Tuesday 22 November 2022

S is for So Many Things

 Suffolk.............A good County to live in, no cities and no motorways and there are still quiet places. The family history shows that many generations before me have also been born and lived here all their lives, as far back as the 1700's at least.
Suffolk people are well grounded, we know Suffolk has been here for ever and will probably stay much the same too. We quite like being ignored by others who think it's just a large flat county with nothing much to see! 

Susan ........my Mum wanted to call me Jane, but apparently Grandma said I would get called "Plain Jane" so I was named Susan Jane instead. When I got to Grammar school there were 5 Susan's in my year - which was annoying for everyone. There was one Jane but she left after a term or two. Mum shouldn't have listened to her Mother! I'm only Susan now to my cousins and to myself if I tell myself off!

Stowmarket.............main town in Mid Suffolk, the place where I was at Grammar school, went to Youth Club, and the cinema, hung around with friends and went shopping for all the years before we moved East to the smallholding, and now I'm back shopping there again. Asda is just off the town centre and Aldi, Lidl and Tesco all have their own carparks a little further out from the centre. Not many empty shops in town either. People moan about how many smaller independent shops have closed in the last 20 years, but that's the same everywhere. There will be one more empty shop next month as I noticed the Cancer Research Charity shop is closing - you know things are bad when even the charity shops who don't pay full business rates can't afford to stay open.

Seeds.................. nearly time to investigate what seeds I need for next year's vegetable growing.

Shopping....... I'm one of those strange people who don't mind going food shopping, specially now I'm not in a hurry. I've always done it on my own- it's not a chore. But clothes shopping is a completely different thing - don't like that or shoe shopping at all. Life is so much easier with supermarkets having clothes as I can look at what they have when I'm there for food. I've only ever done grocery shopping online once and found it a real faff!

Sea and Sky............

On a November day the sea and sky in Suffolk looked like this. We have plenty of sky here, you can see the weather coming from all directions.



Back Tomorrow
Sue



46 comments:

  1. Now I have to find you on a map.

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  2. I missed some of the alphabet but glad I got to see the picture of the sky.
    I don't love grocery shopping as I usually have to go to 3 different stores to get the sales.
    Cathy

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    1. We don't have as many things on sale over here so sometimes I only go to one shop one time and somewhere different next time

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  3. A fair amount of traffic shipping by there.

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    1. Huge ships on the sea going into Felixstowe Docks

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  4. "Susan Jane" is the *cutest* name! I love it, if one were actually called that, using both names. If you do not call yourself Susan, what name do you use for yourself, Sue as in your blog name, or Jane, or? I was given a nickname as a baby bec my mom didn't want to be Big Liz [and little Lizzy] --my family all call me by that nickname still. It's ok but I sometimes think, like: who?

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    1. I was Susan to everyone until I started work then just Sue

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  5. I love that view across the water with the dark clouds. I love this series. When you are done with the alphabet, you should start over again and do an alphabet with a Christmas theme: A is for Advent, B is bulbs (the shiny Christmas ones), C is for Cookies...

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    1. Photos in Advent 2022 plus the usual diary will start on 1st December

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  6. I enjoyed reading all your S notes.
    There were quite a few Susans when I was at school too but none of them were ever called anything but Susan.
    Stowmarket sounds like a pleasant place. You have inspired me to think about a visit to Suffolk.

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    1. It was very complicated with so many Susans - I didn't feel very unique!

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  7. We are of a similar age Sue. In my year there were many Susans and Janes and quite a few Fionas. Two of the Janes has the same surname Oakley. Teachers had to resort to using their middle initials to differentiate M and N.

    Enjoying the series of posts

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    1. I can't think of any Fionas at all so that would have been a good name to have

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  8. I was convinced S would be for son.

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  9. My God daughter was called Amanda Jane but was always called Jane. On her first day at school she found there were 5 Jane's in her class and she marched home adamant that henceforth she would be called Amanda. Almost 50 years later she still is.

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    1. Good for her! and 5 Janes is as odd as 5 Susans

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  10. I am also Susan Jane and sentenced to be called Susan Jane until I was old enough to know better.
    Then I became Susan which was soon reduced to Sue.
    Being somewhat advanced in years I have reverted to Susan for more formal correspondence.
    I dislike the practice of being referred to by my Christian name by people that I've never met.
    However like you I half expect to be ticked off when I hear someone saying,”Sue”.

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  11. Your Sea and Sky deserves to be enlarged and framed Sue. It has a really good look about it.

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    1. The horizon is a bit on the Huh! as we say in Suffolk

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  12. Stowmarket brings back memories of visiting relatives in the 1960s, at that time the railway into Stow still used real big steam engines, and for a young boy watching them was heaven. I also remember one year there was a really bad fire at the cattle market, with many of the animals burned in the blaze. Also, being a listener to pop radio I knew of the John Peel connection.

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    1. We often had to wait for the railway gates to open when walking from the bus stop to my Grandmas House and it was always huge steam trains and waiting at the gates was so close and very loud!

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  13. My middle name is Sue, short and sweet. I’ve always believed it was because my Mother had very little patience!
    I’m not a fan of clothes shopping, either. But, i don’t mine food shopping. Funny how that works!
    Debra Sue

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    1. My youngest daughter's middle name is Deborah and she really doesn't like it. "Why?" she asked, just because it made a change" I said

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  14. Yes, there were a LOT of Susans in all my classes at school. My Mum wanted to call me Steven ... but I was a girl so I got Susan. The lady next door had a boy just after and called his Steven ... that bugged my Mum as she then couldn't use the name for my brother either!! I announced to the family when I was about 10 that I wanted to be Sue and everyone except my Nana and Aunty obliged ... unless I was naughty.

    That sky is beautiful, I do miss big skies. :-(

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    1. I was never Sue at home but I would have loved to have been something more unique!

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  15. I'm another Susan Jane; my mother insisted. My grandmother wanted me named Susanna after her mother (my great grandmother). My uncle (mother's brother) wanted me named Margaret, after their mother (my grandmother). Suffolk is beautiful and I love how the weather comes in over the sea.

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  16. I was named after my grandmother, altho, she went by the nickname of Nellie. I have always been Ellen, altho a mean neighbor boy called me "Ellen the elephant" for awhile! :)
    Your pride in your Suffolk area shines through your words.

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    1. Suffolk has always been home - think I'll stay now!

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  17. I have a very Scottish name given to me by my English grandmother who was called Catherine. I hated it as a child because people could neither pronounce nor spell it. It’s never been shortened although my husband sometimes calls me Cat. Catriona

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    1. Catriona is a beautiful name and I don't know anyone else with that name

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  18. I went to school with Susans, Lindas, Christines, Patricias, Ann(e)s, Marilyns, Alisons, Paulines, Elaines, Leslies. A Sharon, a Margaret, an Angela. Giving my age away! I was lucky I wasn't called Joan, which is what mum would have called her first baby (sadly miscarried).

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    1. Joan is one of those names that hasn't been re-used yet

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  19. Does Suffolk have no motorways? Like Northumberland then (good skies their too) - and Pembrokeshire but that's Wales so doesn't count - ha ha.
    I went to school with lots of Marks but at my eldest son's graduation (over 2,500 attending that day) there was not one!

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    1. Mark is another name that hasn't come round again - I expect it will sometime

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  20. I have such fond memories of Suffolk, I lived in Bury St Edmunds for a short while.This was in the early 1970's I met my first husband there. He was living in a house on Garland St and working at Mildenhall AFB. I got my first real job working in a racing stable at Timworth just out side Bury. My true home was in Herefordshire. So at first I was all on my own and homesick. I have a younger sister named Susan she is 62 now. It was a very popular name at one time.

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    1. My first job was in Bury St Edmunds Borough library in the middle of town, it was a very old fashioned place. I travelled into Bury on the bus every day

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    2. Thanks for acknowledging my comment. In about 1973 I was in that library borrowing books.

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  21. I love these 's' memories. Suffolk is a great county. My ancestors lived there for many years too - perhaps some of your ancestors knew mine. Ha ha. I'm a Sharon and I had two other Sharons just in my class alone. Horrible. I always wished that I had a fancier name but now I'm happy with it.

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    1. How odd that that Sharon was such a popular name when you were at school, none in my year - which was much earlier!

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