Women's Interests

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23955, 3 May 1941, Page 6 (Supplement)

Women's Interests

In the Good Old Days When Harvest. Homes Were Celebrated

By JOYCE MACMASTER

MANY years ago I was walking along the Strand, London, on a cold winter's afternoon. Wind whistled up all the narrow streets from the Thames Embankment, and newsboys, blue with cold, held out the latest edition of the evening papers. People hurried along with scarcely a look at the shops, so intent were they on getting to their destinations, and 1 hurried along with the crowd. Suddenly 1 stopped, my eye caught by a radiant poster in the window. It was a poster of a bronzed man in an open-necked shirt, frank blue eyes looking out from undei a widebrimmed hat. In the distance was a range of blue and purple mountains, snow-capped, etched against the background of a brilliant blue sky. The man was standing amidst

plenty and want, and they thanked their gods in song, dance and ceremony. It is only a generation ago since the English farmer held his harvest homo supper, generally at the lull of the moon. The barn would be decorated, swept and garnished. 1 he farmer's wife would be kept busy superintending the roasting and boiling ot meals, the making of pies and puddings, the turning out of cakes and patties. Casks of ale would be got in. and at the appointed time farmer and men would sit- down at the long tables in the barn, loasts would follow the business of eating and there would always bo somebody ready to oblige with a song. Another would produce a violin or concertina and soon the tables would ho pushed back and dancing would begin. 'J hero would bo lancprs and quadrilles lor the serious dancers and Sir Hoger de Coverley and the good old Duke ol York for the less versatile, while the older men sat, round in groups, as like as not discussing farming. To-dav those of us who live in cities know little of harvests, plenteous or otherwise. Our food oonios with monotonous regularity from shops, all the year round, and we pay little heed to its coming. World-wide communications have opened up the world's harvests to all in normal times, and scarcity in one country is balanced by plenty"in another. Yet now, with the shadow of war darkening the whole world and many harvests already ruined and destroyed, one understands better the joy and thankfulness of olden times, when our ancestors gathered at, their harvest homes and sang with full hearts, "All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin."