(36) 'UNOFLO, The Time of the Flagstone Lodgers'

[Ken]

Since I put my finger to the keyboard for the first time and wrote on the 30th of September, 2012, of a memory I called, 'A Special Kindness', I have covered many aspects of my time on Planet Earth.  I have written of my career, successes and failures, and of the enduring friendships that have enriched my life.  I have told stories of the grandparents I never met and the parents I adored, and I have written with obvious pleasure of my early life with my fun filled family in the Surrey village of Shamley Green.  What I have hardly touched on is the period that began in the the January of 1982 and ended just over three years later in the April of 1985.  It led to my leading my own version of the United Nations for it was the time of the Flagstone Lodgers.  It was also a time of great fun and much hard work, particularly for my wife Jenny.

Our son Morgan was less than three months old when our first lodger arrived, he was a young man with a very English voice who loved to insist at every opportunity that he was Welsh, his name was Mark Davies.
He was followed almost immediately by another young man who was called Danni Renggli, he was from Switzerland and he was in England to attend a language school, where he hoped to both learn and improve his English speaking skills. We discovered that although he could speak German fluently, the language used in his part of Switzerland was known as 'Swiss German' which, although related to the German language, was completely different and could not be fully understood by the majority of people who lived in the country of Germany.  Interestingly, he informed us that the written language of both countries was the same, standard German, which was taught from an early age in all Swiss schools.  Both Mark and Danni got on quite well and I recall smiling when I heard Mark explaining to Danni some English swear words, I presumed that in the minds of their generation if one gets angry or hurts oneself, it's the correct etiquette to swear in the tongue of the host country.  Such things are beyond me.  

I soon learned that it was part of Marks personality to enjoy his superior knowledge of the use of his native language, and he never missed an opportunity to put Danni down if he made a linguistic mistake.  It was harmless so I never intervened when at mealtimes Mark would bait our Swiss guest for it was my hunch that although Mark was undoubtedly clever, Danni was the brighter of the two. This proved to be the case as the following event shows,  We were all enjoying the evening meal that Jenny had provided, Mark, Danni, Jenny, my seven year old daughter, Kathryn, and myself, were all seated around our big old oak table.  Also there, sitting in his high-chair was my baby son, Morgan, happily making the strangest sounds he had ever made.  "I would love to understand what he is trying to say", Danni commented, he was obviously fascinated with our sons gibberish.  Always looking to put Danni down, Mark said with a slight sneer, "He's probably speaking Swiss German", laughing at his own joke as he spoke.  "You are right", Danni said in reply, "I will translate for you, he's saying Mark is a Sh*t."   Jenny, Danni and I, all started laughing but no laughter came from Mark at all, and he expressed his anger.  I told him "If you can't catch, then don't throw", but I'm not sure he realised the meaning of that statement.  What I am sure of is that in the coming months Mark was never able to get the better of Danni again.  The wheel had turned and as Danni's English continued to improve, nothing could stop his superior mind from deflecting all Marks spiteful comments with ease.  

Another confrontation they had occurred later that year, and it involved another lodger sent to us from the language centre. This one's stay was for for just three weeks, her name was Daphne and, if my memory serves me correctly, she was half French and half Portuguese.  I recall she was also an attractive young lady and she caught the eye of both our handsome young male guests.  I know on at least one occasion they almost came to fisticuffs over her and, as head of  'UNOFLO', (AKA, 'The United Nationalities of Flagstones Lodgers.')  I must confess I was happy when her three week stay came to an end and peace resumed.  However. the episode taught me that whether it be lodgers sharing my home, or staff within my place of work, rules must be set and adhered to.  My personality made this happen and three very interesting years begun!

Mark and Danni were the first of a great many lodgers who came to stay at our home.  There were times during that three year period when we had all five of our bedrooms full to bursting, as well as temporary bedrooms set up downstairs.  We were on a mission to save the home that Jenny and I loved and it was our way of keeping the Midland bank and their like at arms reach.  But there was no reason why it couldn't be a fun experience as well, and we made it so for all concerned.  The money flooded in but the work was hard for us both, particularly for Jenny, although my darling never complained.  Looking back I sometimes wonder at her strength.  Think of it, since the time she had met me in the second half of the 1960's she had enjoyed an affluent life style.  Then came 1982 when I had to tell her we were in trouble, big trouble,  and it was possible we could lose everything.  I won't bore you with a lengthy explanation, suffice to say she asked me what we needed to do and she did it, and a whole lot more.  I had always loved my wife, but it was during this time I came to respect and admire her enormously as well.  To be truthful, her strength of character surprised me!  

It was Jenny's idea to contact the language school and she set that in motion, they liked what we offered their students and we had a continuous stream of paying guests, mostly, but not all, in their late teens or early twenties.  Jenny laid out a buffet breakfast for them all, everyday, and each evening she presented them with a wonderful cooked meal that they enjoyed as they sat crammed around our big old oak table.  I held court as they practised their conversational skills, and these people of many nations enjoyed being part of our English family.  We had Swiss, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian people eat the food my Jenny prepared.  We had Jew and Arab laughing together as I told my tales.  We had a Japanese guest discussing the war with us after watching an episode of Tenko on the TV in our lounge.  In addition to all these we had our longer stay lodgers, people of all types from all four corners of the UK and beyond.  We had the handsome young Darrell Stroud, a struggling actor, and the upper class Michael Duff, a down on his luck ex-army officer.   We had the eloquent Roger Setchell, who spent his days in his room banging away on his ancient typewriter, as he wrote yet another unpublished novel, and we had Big Rick Martin, who like me, enjoyed to excess 'Old Thumper' real ale.  We also had us, Jenny, Kathryn, Morgan and I, and there were times we four had to share just one of our many bedrooms.  However, what we had most of all, despite the constant hard work, was the experience of getting to know as a family, people from many cultures and many lands and with Jenny by my side, we also managed to have fun and lots of laughter!

The best two lodgers we had were from foreign lands, Switzerland's Danni Renggli, was one of the first, and Kazihiro Akimoto from Japan, was the very last.  I can still remember waiting for the 'Green Line' bus to arrive, the bus that would start Kaz's long journey back home to Japan.  It was a sad goodbye, and within weeks we had said another sad goodbye, this one to Flagstones itself, when we moved to Wales.  Ever since then, both Danni and Kaz have sent us letters and cards which by coincidence tend to start the same way.  They often begin "My Dear English Family", and that means a lot to Jenny and I.  One of Kaz's Christmas cards even said, "The year I spent with you was the happiest of my life."  Those words touched Jenny and I enormously.  Danny didn't send a Christmas card in 2012, for somehow he found some time in his busy life, and actually flew in to spend Christmas day with the two of us in Wales.  

I'm very glad that way back in our extremely troubled year of 1982, my Jenny had the wisdom to contact the Guildford Language School and my job as the head of the 'UNOFLO' came into being.  We failed to save our home, but by God we succeeded in making some people happy, and for that we're both very proud!        

[Ken]

This tells of how my wife's amazing fortitude turned disaster into success.  It resulted in French, Swiss, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, German and Portuguese people sitting at our table in Guildford.  It saw Arab and Jew together in friendship.  It was the time when UNOFLO flourished in the U.K.