Me in the Rose Garden
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Me in the Rose Garden |
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 “Highden.” Sun. 10th Aug. ’69. Dear Mum & Dad, I hope the new milker is good. I still help with the milking here on Saturdays (unofficially) I was pleased to hear that the soutane had arrived. Perhaps the best way would be to bring it up on the next Visiting Day – 31st Aug. (1.30-5 p.m.). If you did post it, I wouldn’t post it to Father Bennett but to me, & all I would have to do would be to get permission to keep it. He always gives permission if you say you need it. Congratulate Francie on being President of the girls! We have started pruning the roses – Fr. Bennett, David Latu & myself. The trouble is Fr. Bennett prunes fairly fast, and we spend most of the time carting his rubbish away! However, I have learnt the proper way. It has been raining a lot so the weather is much warmer now, even though it is wetter. Yesterday we heard a tape-recording of Mr. Donoghue’s talk which he gave to the boys at St. Pat’s Town during their retreat. He was talking about the “mistakes” he had made during his life, his war experiences & what it is like to be ½ dead. It was very good. Mr. Donoghue is still much the same as he was during Visiting Day. Last Tuesday I refereed a game of Tagg, but everything went alright because I had spent the previous week studying the rules. Of course everyone was brassed off with the ref., because he displayed unusual justice on the field & awarded “fair tries” for “knock-ons”, & “knock-ons” for “forward passes”, etc. The game ended up in a draw of a thousand all. [We never talk about games we’ve played here because people are liable to start getting annoyed. So as soon as the game is finished we forget about it. We haven’t had any “incidents” so far this year, which is quite a record, but it doesn’t take much for a Novice to get annoyed]. I got a letter from Silverstream the other day but not from Leo. It was from a Jack Williamson. He is in Leo’s class. Fr. Gordon had told them about the Seminary & he wrote: “A lot of us feel that you must feel lonely & isolated so we decided to write…” So next time you write to Leo could you ask him to thank him for his letter & explain that I can’t reply! (Actually I might but just in case I don’t get the chance). Well I think that that is all the news. Love from Bruce |