At the Heart of Community

Eat, Play, Love in Lower Edmonton.

Now that the summer months are here, the Hydeside Neighbourhood held its annual street party in celebration of community.


EAT Good Food






















It all began five years ago when a charity, Street Play, put up the funds for the first event focusing on encouraging children to play outside safely. Since then it has become an annual event and for the second successive year, Kate Osamor, our MP joined in the fun.


Safe Supervised PLAY
                                                               The Three Legged and  LOVE wins the Egg & Spoon


Iliana Master Chef
Young and not so old - every one participates in the preparations. Iliana makes her "marshmallow rice Krispy's" and Michael or Geoffrey keeps the Bar-B-Q-ed sausages, burgers and chicken flowing; Norma's homemade gingerbeer is to live for. 

 Of course it's all made possible by the indefatigable Geraldine,  Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator and organiser-in-chief, at the heart of it all.
Michael on barbeque duty


"It's a wonderful thing when the immediate community can come together and share their cultural traditions" someone said, as the Turkish girls demonstrated how to do the Halay. 

And this is how you LIMBO guys





Bounded by three intersecting roads, Hydeside is a 'no throughway' neighbourhood. There's only one way in and out, which makes strangers highly visible. You will have no business here unless you are a resident, family, friend, a tradesperson, an agent of a utilities or delivery company, or accessing the rear entrance to the nearby primary school.

The average length of time anyone has lived here is about 24 years. Helen has lived here for over 50 years and refuses to move despite entreaties from her adult children. She says she feels safe and everyone is friendly. Sure, we have known burglary, vehicle theft and fly-tipping but we look out for one another.

I am a relative newcomer with nearly five years residency and was made to feel immediately welcomed.  Another Michael, who lives across the road, leaves home grown ripe figs outside my door, Dorothy planted pumpkins in my garden. I eat my fill from Albert's grapevine that cascades into my garden. Shush, don't tell him!
 
The pumpkin Dorothy planted - obviously to feed a giant
Hydeside is a mini united nations community, a beautiful representation of the vibrant, multicultural beating heart of London. We are indigenous Brits or originally hailed from or have ancestral links to Turkey, Ireland, Africa, various Caribbean islands, Greece, Cyprus, Malaysia. I'm pretty sure I've missed a region or two.
There is always a pleasant greeting, a smile and handwave. We gossip over the fence or pause at the front gate for a prolonged 'how are you' - as one person peels off, another passer by will join in.  

A long time ago people lived like this. It's different today. Technological advance, and especially the rise of social media, has curtailed basic human interaction.

 At a time when polarisation, divisiveness and loneliness in society contributes to poor mental health, there is something very special and precious about our Hydeside community that everyone who lives here has a vested interest in preserving. 

 

 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When a President Cried

Image
At a time of year when Christians around the world are commemorating the birth of the Divine Child, some parents in Newtown , Connecticut , USA are mourning the death of their children. There are probably hundreds of children around the world – in under developed countries, in conflict zones – who will die every day up to Christmas and beyond. But right now the focus has been on what one British newspaper described as a massacre of innocents. How horrendous to lose your child in such a manner. Schools should be one of the few places where you expect your children to be safe.   I worked with several of the paramedics who were first on the scene dealing with the carnage on the trains at various metro stations after the 2005 London bombings. Many, especially the younger ones, suffered severe post traumatic stress. Not trained for such horrors, those teachers immediately on the scene at that school in Connecticut will carry the scarring from that day for some time. How many more
Read more

The Economic Migrant and the Bag Lady

Image
Some years ago I was telling someone about my bag lady experience. She looked at me with astonishment and disbelief.  The Bag Lady Many years later this person, who had by then become a friend, also had her own bag lady experience. She had gone from place to place, not quite sleeping on a park bench but near enough, with only the barest essentials – a toothbrush and change of clothes in a bag – not enough to merit a supermarket trolley! The economic migrant and bag lady experience are etched into my DNA. I was born on the Caribbean island of Dominica nestled between Guadeloupe and Martinique , two French colonies. Dominica was itself fought over by the French and British for centuries. The French eventually lost. I could so easily have been a French citizen sitting in Paris writing this. In fact my mother's maiden name is the same as her family's French slaveowners of yester-year. A SNAPSHOT OF HISTORY: In 1635, France claimed Dominica along with all th
Read more

The Trickster as Teacher

Image
I received mail from a reader who was unable to post a message following my comment last week about ‘Myth as Metaphor’ (see The Fool Unmasked). He asked whether I knew any myths which were more relevant to his African culture. Well yes I do….but not a myth as such, more of a folktale. But all myths are relevant to every culture .   Archetypes are generally referred to as "the gods". It is generally claimed that Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and a founding father of depth psychology, brought knowledge of these innate patterns of human behaviour to the attention of Western psychology. Certainly all my training text books made the point.  Obatala - Father of Humankind Divinity of Light I guess he did do that but long before Jung, West African Orishas were known as multi-dimensional beings representing, not only the forces of nature but certain human attributes. Their characteristics and legend were similar to those used to describe the ancient Greek and Roman go
Read more