Not just another Summer - 52. Old Clothes Day & an expedition

“What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?”

Matt frowned, thoughtful. “I’ve got college work, and I need to plan my course project. I’m doing that at the Reserve.”

“That’s great.”

“Yeah.” He looked a bit sheepish. “But there’s lots to learn, reckon it’ll keep me busy.”

“Good experience. It’s why you’re studying.”

“You don’t mind?”

“That you’re busy studying. Hell no. I’d mind more if you were cutting corners.”

“Thanks.”

Though we were in The Castle Arms, sitting in the rather gloomy lounge as the weather had turned foul, he still put his hand on mine and squeezed.

“What are you doing, then?”

“Going to the Centre, to help with their not a jumble sale.”

“You what?”

I groaned. “It’s called Old Clothes Day. People bring clothes to give to the Centre; ordinary ones and things the Centre’s users can have for interviews.”

“You mean make them look tidier, like.”

“Yes. But the event has turned into something more, with stalls and that.”

“What are you doing?”

“Helping behind the scenes. When people bring clothes, I’ll be sorting them and putting them in the right places.”

“You mean folks’ old clothes. Ugh.”

I laughed. “They do wash them, and I can wear gloves.”

“Bloody hell.” He thought. “Well, if I didn’t come tonight, I could work this evening late and tomorrow morning.”

“What about Sunday?”

“I’m up early at the Reserve, then later I’m meeting some of the others from my course.” He grinned. “Planning meeting.”

“Fair enough. Will tonight and tomorrow morning give you enough time?”

“Reckon so. If we only have one drink and then have some fish and chips.”

“Feed the inner man.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, getting up early last Sunday was profitable.”

“What did you do, then?”

“It was nice. I went for a long walk and got my head into gear about all the things I’d written on our expedition.”

“Good?”

I smiled. “Tell you later.”

“Yeah. By the way, Mum was saying that there’s supposed to be a path all the way round your Reservoir.”

“A public one?”

“Supposedly. She and Dad did a lot of their courting there.” He gave a comic leer.

“I’ve never seen it.”

“Something in the Mercury about it being neglected. It’s supposed to be maintained by the Council but what with cuts and that, they’ve not been doing much.”

“If I tell Vince about that, it’s bound to set him off.”

“About the Reservoir?”

“The neglect, cause by Council cuts. He gets rather heated about those sorts of things.”

“I remember him and Rowena getting real political at your do.”

“Yes.” I sighed. “Those sorts of committed views thread their way through a lot of what Vince does.”

“Even the Reservoir.” Matt smiled.

“Even that. But you know, it’s funny how the Reservoir keeps cropping up.”

“You mean Roy and that.”

“Roy the Ranger, yes. Vince has been getting one of the Partners to look at a variation on Dad’s will.”

“Can you do that?”

“Within limits. Vince wanted to see whether we could change it from selling the land for charity to giving it to charity.”

“Wow. And can you?”

“Not there yet, by a long chalk.” I shrugged. “But now you are telling me about lost paths round the Reservoir, I reckon we’ll have to go and explore.”

Matt grinned. “Not in this bloody weather.”

---

“This is Gilly, she’s an old hand and will keep you straight. Gilly, this is Gray, Vince’s brother.”

Gilly, a rather fat woman with large round specs and a habit of blinking rapidly that reminded me of an owl, broke into a broad grin. “The poet, missed your talk but Peter says you’re doing one at the Castle next year.”

Peter extricated himself. “I’ll leave you two to it.”

Gilly and I were behind one of the tables marked Donations. The nave of the Centre had been cleared of its regular tables and chairs. At the end of the space, there were three donations’ tables, whilst round the sides were other tables selling things. A rather random assemblage of stalls, it seemed to me, including food and drink, of course, but in takeaway cups, another selling home produce with a fine selection of jams and chutneys, and a couple with gifts. As we weren’t that far from Christmas, it was inevitable that Christmas tat featured heavily.

I wasn’t going to be actually manning the stall, thank goodness. I doubt my bonhomie would last that long. Gilly and I were responsible for taking the donations to be sorted and contributing to the sorting effort.

I looked at the setup. “Is there going to be enough to keep us busy?”

Gilly gave a surprisingly girlish giggle. “You bet love. People store stuff up for us.”

“But what do you do with it all?”

“Sort it, grade it. We keep some and pass the other stuff on and”, she grinned, and her voice dropped to a whisper, “a lot’s rubbish and gets chucked into the recycling.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Mind, a couple of the craft group use bits and piece for their patchwork.”

She nodded over at one of the gift stalls where an elderly couple, man and woman, were hanging up a couple of quits behind the stall.

“That looks a lot of work.”

“Yeah, Bert says it helps keep him busy.”

Gilly had just finished explaining what my role would be, how the system worked and showing me where the different clothes were to go, when Matt appeared looking rather breathless.

“Sorry I’m late, I got involved in a group chat for my college work.”

“That’s fine, we’ve not started yet. Gilly, this is Matt.”

Matt gave her a winning smile and said that he’d come to help as well. I think we’d assumed that he would be working with me, but not a bit. Dolly, a Caribbean lady whose largeness seemed to extend both to her physical figure and her personality, spotted Matt and whisked him away to help behind the scenes elsewhere. I gave him a rueful smile, but he grinned and said that he’d spot me at break time.

Vince appeared, looking very un-Vince-like with rolled up sleeves and shirt open to reveal his undershirt. In fact, he looked positively sweaty, rugged almost, as he and Peter manhandled supplies for the catering into the right places. I was amazed. To me this had seemed as if it was going to be a simple jumble sale type event, but it was clearly a lot more.

Gilly nodded over towards Vince and Peter, who were having a laugh with the staff manning the catering stall. “He seems a lot happier now they’re open about it. Both do.”

“Was it a surprise?”

She looked at me as if I was an idiot. “Of course not. Everyone knew there was something, just didn’t expect Vince to jump in feet first.” She laughed. “Not known for that.”

“No. I imagine.”

“Reckoned it were your influence.”

“Me!”

She gave a wicked smile. “Coming home and shaking things up.”

Perhaps Vince guessed we were talking about him, or perhaps he was just being brotherly, but he came over.

“Gray, everything OK. Gilly looking after you?”

“Certainly.”

“Oh, he’s doing great Mr Vince. And Dolly has roped his young man friend in too.”

Vince looked slightly startled. “Matt?” I noted Gilly’s phrasing, were Matt and I that obvious.

“He got his college work done early, so that he could come and help. I think Dolly is finding his height useful.”

We looked over and all grinned as Dolly was directing Matt as he hung up yet another quilt, a large one this time, his arms reaching effortlessly up.

Vince snorted. “There are such things as ladders.”

I grinned. “Why bother with a ladder when you have a tall boyfriend.” Vince looked startled at my use of the b-word, and indeed it had slipped out unplanned. But he was called away and I filed the thought away for discussion later.

---

“You doing OK?”

Matt nodded. “It’s completely crazy. Folk keep buying stuff, so Dolly has me running around fetching more.”

“Wouldn’t do to run out.”

“Nah. But I thought this was going to be some daft little sale.”

“Not a bit. It’s become quite a big thing. Gilly was saying that there was even talk of shifting it from here to somewhere bigger, but everyone said that it had to be at the Centre.”

“Even though the place is too bloody small; all the spare boxes of jam and chutney have to be kept right out back.”

“That’s what we’re here for.”

“How you doing?”

“Well, we’ve taken a lot of clothes in. Gilly, however, is very dubious and most of it has gone into the reject pile. A few good pieces. And some stinkers. Literally.”

“Really.”

“Some folk are not proud.”

“See anything you fancy?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’ve got to be joking.”

Matt’s eyes sparkled and it happened automatically. We were sitting on the steps which led from the rear entrance and so I simply leaned over and kissed him. He looked startled but leaned back in.

“Reckon we’d better stop, before Gilly comes for you.”

---

“Uncle Gray, what do you reckon this was supposed to be.”

Freddie had moved off the path and found a flat area that opened up towards the water. I pointed to a rather dilapidated seat. “Viewpoint, I suspect, so that old folk could sit and enjoy the view across the reservoir.”

“You can see the house from here.”

“Oh, joy, people sitting with their binoculars spying on us.”

Freddie laughed. “Uncle Gray, I don’t think people really do that.”

Matt smiled. “Besides, you’d have to be quite determined.”

We were on an expedition on the footpath around the Reservoir, a rather more adventurous sort of Sunday walk than usual. It had started as a simple throwaway remark.

Saturday, by the time we’d finished helping everyone to clear up, both Matt and I were feeling knackered. We had simply returned to The Grange and chilled in my room, ordering a pizza. I gathered that Vince and Peter did something similar.

Sunday morning had been a late start, but we had wandered over to the main kitchen, which gave Matt a chance to show off his new lary cotton pants. We were the first, coffee was made and poured by the time Vince and Peter arrived.

Over breakfast we discussed our plans for the day, and I had idly joked about the going to find the neglected footpath around the Reservoir, having learned of it from Matt. Freddie had been the one to pick up on the idea, and it had ended up with Arvid joining us.

It was understandable that the path was rarely used. The access from the road was poor, and there was no parking. You had to simply abandon your car by the side of the road. We had walked from The Grange, but few folk had that luxury.

The path was in woeful need of TLC, and we wondered how frequently, if ever, the Council came to tidy things up. Not often, by the looks of things. But it gave a nice edge of exploration to what otherwise might have been an ordinary Sunday walk.

“When I was chatting to Gilly and Vince yesterday, I called you my boyfriend.”

“You didn’t say that when you introduced me.”

“I chickened out.”

“It’s OK. I am, aren’t I?”

“You don’t mind?”

“It’s cool.” He grinned. “After all I am keeping some spare knickers and a toothbrush at your place.”

“And t-shirts, socks and a pair of cotton lounging pants as well as wondering whether you need to leave a spare pair of slippers.”

He gave an embarrassed chuckle. “You don’t mind?”

“Not a bit. It’s not as though we can share clothes.”

“Been there, done that.”

I smiled at the thought of his calves sticking out of my too-short cotton pants, and myself in his pants with the bottoms rolled up.

The boys had run on ahead, so we did a brisk walk to catch them up. They hadn’t found anything much, though Arvid was manfully trying to decipher a badly degraded information board.

Halfway round we found a seat that was viable, so we used it, appreciating the view of the lake through the overgrown trees. And there in the distance, was The Grange.

“That means that anybody with some binoculars could see what we were getting up to.”

Freddie sniggered. “Naked tea.”

“Who’s going to tell Vince?” I grinned.

Arvid shook his head. “I think you would have to have some good binoculars to see much.”

“True.” Freddie seemed almost sad.

Freddie dug out his phone and started showing Arvid and Matt my Insta feed, talking about the things he was going to do. It ended up with the two younger ones having a long conversation that bypassed Matt and me entirely.

“Do you use Insta, Matt?”

“Me? I don’t even have it on my phone.”

“Oh. I just thought that what with the birds and the Reserve, you’d have plenty to look at.”

Arvid joined in. “Perhaps share your own photos.”

Matt seemed startled by the idea, but Freddie showed him some of the feeds he’d come across and despite Matt seeming to have a tech-averse side, he seemed intrigued. Matt, the Insta-fiend. A new idea.

He didn’t stay long after the walk, there was college work to do, and his college project at the Reserve to plan and write up.

“So, are you going to launch your own Insta feed?”

“Dunno. Freddie’s going to send me some accounts that he thinks I might like. Thought I’d try.”

“You don’t have to post things, just look. People do.”

“Yeah. Mebbe.”