April 14, 2013
English Authors
Lawn Party
Today was
the House of England day in Balboa Park, San Diego. There are a group of small
cottages representing all different nations grouped together in the park and
each has a special day. One of our guild members came up with an idea of having
us dress at English authors or characters from their books, which had a huge
window of opportunity to work with. The
plan was to have a lawn party & picnic nearby in the park, and be able to
explain to anyone who asked who we were and a little bit about our author or
character. Later this included parading around the House of England during
their presentation, and again at the Organ Pavilion during part of a program
they had with a children’s choir. A lot of walking was involved with our day.
Since my
brain has been constantly whiplashed to 1830s recently, I knew this was a
chance to wear my gown again. And it fit in perfectly with Cranford by
Elizabeth Gaskell. I chose to be Miss
Matty Jenkyns, one of the two sisters from the book of Cranford. My visual was
of Judi Dench’s photo of her from the Masterpiece miniseries of Cranford.
At Cindy’s suggestion, we carried the book which either our character was
from, or was the author of. I found a really nice copy of Cranford on Amazon
for $2.00. Cindy as Beatrix Potter carried a Beatrix Potter Journal she’d
found. I also included a piece of very fine lace so if asked I could tell the
story of how Miss Pole’s kitty had swallowed the lace while it was soaking in a
bowl of buttermilk to whiten it, and what they had to do to recover it. I also
had planned to carry an orange to have a further tale to include but ran out of
time to get one. After refreshing my memory of all the short stories in
Cranford, and partially watching the video again, I was ready to go out as Miss
Matty.
Our picnic
started out near the Lily Pond and botanical gardens with about 12 of us. We
started getting a lot of attention from people walking around and as more of us
began to arrive, you could hear the excitement in the air. Our Alice from
Wonderland probably got the most attention from the kids.
From my
memory, I saw Beatrix Potter; Alice in Wonderland with the Red Queen, the White
Queen, the White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat, Jane Austen and characters from her
books; Romeo & Juliet and Lady McBeth from Shakespeare; Miss Marple from Agatha Christie’s book; two
English bobbies; Professor Moriarty & Mrs. Hudson from Sherlock Holmes;
Mary Poppins; Eliza Doolittle in her
black & white Ascot dress from My Fair Lady; Wilkie Collins & characters from The
Moonstone; Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter; & a hobbit from Lord of
the Rings. There are many more I never got their names to. And we had a few guys who rode in on their
antique Penny Farthing bicycles.
After about
an hour of having our photos taken, we paraded over to the organ pavilion and
down to the House of England where their program had just begun. They played
the British national anthem and introduced a few people, then invited us to
walk through the area, playing some of the theme music from some familiar
movies our characters were in. I walked around a bit among the audience and
introduced myself quite a few times.
Then we
headed back to the organ pavilion where another program was going on, along
with a children’s choir. With so many of us, our parade line took quite a while
to make it past the stage and up across it.
And my
thanks to Jerry Abuan for the use of his photos, and for taking such wonderful
ones. http://jerryabuan.zenfolio.com/p847017115
