it was as if somebody had opened a big box of traditional goodies: it was all around us! On a more basic note,I also missed the English pubs and the choice of beers. They had at the time the "ladies bar" system on the mine where we were. The men got the oak panelling, pool table, the darts and the TV. We got a carpet, and also a clock on the wall to look at while we waited for our husbands to feel guilty enough to join us! Needless to say, none of the other Brits on the mine were remotely interested in folk music. They couldn't understand why we were always heading off 95km up the road for dance practices and danceouts. Ok, bored on long enough. It was a long time ago.

You can all wake up now!

mouldy