Two Very Dear Old Friends

Slipped into London on Saturday to visit two very dear old friends. Trip was a bit trying as in addition to the usual Saturday football match traffic on the train, there was a huge demonstration scheduled by public and private sector unions in the heart of London. 150,000 workers from all over the country converged on the capital to remind the Tory government that there are limits to what working people will endure before they say "no" to more austerity and more foolishness, such as the Tory Chief Whip's notorious slur toward police officers guarding No. 10 as "#$%&* Plebs" who need to remember their place. He has resigned. Also, the Victoria Line was completely shut down for the weekend for maintenance which dumped everyone onto the Northern and Bakerloo lines which made for a very crowded underground ride to Lambeth North near my first old friend.

And here she is.

Yes, the Imperial War Museum, one of the best museums dedicated to this sort of thing in the world. The guns you see are 15-inch naval guns from the Queen Elizabeth class of battleships that first entered service in 1916. Below is the breach end of the gun on the right, taken from HMS Ramillies (look it up--although surprisingly not a naval battle!).

And these guns could fire a shell that weighed as much as a Volkswagen up to 30,000 yards, so far that you had to correct for the curvature of the earth when aiming them. This is one of those shells--mother and child are actual scale.

Then it was into the great hall at the center of the building where there were such wonderful things as a M4 Sherman, a Churchill, a Jagdpanther tank destroyer, a T-34, and a Mark V British tank from the First World War. Overhead flew a Spitfire (on the left), a P-51 Mustang (center) and a FW-190 (right).

And if you look closely just below the Mustang, you will see the most feared weapon of the war, the German 88mm dual purpose flak/anti-tank gun.

Could have spent much more time there, but had a date with  another dear old friend just up the street toward Waterloo station, The Old Vic.

As you can see from the marquis, I went there to see a production of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler adapted by Brian Friel. A wonderful afternoon in the theatre. Ibsen's plays are considered one of the earliest forceful statements of feminism, although he denied this himself. He saw the struggle for women to break free of male dominated late 19th century society as an issue of humanity in general. Whatever, it made for some incredibly powerful theatre.

And the Old Vic is one of the classic theatre houses in London, although located on the South Bank rather than the West End. Built in 1818. It had a checkered career in the 19th century including several ownership changes, and a false fire alarm in 1856 which led to the deaths of 16 people in the Upper Circle (demonstrating Justice Holmes' remark that freedom of speech does not include the right falsely to shout fire in a crowded theatre). In the early 20th Century it settled into its modern form under the leadership of Lilian Baylis, and became popular as the "Old Vic" in the 1920s. The stream of England's finest actors in the 20th century has flowed mightily through the resident company including  Olivier, Richardson, Redgrave, Guinness, Dench, Jacobi, and on and on. Guest artists such as Smith, O'Toole, Finney, Hopkins, Burton, and on and on. The current Artistic Director is Kevin Spacey. It is one of my favorite venues to watch plays.

After the play, I foolishly thought I would slip back up to the Euston Flyer near King's Cross station for dinner and a pint before my train back to Grantham. However, when I got out of Euston Station and on the way down Euston Road toward King's Cross,  every pub in the area, including the Flyer was jammed packed with either the remnants of the demonstrations earlier in the day or football fans glued to the big screen TVs showing the Arsenal-Norwich match. So, I settled for a quick pint standing outside and then on to the station. Had a few lads on the train who had had a few too many, but they settled fairly in quickly as we left the station. At Grantham station ran into another couple teaching here this fall, Dan and Peggy Harris from Baker University, who were on the same train in another carriage, and we shared a cab back to the manor. Dan retired a couple of years ago after 27 years as football coach, baseball coach, and Athletic Director. Peggy is the Dean of the School of Education and Dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies.